Sinaunang Baybayin: Reading the past
WITH her advocacy to highlight Filipino culture through the arts, Kagay-anon performing artist Denise Mordeno Aguilar is launching her 2016 theater project entitled 'Sinaunang Baybayin'.
The performance is a multidisciplinary art performance fusing together the performing, visual, and literary arts to highlight the main subject which is the ancient Filipino script, Baybayin.
Aguilar collaborated with Liceo de Cagayan's Office for Cultural and Public Affairs and got support from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) to officially launch the presentation at the Rodelsa Hall on October 7.
The Sinaunang Baybayin or the Alibata is the old alphabet of the inhabitants of the Philippines before the Spaniards came to the archipelago in the 1500s.
Aguilar's team of researchers and artists theorize that the Baybayin script was in use in parts of Mindanao and that majority of the languages that are present today in the country are rooted from cultures in Mindanao before they began to spread out to the other parts of the country.
"I got the inspiration for this new project when I was studying at the Intercultural Theater Institute (ITI) of Singapore back in 2012. There was this performance named 'Odissi' which is an ancient Indian dance featuring various Indian cultural dance styles including those of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, Guru Deba Prasad ten, Guru Surendra Nath Jena, and Guru Mayadhar Raut. Each style was showcased by the region’s leading dancers and practitioners. And it was there that I got the idea of making a Filipino version of this dance featuring our very own 'Baybayin' or most commonly known as the 'Alibata'," Aguilar said.
Aguilar tapped the expertise of visual artist, researcher, and Sinaunang Baybayin expert, Emil Yap and some of his associates to translate Baybayin into modern language and transform Baybayin's strokes into artistic movements and forms.
Aguilar said that while she already knows that they aim for the performance to feature various disciplines of the art, they are still in the process of mapping out the entire performance. Starting last September 5, Aguilar and her partner artists have been doing workshops at Liceo de Cagayan to be able to construct the project.
"Indeed, there is a growing need to advocate the Sinaunang Baybayin today because we are facing globalization. Some children nowadays do not even know how to speak the vernacular languages of our county's regions and most of them are more interested about foreign cultures. While this is not entirely bad, it is still our responsibility to pass onto them the culture that we Filipinos have so that ours will not eventually die out," said Aguilar.
The Sinaunang Baybayin performance is a grantee of NCCA's program entitled "Go, Go, Kultura-Mindanao" which aims to disseminate and promote Mindanao culture and heritage through various media and art platforms.
NCCA will release a total fund of P800,000 for Aguilar's theater performance.
"We are very proud of this project that Denise has organized for the culture here in Mindanao and we are encouraging more artists, enthusiasts, and institutions to devise more projects like this. NCCA will be more than happy to support you." said Rene Napenas, the NCCA Public Affairs and Information Office head.
Before October 7, Aguilar and her partners in Liceo de Cagayan will also hold a Baybayin workshop for teachers at Liceo de Cagayan on September 17. Tickets for the performance will be available at Liceo de Cagayan at about P100.
"Translating Sinaunang Bayabayin into the contemporary context of your creative discipline is quite a challenge and yet creativity is never limited. It only takes awareness and a never ending openness to take in and give away. What a wonderful world it will be when each and one of us concur to the idea of feeding the soul," Aguilar said.