PHSA celebrates National Arts Month via MAKILINC 6

Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA) will celebrate the National Arts Month again through the annual Makiling Inter-Cultural Arts Festival (MAKILINC) at the National Arts Center (NAC) theater on 10-15 February 2019.

Initially, MAKILINC is meant only for PHSA students to experience alternative classroom learning through “mini-masterclasses” in Creative Writing or Dance or Music or Theater or Visual Arts.

Eventually, MAKILINC has evolved into PHSA’s advocacy of preserving the intangible heritage like balagtasan (2014) or pangalay (2015) or kundiman (2016) or butoh (2017) or silambam (2018) as well as popularizing experimental, emerging and emergent, forms like conceptual, installation, performance art and the like.

DAY 1

On Sunday, Feb.10, 5PM, PHSA Director IV, Dr. Vim Nadera, will introduce what MAKILINC is all about. At 7PM, the PHSA Dance Artists will cap the night with the performance of their award-winning pieces during National Commission for Culture and the Arts Sayaw Pinoy 2018 wherein they emerged as champions in both Contemporary and Folk categories.

National Artist Alice Reyes, the founder of Ballet Philippines, and Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas awardee, Prof. Efren Abueg of the Mga Agos sa Disyerto fame, will be the Guests of Honor.

DAY 2

On  Monday, Feb.11 at 7AM, in cooperation with the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB)’s Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts led by its director Jerry R. Yapo, MAKILINC will be opened to neighboring schools in Los Baños through a Music Appreciation workshop — with St. Scholastica’s College-based PHSA alumnus, Dr. Greg Zuniega, who studied at the Royal College of Music in London. 

At 1PM, Artists Talk will feature another PHSA alumnus Datu Arellano who will show the Makiling style of shadowplay.  He will be followed by the Filipino proponents and practitioners of the “dying” Flamenco dance and music namely Señor Guillermo Gomez with his granddaughter, Ana Luisa, and world-renowned guitar maker and master Adolfo Timuat.  For the third time, Dr. Royal Hartigan, one of the American jazz greats, will come with saxophonist/flutist Rick Countryman to his favorite mystical mountain but this time around he will help PHSA develop its performance band by incorporating music with other art forms. The pride of Davao, if not of the entire Mindanao, Kublai Millan, who will team-teach with ostrich egg artist, Danny Rayos del Sol. Dr. I Nyoman Sedana will deal with the similarities and diversities of Asian countries through Indonesian puppetry and other theatrical forms from his hometown Bali. Then, New York Writers Workshop founder and president, Tim Tomlinson will take his students to the Big Apple’s way of writing.

In between presentations, MAKILINC Adviser, Victor Emmanuel Flor,  will give a glimpse of PHSA’s tradition and talent through Silip Makiling involving such student organizations as Anino Shadowplay Collective, Dulaang Sipat Lawin, Kuwit, Maquiling Ballet, among others.

UPLB Chancellor Dr. Fernando C. Sanchez is invited to give his opening remarks.

DAYS 3, 4, 5

Three hours for three days (Feb. 12, 13, and 14) are allotted for the workshops which will be conducted within the PHSA Campus in the afternoon from 2PM to 5PM.

In the morning, some of the facilitators will be invited to inspire aspiring artists from Laguna by way of PHSA’s Balik-Biyaya outreach program—organized by MAKILINC Festival Directors Lester Tamisin and Arjay Viray—in cooperation with the Department of Education (DepEd)’s CALABARZON Public School District Supervisor, Dr. Allan Hostalero, Los Baños Council for Culture and Arts chair, Councilor Jay Rolusta who handles the Arts and Culture Committee and Councilor Josephine Sumangil who heads the Education Committee, among others; and the Los Baños Tourism Council’s head Janis Ian Delfino.

DAY 6

The Closing Ceremonies will be held at the Los Baños Municipal Hall Activity Center at 7AM.

Mayor Caesar Perez of Los Baños is expected to welcome MAKILINC 6 artists, teachers, students,  and other guests from different public and private schools.

UP Professor Emeritus Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio, now National Artist for Theater, is expected to grace this momentuous occasion.

For details, please call MAKILINC Festival Directors, Mr. Lester T. Tamisin and Arjay N. Viray at #09178663098.

Or watch this teaser: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10IUiPEbyEE8jLNYv0yjkXMPliLAAi_Gk/view?fbclid=IwAR0Go-8RtYoU0M1djYSmruq1E15Iy44HWlmK8DIVCIH26LYvxVUy87lmRsw.

Press release from Philippine High School for the Arts