626 Night Market’s First-ever Cultural Performers Night
During the 626 Night Market’s first Bay Area weekend of 2024, the food festival was honored to bring Cultural Performers together for a night of diverse entertainment. The project, curated and led by Riland Simpao, brought together five different organizations representing nine different colleges. Here’s a breakdown of how the fantastic Friday night commemorated cultural diversity.
TG Filipino Dance Company
Composed of Cal State East Bay college students, graduates, and Bay Area high schoolers, TG Filipino Dance Company started off our program strong with upbeat and vibrant Filipino Cultural Dances. They performed an arrangement of dances: Bulaklakan, Subli & Tinikling.
Attendees passing by were able to watch beautiful and well-coordinated choreography curated by TG. With Bulaklakan, they witnessed the team dancing around in formation with flower garlands above their heads and bright smiles on their faces. Furthermore, Subli offered guests to watch fun and fast-paced moves, with both male and female dancers interacting in celebratory fashion. TG ended their performance with the very popular Filipino Cultural Dance, Tinikling. The dance team’s strategic choreography and fast foot dance movements had attendees gripping for anticipation on how much more exciting the performance could get.
Bulaklakan features an arrangement of flowers and leaves to honor the Virgin Mary and to celebrate floral growth.
Subli, originating from Batangas Philippines, is a dance performed with devotion and significance to honor and worship the holy cross.
Tinikling is the most well-known Filipino dance, recognized all around the world. Tinikling originated from a tikling bird’s attempts to jump between and avoid being caught by bamboo traps set by rice farmers. Dancers imitate the birds in this dance by hopping between larger bamboo sticks with intricate footwork.
Kilusan Pilipino
Established in 1994, Kilusan Pilipino (KP) is the Filipino-American student organization at the University of the Pacific. They hit the performance floor with the Filipino dance Pandanggo sa Ilaw, a beautiful candlelight dance. KP aims to uplift Filipino students from UOP and San Joaquin Delta College through means of culture, education and community. KP was also awarded the Faith Davies Leadership Award in April 2024 for Best Student Organization of the Year.
Kilusan Pilipino brought a beautiful piece to the CPN showcase. With elegance and carefulness, members of the organization danced with candles inside glass cups to traditional Filipino music. The crowd watched in awe as the dancers performed in formation with stunning imagery and superb skill in balancing their candle lights.
The performance piece of Pandanggo sa Ilaw “simulate[s] fireflies in the night by balancing lighted cups.” Kilusan Pilipino’s interpretative elegance of the dance, brought a beautifying reminder to why our showcase exists.
Akbayan Cultural Dance Troupe
Third on our performance list was a striking Tinikling performance from San Jose State University’s Pilipinx Organization, Akbayan Cultural Dance Troupe. Akyaban translates to “Embracing in Friendship'' in Tagalog. AK Cultural Dance Troupe aims to highlight and showcase the various styles of Pilipinx folk dance.
While attendees earlier in the performance had the chance to see Tinikling from one organization, those that barely arrived, got the opportunity to watch Akbayan’s rendition of the exciting dance. The beautiful thing about Filipino folk dancing is that it varies in interpretation team by team. You’ll never watch the same performance twice, and that is exactly what Akbayan came to do.
With similar fast paced foot movement, the team was able to exert their confidence through jumping between bamboo sticks and avoiding being trapped by their tappers. The performance had many 626 night market attendees stop to watch. As the performance went on, guests started cheering and clapping for the performers till the very end.
Tinikling is one of the most famous known Pilipinx folk dances and the team was able to interpret it strongly with fast paced music and choreography.
UC Davis Mga Kapatid Vintage Dance Troupe
Mga Kapatid Vintage Dance Troupe is a dance troupe branch of Mga Kapatid, a Filipinx American student organization at UC Davis. They performed their rendition of the Filipino Cultural dance; Pagapir, which originated from the Maranao people who lived in the Lake Lanao region in Mindanao. The dance's name comes from the word ”apir” which means fan, and is performed by court members in preparation for important events.
MK Vintage Dance Troupe represented the cultural Filipino dance with sophistication. With composed and dignified looks, they grabbed the audience’s attention in setting the environment to emit a powerful aura. As the fans were brought out, attendees were captivated with the kind of imagery the props would display. In unison, the dancers’ outfits also impressed bypassers, having them stop to watch more. Live music played by the ensemble had attendees taking their phones out and recording the whole performance set.
Not only did they wow the crowd with their choreography, but the live music they were accompanied by would be from MK Musical Ensemble, the first student-run collegiate Philippine gong ensemble in the nation, created in 2018.
Norcal UVSA Lion Dance
Wrapping up our Cultural Performers Night Showcase, was an interactive and invigorating performance By the Norcal UVSA Joint Lion Dance team. The team is a conglomerate of the five of the lion dance teams across the Northern California colleges: UC Berkeley, San Jose State University, UC Davis, UC Merced, and Stanford University. Founded on a basis of collaboration and cultural intersection in 2023, NorCal UVSA Lion Dance hopes to bridge the gap between the collegiate schools and showcase the abilities and talents of those both new and old to the sport of Lion Dancing.
The showcase was finally wrapped up by an electrifying performance from Norcal UVSA. As they started, crowd-goers were already starting to gather around the performance area to take their own peak of the performance. With phones whipped out and videos recording, Norcal UVSA first put on an amazing live ensemble performance with drums, gongs, and many other instruments. 8 Powerful Lions then poured onto the performance floor and started dancing for attendees with their fierce colorful looks and large movements. After the practice routine, the lions left the performance area and made their way into the general venue to interact with attendees.
Many of the families and friends that came to the night market were highly entertained with interacting very closely with the lions. Many people fed the lions with dollar bills, while others were posing, taking pictures and playing with the performers.
Significant in Chinese and Vietnamese Culture, Lion Dance was used in ways to showcase Asian Dance and Martial Arts. The performance is culturally significant and symbolically expels evil spirits and brings good luck for the upcoming year. As UVSA moves forward, they hope that they continue to bring together the Lion Dance community and provide a safe and welcoming space for all those interested in learning more.
Closing
After a momentous night for the 626 Night Market, we hoped that attendees and vendors enjoyed watching these performances as much as we enjoyed highlighting them . It was a great experience in watching so many different individuals from many schools and parts of the Bay represent their culture through these performances. If you or someone else you know is in a team and would be interested in participating for future events similar to this, we highly encourage you to apply as a stage performer on our website and follow our instagram @626nightmarket & @626nightmarket_bayarea for regular updates . With both familiar and fresh faces, CPN hopes to continue to emphasize cultural appreciation and intention at events to come!
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