“Alaya is the summit to ignite the creativity in you through artistic performance, research, and humanistic practices. With the aspiration to share one’s passion (alay) and liberate one’s thoughts and emotions (laya) in various art forms, Alaya is where the inception of the next generation’s artist-scholar and artist-educator begins.”
Conference 2023 Theme:
3RD GMC ALAYA: “WEAVING THE PERFORMING ARTS AND HUMANISTIC BUDDHISM THROUGH LIVENESS AND EPHEMERALITY”
The 3rd edition of Alaya, the 3-day conference is anchored on Guang Ming College’s (GMC) mission to teach performing arts and humanism to Filipinos from diverse regions across the country. A performing arts school with the largest student population in dance and theater, GMC is an intersection of different cultural practices, traditions, ideas and talent honed by scholars and arts practitioners in the industry.
Vital in arts education is a humanist lens to pedagogy that GMC upholds. In the way that arts have the capacity to initiate and inspire social transformation for a better world through its potential to reimagine and recreate.
Schedule
| DAY 1 May 24 | Wednesday |
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|---|---|---|
| TIME | VENUE | ACTIVITY |
| 8:00 AM | REGISTRATION | |
| 9:00 AM | Meditation Hall | NATIONAL ANTHEM WELCOMING REMARKS: Dennis N. Marasigan KEY NOTE 1: Dr. Micheal L. Tan |
| 10:00 AM | Meditation Hall | PLENARY 1: HB in Performance and Education Moderator: Edwin Anandon Al Garcia Babaylan Reimagined: The Process of Choreographing BBYLN by Al Bernard Garcia Regina Bautista Embodiment and Spatiality in With |in| Me by Mary Evangeline Recto and in The Long Ride by Jensen So TBD |
| 11:30 AM | 4th floor Balcony | |
| 12:00 NN | Dining Hall | LUNCH |
| 1:25 PM | Lobby Steps | SIGLAW Site-specific Pocket Performances |
| 2:00-4:30 PM | Mediation Hall | WORKSHOP A: KAPWA + ALAY Nanding Josef with Tanghalang Pilipino |
| Black Box | WORKSHOP B: ARTS + WELL-BEING Heidi Emelo and Tin Gamboa |
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| Dance Studio | WORKSHOP C: SARILING ATIN: Katutubong Musika ng Hilaga at Katimugang Pilipinas Malou Matute UP College of Music |
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| 5:00 PM | Main Lobby | SIGLAW Site-specific Pocket Performances |
| 6:00 PM | Dining Hall | Dinner |
| 7:05 PM | Dining (Outdoor) | SIGLAW Site-specific Pocket Performances |
| 8:00 PM | Black Box | DAP-AYAN 1 Featured Works WifiBody PH and UP Dance Company |
| 9:00 PM | Lobby | DAP-AYAN Socials & Discussion |
| DAY 2 May 25 | Thursday |
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|---|---|---|
| TIME | VENUE | ACTIVITY |
| 7:00 AM | Dining Hall | BREAKFAST |
| 10:00 AM | Arena (Indoor) | Morning Activity Yoga/Pilates |
| 11:30 AM | Arena (Outdoor) | SIGLAW Site-specific Pocket Performances |
| 12:00 NN | LUNCH | |
| 12:45 PM | SIGLAW Site-specific Pocket Performances |
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| 1:25 PM | Meditation Hall | KEYNOTE 2: Marjorie Evasco, PhD “The Radiance of Gifts” |
| 2:00-3:15 PM | Mediation Hall | PLENARY 2: Writing Performance Moderator: Edwin Anadon Ralph Jade Tampal Addressing Stereotypes against Muslim Filipinos through Theatre Heidi Emelo From Page to Stage: An Account on the Process of Writing and Directing Niyyat TBD |
| 3:15 PM | 4th Floor Balcony | SIGLAW Site-specific Pocket Performances |
| 2:00-4:30 PM | Mediation Hall | WORKSHOP A: KAPWA + ALAY Nanding Josef with Tanghalang Pilipino |
| Black Box | WORKSHOP B: ARTS + WELL-BEING Heidi Emelo and Tin Gamboa |
|
| Dance Studio | WORKSHOP C: SARILING ATIN: Katutubong Musika ng Hilaga at Katimugang Pilipinas Malou Matute, UP College of Music |
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| 6:30 PM | Lobby Steps | SIGLAW Site-specific Pocket Performances |
| 7:00 PM | Dining Hall | DINNER |
| 7:55 PM | Arena (Outdoor) | SIGLAW Site-specific Pocket Performances |
| 8:00 PM | Arena (Outdoor) | DAP-AYAN 2 Featured Artists Delphine Buencamino | JM Cabling |
| 9:00 PM | Arena (Outdoor) | DAP-AYAN Socials & Discussion |
| DAY 3 May 26 | Friday |
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|---|---|---|
| TIME | VENUE | ACTIVITY |
| 7:00 AM | Dining Hall | BREAKFAST |
| 8:00 AM | Black Box Dance Studio Mediation Hall |
WORKSHOP A, B, C Rehearsals |
| 10:00 AM | Meditation Hall | WORKSHOP PRESENTATIONS |
| 11:00 AM | Meditation Hall | KEYNOTE 3: Dr. Anril Tiatco |
| Evaluations | ||
| 12:00 NN | Meditation Hall | Presentation of Certificates & Photo Of Speakers and Facilitators |
Partners
Keynote Speakers
Michael L. Tan, DVM, PhD
Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at University of the Philippines, Diliman (UPD), an elected academician of the National Academy of Science and Technology, and currently the President of Guang Ming College. After serving as Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy at UPD, he was appointed Chancellor for UPD from 2014 to 2020. As a Medical Anthropologist his published single author books include Thinking, Doing Culture (2011) by UST Press; Revisiting Usog, Pasma, Kulam (2008) by UP Press, and Good Medicine: Pharmaceuticals and the Construction of POwer and Knowledge in the Philippines (1999) by University of Amsterdam. His Pinoy Kasi column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer started in 1997 and continues today.
Marjorie Evasco, PhD
Every person is born with a seed of a talent, but this seed begins as a potential gift. In the process of the person’s maturation, s/he can grow to discover that s/he embodies a talent. The one who honors its presence by cultivating it to near-perfection in order to keep the gift alive and able to enliven the heart of consciousness in others is the one who becomes an artist. Humanistic Buddhism nourishes the artist’s heart-mind-body to practice her/his gift, driven by the high purpose of thinking thoughts, saying words, and doing deeds that can bestow goodness in this world. The artist-scholar’s offering, Alay, is the best articulation of her/his gift, whether in art-practice or in art-practice research. This offering is given to the community in the liberative spirit of freedom, Laya, so that it becomes part of the wealth of humanity’s Alaya or storehouse of collective consciousness.
Sir Anril Tiatco, PhD
earned his PhD in Theatre Studies from the National University of Singapore. He was a visiting scholar at the Research Institute for Cosmopolitan Cultures, the University of Manchester (2012 – 2013). His essays have appeared in Journal of Homosexuality, Tourism Management Perspectives, Asian Theatre Journal, TDR: The Drama Review, JATI: Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Kritika Kultura, Social Science Diliman, Philippine Humanities Review, Modern Drama, and Humanities Diliman. He is the author of Buhol-Buhol/Entanglement: Contemporary Theatre in Metropolitan Manila (Peter Lang, 2017), Entablado: Theatres and Performances in the Philippines (University of the Philippines Press, 2015), the National Book Award Finalist for Best Book on Art Performing Catholicism: Faith and Theatre in a Philippine Province (also from the University of the Philippines Press, 2016), and the National Book Award Winner (Best Book on Art) Cosmopolitanism, Theatre, and the Philippines: Performing Community in a World of Strangers (University of the Philippines Press, 2018). A professor (Professor 3) of theatre and performance studies from the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts and conferred upon him the title University Artist (UP Artist II) under the UP Artist Productivity System Award (2014–present), Tiatco is currently the Director of the UP Diliman Information Office.
Writing Performance
Ralph Jade Tampal
was one of the National Finalists for the Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines in 2019. In the same year, he graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Performing Arts in Theatre degree from Guang Ming College. Last August 2021, he graduated with his degree in Master of Fine Arts major in Theatre Directing at Nanhua University in Taiwan. Currently, he is a full-time faculty/assistant professor in the performing arts department of his alma mater – Guang Ming College, Tagaytay.
” Addressing Stereotypes against Muslim Filipinos through Theatre: A Dramaturgical Approach of Educating Non-Islam Filipinos on the Concept of Jihad and Other Islamic Practices “
Heidi Salih Emelo
Assistant Professor I for Theatre at Guang Ming College, Tagaytay. Alumnae of Nan Hua University Taiwan where she took up her Master of Fine Arts Degree in Theatre Directing.
Heidi has been interested in sharing her experiences in learning theatre through education. Aside from theatre-related classes, she also teaches NSTP where she discovers the essence of community in building strong leadership and management skills. As the NSTP coordinator, Heidi hopes to integrate arts and community in her journey as a student-artist.
Heidi worked on various Directing opportunities such as Niyyat, Kafatiran, Prince Siddhartha the Musica: A Journey to Enlightenment, and many more. In 2018, Heidi’s journey as a Muslim student studying theatre arts in a Buddhist Institution was featured in the Chinese-Filipino newspaper, Tulay.
” From Page to Stage:The Process of Writing and Directing Niyyat “
Al Bernard Garcia
Company Member, Tjimur Dance Theatre
” Babaylan Reimagined: The Process of Choreographing BBYLN “
Alaya
Performances
The Ahamkara is a Sanskrit term that refers to the ego-sense, or sense of self. In Buddhist philosophy the Ahamkara is constructed from the Alayavijñana, which is a continuum of what we retain from our stream of embodied experiences in life. (Mackenzie, 2015) Watch here
Workshops
Nanding Josef
Actor and Artistic Director of Tanghalang Pilipino
Fernando “nanding” Josef; Artistic Director, Tanghalang Pilipino (TP); President, Artists Welfare Project Inc. (AWPI); President, Dalubhasaan para sa Edukasyon, Sining at Kultura (DESK); former Vice-President and Artistic Director, Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP); former Executive Director, Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA).
Arts + Well-being
Tin Gamboa
Attuning Flesh and Bone: Collaborative storytelling through dance
Tin Gamboa is a Filipina dance artist who is primarily based in the traditional homelands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations, in a place now commonly known as Vancouver, Canada. As an artist and researcher, she begins with the body as the center, conduit, and catalyst for self-reflection and change. Intrigued by the reciprocal cycles within and between the self and larger social culture, her personal practice focuses on patterns, habits and behaviours that either change or permeate through multiple generations and how these impact societal common myths and group cooperation.