Pasifika Series - Mindanao Dances, with Potri Ranka Manis

Welcoming Potri Ranka Manis to the Pasifika Series! The April offering is Mindanao Dances, indigenous dances from the southern Philippines.

This 90-min, open-level workshop will immerse participants in the living tradition of indigenous peoples of Mindanao, southern Philippines, through a somatic experience of ancestral legends, epics, and myths. From the time-honored epic, Derangen, these dances encode customary law, a code of ethics, notion of aesthetics, and social values.

Live Kulintang music will accompany the workshop. Participants will learn the basic movements of Kaeg-Manisan (dance of emotion), Paga-Apir Apir (dance of the magical butterfly), and Pangalay. Please wear long-sleeves and expect to dance barefoot (or in non-skid socks). Malong/sarong and fans welcome.

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Potri Ranka Manis, Bai a Labi Agaus sa Borocot, Maguing

Potri Ranka Manis Queano Nur, M.A., R.N-B.C., a tradition-bearer of the Meranao people (People of the Lake), is the Founder and Artistic Director of Kinding Sindaw, a resident company of La MaMa E.T.C. Born and raised in Mindanao, she is the daughter of the late Sultan a Gaus of the Royal House of Borocot, a true modern-day princess. Potri is also a NYFA Folkarts Fellow and master teacher at Lotus Music and Dance. She is a playwright, poet, actor, producer, choreographer, and practitioner of the Theatre of the Oppressed.

As a Registered Nurse, Potri is currently a Public Health Nurse Consultant at the NYC Department of Health Bureau of Environmental Disease and Injury Prevention. She also has a Masters in Health Arts and Science and developed the healing modality “R.A.N.K.A.” (Resilient, Ancestral Nurturing Knowledge and Arts). Potri came to New York City in 1990 at the surge of the HIV AIDS pandemic. She is a relentless advocate in prevention of the spread of COVID-19 as a community organizer and initiated the collaborative project #iloveyouverymask, which was launched in March 2020.

Kinding Sindaw is a NYC-based nonprofit dance theater company composed of indigenous tradition-bearers, Filipino-American artists, and educators from all backgrounds. Founded in 1992, Kinding Sindaw exists to assert, preserve, reclaim, and re-create the traditions of dance, music, martial arts, storytelling, and oral history of the indigenous peoples of Mindanao, southern Philippines.

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Class will be held at Studio 1

Open-level, all ages · Community class, $30 suggested