Women National Artists that you should know about

Edith L. Tiempo, poet, fictionist, teacher and literary critic is one of the finest Filipino writers in English whose works are characterized by a remarkable fusion of style and substance, of craftsmanship and insight.

She is an influential tradition in Philippine literature in English. Together with her late husband, Edilberto K. Tiempo, she founded and directed the Silliman National Writers Workshop in Dumaguete City, which has produced some of the country’s best writers.

Source: Akdang Buhay, Edith L. Tiempo, Likhaan: University of the Philippines Institute of Creative Writing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrisN-0zMbw)

The name Alice Reyes has become a significant part of Philippine dance parlance. As a dancer, choreographer, teacher and director, she has made a lasting impact on the development and promotion of contemporary dance in the Philippines. Her dance legacy is evident in the dance companies, teachers, choreographers and the exciting Filipino modern dance repertoire of our country today.

Perhaps the biggest contribution of Alice Reyes to Philippine dance is the development of a distinctly Filipino modern dance idiom. Utilizing inherently Filipino materials and subject matters expressed through a combination of movements and styles from Philippine indigenous dance, modern dance and classical ballet she has successfully created a contemporary dance language that is uniquely Filipino.

Source: Marcelo, Sam L. "Start Small but Start Well: Alice Reyes and Ballet Philippines."BusinessWorld. N.p., 25 June 2014. Web. 09 Mar. 2017.

Daisy H. Avellana, is an actor, director and writer. Born in Roxas City, Capiz on January 26, 1917, she elevated legitimate theater and dramatic arts to a new level of excellence by staging and performing in breakthrough productions of classic Filipino and foreign plays and by encouraging the establishment of performing groups and the professionalization of Filipino theater.

Together with her husband, National Artist Lamberto Avellana and other artists, she co-founded the Barangay Theatre Guild in 1939 which paved the way for the popularization of theatre and dramatic arts in the country, utilizing radio and television.

Daisy Avellana Tribute Video, Cultural Center of the Philippines (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7-BHDKT6gA&t=343s)

Andrea Veneracion, is highly esteemed for her achievements as choirmaster and choral arranger. Two of her indispensable contributions in culture and the arts include the founding of the Philippine Madrigal Singers and the spearheading of the development of Philippine choral music.

Andrea Veneracion Tribute Video, Cultural Center of the Philippines (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-WH99poN50)

Francisca Reyes Aquino is acknowledged as the Folk Dance Pioneer. This Bulakeña began her research on folk dances in the 1920’s making trips to remote barrios in Central and Northern Luzon. Her research on the unrecorded forms of local celebration, ritual and sport resulted into a 1926 thesis titled “Philippine Folk Dances and Games,” and arranged specifically for use by teachers and playground instructors in public and private schools.

Gonzalves, Theodore S. The Day the Dancers Stayed: Performing in the Filipino/American Diaspora. Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP, 2010. Print.

Dubbed the “Trailblazer”, “Mother of Philippine Theater Dance” and “Dean of Filipino Performing Arts Critics”, Leonor Orosa Goquingco, pioneer Filipino choreographer in balletic folkloric and Asian styles, produced for over 50 years highly original, first-of-a-kind choreographies, mostly to her own storylines.

These include “TREND: Return to Native,” “In a Javanese Garden,” “Sports,” “VINTA!,” “In a Concentration Camp,” “The Magic Garden,” “The Clowns,” “Firebird,” “Noli Dance Suite,” “The Flagellant,” “The Creation…” Seen as her most ambitious work is the dance epic “Filipinescas: Philippine Life, Legend and Lore.” With it, Orosa brought native folk dance, mirroring Philippine culture from pagan to modern times, to its highest stage of development.

Source: PAGPUPUGAY: A Tribute to National Artist Leonor Orosa-Goquingco, University of the Philippines Press (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8dmvy6At1A)

Long before Lea Salonga’s break into Broadway, there was already Jovita Fuentes‘ portrayal of Cio-cio san in Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly at Italy’s Teatro Municipale di Piacenza. Her performance was hailed as the “most sublime interpretation of the part”. This is all the more significant because it happened at a time when the Philippines and its people were scarcely heard of in Europe.

Honorata “Atang” Dela Rama was formally honored as the Queen of Kundiman in 1979, then already 74 years old singing the same song (“Nabasag na Banga”) that she sang as a 15-year old girl in the sarsuela Dalagang Bukid. Atang became the very first actress in the very first Tagalog film when she essayed the same role in the sarsuela’s film version.

Among the kundiman and the other songs she premiered or popularized were Pakiusap, Ay, Ay Kalisud, Kung Iibig Ka and Madaling Araw by Jose Corazon de Jesus, and Mutya ng Pasig by Deogracias Rosario and Nicanor Abelardo. She also wrote her own sarswelas: Anak ni Eba, Aking Ina, and Puri at Buhay.

She applied her findings to project a new example of an ethnic dance culture that goes beyond simple preservation and into creative growth. Over a period of thirty years, she had choreographed suites of mountain dances, Spanish-influenced dances, Muslim pageants and festivals, regional variations and dances of the countryside for the Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company of which she was the dance director. These dances have all earned critical acclaim and rave reviews from audiences in their world tours in Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.

Lucrecia R. Kasilag, as educator, composer, performing artist, administrator and cultural entrepreneur of national and international caliber, had involved herself wholly in sharpening the Filipino audience’s appreciation of music.

Kasilag’s pioneering task to discover the Filipino roots through ethnic music and fusing it with Western influences has led many Filipino composers to experiment with such an approach. She dared to incorporate indigenous Filipino instruments in orchestral productions, such as the prize-winning “Toccata for Percussions and Winds, Divertissement and Concertante,” and the scores of the Filiasiana, Misang Pilipino and De Profundis.

Source: Doyo, Ma. Ceres P. "Kasilag: ‘Making a Difference in Music’." Human Face by Ceres. N.p., 21 Aug. 2008. Web. 09 Mar. 2017.