Chapter 5: Subli Dance and Genre Issues

It was performed on the stage by 6 couples. The music was for voice, guitar and percussion yet the attraction in these two performances was the dance, for which pre-recorded music was used. Instruments and dance movements are material aspects of the Diaspora in the sense that work as sources allows us to analyse empirically the changes1.

Binarian Subli

We are in front of a binarian Manor tonal form. Harmonically it follows the Western sequence of I-IVV-I and, as we can see from the transcription above, it is constructed using three melodic themes,

See, for instance, the fiddle in Irish Traditional Music. This can be a proof of Diaspora from the continent to the island, as a development and integration of the violin.

which I have called 1, 1 (a variation of the first theme) and 2, that are joined together to form the following structure: Intro-Theme 1-Theme 2-Theme 1-Theme 2-Theme 2 The texture is a main melody, which is not shared for different voices, and accompaniment. In regard

to the dancing, it is worth indicating that all the steps are developed under the rhythms

and

The first movement lasted one bar. The partners looked at each other and put their hands on their hips. Women take two short steps to the left and one long step in a rhythm of eighth note/eighth note/ quarter note. Men did the same but moving in the opposite direction.

The dancers moved through the space like this:

The second movement lasted for the length of theme 1. It consisted of the repetition of a group of two-bar movements, but each time starting at a different point of the stage, making a kind of circle.

The first bar consisted on, first, at a rhythm of quarter-note, right heel in front and right toe behind; and second, two short steps in front at a rhythm of eight-note and a third short step in front of at a rhythm of a quarter-note. The second bar is constructed with the exact same group of movements, but they start with left heel in front The partners make the same movements but starting with the opposite feet, making this use of space:

The following movement is the four - bar movement that that was repeated two times during the theme 2.

At the beginning of the first bar the partner got close through walking six small steps in two rhythmic groups of eight note/eight note/quarter note. Along the second bar, they took each other by the hands, the dancers in front with their backs turned to their partners, and they swayed from left (two quarter note steps) to right (the same rhythm). During the next two bars of the walk making 180 degrees turn until they arrive to the original point of their partners, making steps of eight note/eight note/quarter note. Then, they started this group of movements but doing everything from the position of their partners.

The next movement lasted the entire theme 1 and the group of dancers made a circle and started exchanging positions walking, making three short steps (eight note/eight note/quarter note). Everybody moved until they arrived at their original positions.

The group of movements danced during the first repetition of theme 2 that comes now is a combination of previous steps. The last group of movements also took place during the music of theme 2 and was very similar to the dance that accompanied the third group of movements described above. The difference was that the steps were repeated more times and when the dancers were in front with their backs turned to their partners, they swayed from the front to behind, instead of from the left to the right. It was different as well in the fact that all the time they did short steps to the rhythm of eight note/eight note/quarter note.

Ternarian subli

We are in front of another Major tonal form, in this case ternarian. Harmonically it follows the Western sequence of I-IV-V-I and, as we can see from the transcription above, it is constructed using two melodic themes, which I have called 1 and 2, which together make up the following structure: Intro (guitar solo based on theme 1) Theme 1 (voice + guitar at the same level) Theme 2 (voice) Transition (guitar solo based on theme 1) Theme 1 (Voice and guitar). It is worth pointing out that the voice linked syllabically with the melody, which differs from Spanish styles, flamenco and sevillanas. The four main rhythmic figures were:

1.

2. 3.

4. While the voice theme used the three latter ones, characterised by emphasising the first part of the bar; the guitar was used to play little syncopated figures. During the dance women used a cloth and the men a hat. They danced three main groups of movements. The first one lasted 4 bars and their feet moved to a quarter-note rhythm. All the dancers were looking to the audience and either taking their hats or cloths in their right hands and putting their left hands on their left hips: First bar: three short steps to the right as they lift their right arms. Second bar: three short steps to the right as they lower their right arm. Third and fourth: turn 360 degrees to the right in 6 steps, raising their feet from the floor.

This group of movements is repeated 8 times.

During the second dance, every dancer looked to his/her couple which made them stand side on from the audience. This group of movements, which lasted 4 bars with the feet moving at the rhythm of quarter note, required a lot of know-how. The men put their hands on their hips, while the women put their hand on their hip which was the closed to the men (this will changed depending on if they were moving in the direction of the audience of if they were getting away from the audience), and maintained the other arm up. First bar (women). Going in direction of the audience, little step with the left foot, slide with the right one and step with the right one. Second and third bars (women): repetition of the first step. Fourth step (women). Little step with the left foot, slide with the right one and jump of the right foot to rotate 180 grades to look in oppose direction of the audience. The group of

movements started again, but were in the opposite direction and when done with the left hand and foot it was done after with the right, and so on the right side. Men did the same steps during this group of movements but on the opposing side, when women were going in the direction of the audience, the men were moving away.

The last group of movements consisted in the Wals in couples until the end of the dance.

Subli dance has its origin in a regional tale of the province of Batengas, in the Calabarzon region. The story talks about a woman that tried to get water from a wall, but it was not possible because there was a piece of wood that closed the exit of the water. After trying many times to move it, eventually people from different towns came together and started singing and dancing to be able to move the wood. This dance was called Subli. These people took the wood and transformed it in to a large crucifix, known as Mahal ng Poong Santa Cruz, which is the patron of many towns around the area of Batangas. We can take three allegories from this story. The first one talks about the role of music and dancing to manage Nature. Elena Miranos proposal makes sense, as argues that the etymological origin of 'subli' is the word 'sobli' that means 'exchange of places'. As we can see above at the explanation of the steps of the dance, it is actually possible to observe how men move to the opposite of women and exchange positions with them, allowing more space to be occupied.

The second allegory would be the one that joined the efforts of the people from different towns to move the wood. This one agrees to the idea of togetherness of all specifics of the Philippines, which you can find at the nucleus of the Festival.

The third one had to do with the role of Christianity (Catholicism) in the formation of Philippine cultural traditions or the role of Philippine cultural traditions in the adaptation of Christianity

One interesting consideration would be how the Festival of independence of the Philippines dealt with the mysticism that accompanied the Subli dance. We can either try to maintain intact the dance link or being conscious of the new space and providing new sense in this new context. Subli dancess community would represent what Johanna V. Devlin define as old-time community. The Festival of the Independence is atemporal because it offers the possibility of reproducing musical practices that today dont actually have a predominant place in Philippine music culture. If we consider the Festival of Independence as a space for negotiating, we can analyse if the spectacles there corresponded indeed with the day to day life. Those dances that arent performed in the Philippine- Madrid routines, such Subli dances and Igorot, could show an interest in a people reviving a culture, celebrating a culture or, in some cases, inventing tradition (Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger). One of the motives of the stereotyping of certain musical forms can be the cultural collective memory in the sense of as Olick and Robbin state:if stories about the past are no longer

performed in talking, reading, viewing, or commemorative rituals, they ultimately die out in cultural terms, becoming obsolete or inert (p.2).

This makes sense indeed one of the young people I chatted with during the performance of the pop artist Rayver Cruz knew Subli dances.

At the time of analysing the performers within the festival it must be taken into account the impressive majority of middle aged women. This was even more remarkable in the case of Subli dance, although it was a dance for girl -boy couples; it was danced by women in both roles due to the lack of

masculine participation. When I asked my friend Normalyn, who by the way didnt go to the Mass either, where were all the men? She answered me that they may be sleeping. The position of women in the Festival is nuclear, and, along performances they are absolutely predominant. Yen Lee Espiritus reading of the role of Philippine women as a resistance is very interesting, even more if we consider this idea together with the Mass of the Festival:

Cultural resistanceby stressing female chastity and sacrifice, and yet reinforce patriarchal power and gendered oppressionon the performance of female subordination (p. 216).
Women were the pro-active members of the Festival, the absolute protagonists of the music performances and dances Being able to consider them Slobins idea of cultural activists or Stokes one of elites (p.64), would be to patronize the Festival in some way.