September 19, 2026
Kala (Ynna Rafa) was performing in a folk dance number with her school organization. In the audience that night were her parents Tatay Ondeng (Noel Rayos) and Nanay Lucia (Shiela Valderrama), and her younger sister Laya (Wincess Jem Yana). While Kala and her group was dancing the pandanggo sa ilaw, Laya was fascinated how the dancers kept those glasses with lit candles securely balanced on their heads while spinning around.
As a high school senior, Kala was very active in their school paper, writing poetry and essays. The year was 1981. Kala wrote an article about the recent lifting of Martial Law, and reflected if there was indeed any changes in Filipino society since then. Her friend and school paper staff Tony (Earvin Estioco) warned her to reconsider the language she used in her political writings, as these may still put her and their paper in danger.
When director Jonathan Tadioan and his team decided that the llatest play by Tanghalang Pilipino would be based on a children's short story written by Cheeno Mario Sayuno, Juan Ekis was the first choice to interpret it as a movement-based play for children. Being a dance musical with the Pandanggo sa Ilaw as the special focal point, the music by Krina Cayabyab and choreography by Al Bernard Garcia were essential aspects of the project.
The first thing we see on the stage was a massive, glittery sculpture of a Balintawak or Maria Clara, with its camisa with butterfly sleeves and skirt with tapis There were yards of gray fabric emanating from of its skirt covering the whole stage, and multiple light bulbs hanging above it. This fabulous set was designed by Marco Viana, who also designed the stylish black and white polka dot outfits for main characters, and colorful folk finery for the ensemble.
When Kala was performing her pandanggo, her parents and sister were actually seated among the audience as they were commenting away. After that number, we learned that the job of Tatay Ondeng had him staying up late at night, rushing to finish building a new movie theater to screen foreign films by January. At that point, Gen X'ers in the audience will have already guessed where the tragedy where this play was headed.
The dance interpretation of that tragic event was quite an intricate number. At first, there were dancers banging benches all over the stage, representing night shift workers hard at work that fateful early morning of November 17, 1981. When the scaffolding collapsed, fallen workers were buried into the wet cement floor. To represent this horrific accident tastefully, the dancers used the voluminous grey fabric on the floor to swallow everyone up.
Another complex dance number was that one where Kala wrote an angry article about how only seven workers were announced as victims, while many others never got acknowledged. This upbeat number had Kala and Tony stacking benches one on top of another, while they and the other dancers were jumping on and off them. The sheer precariousness of the heart-stopping dance moves in themselves represented the imminent danger Kala was in.
For me though, the best dance numbers were those two exuberant pandanggo numbers -- the one led by Kala at the beginning, and the one led by Laya at the end. We will see the two types of pandanggo here -- Pandanggo sa Ilaw (where dancers balance oil lamps on each hand and on the head), and the Oasioas (where dancers wrap their oil lamps in cloth and whirl them around with the music). These dances uplifted the spirit of the whole show.
Stage veterans Noel Rayos and Sheila Valderrama certainly prove the all the acclaim and respect they've earned in their long careers in both singing and acting here. 15 year old Wincess Jem Yana already proved her musical talent in TP's "Sandosenang Sapatos" before, and further builds her marquee value up here. She was simply incandescent in her finale Pandanggo number rendered with effortless elan, smiling brightly all throughout. (9 year old Annika Co, whom we first saw in the 2024 film "Sunshine," is the alternate for Laya.)
Ynna Rafa was a clear triple-threat. As Kala, she displayed confident grace in her pandanggo dancing, vocal clarity with her soprano, and intense conviction in her portrayal of a fearless student activist coming of age. Earvin Estioco was a charming Tony, but he also danced with the rest of the ensemble composed of Mark Lorenz, Heart Puyong, Sarah Monay, and the versatile Lhorvie Nuevo Tadioan, whom I have never seen dance up such a storm before.
Dealing with the death of a loved one is never easy for anybody, especially if the circumstances of that death were sudden and fraught with uncertainty and insensitivity. This may not be the most comfortable topic for a stage musical for kids, but death is an unavoidable reality of life and we need to accept it head on, at any age. Dance here was a glorious and dynamic symbol of the grace of the human spirit to move on beyond tragedy.
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Tanghalang Pilipino's "Sayaw ng mga Ilaw" runs from September 18 to October 11, 2026 at the Tanghalang Ignacio Gimenez, CCP Complex, Manila. Tickets are available via TicketWorld, P2172 for VIP and P1,954 for Regular.
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