La MaMa & Kinding Sindaw to Present New York Premiere of POSAKA in October

Combining healing chant, thunderous gong, tantric movement, and foodways transmitted by Indigenous rituals, Posaka awakens all the senses.

By: Sep. 22, 2022
La MaMa & Kinding Sindaw to Present New York Premiere of POSAKA in October
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La MaMa in association with Kinding Sindaw will present the New York premiere of Posaka from October 20 - 23, 2022 at The Downstairs at La MaMa, 66 E. 4th Street, NYC. Through ritual dance and chanted epics, Indigenous tradition-bearers visiting from the Philippines share the healing traditions of four sacred lineages: Maguindanao, Meranao, Tausug, and Tboli. Tickets are $30 for adults, $25 for students and seniors, and the first ten tickets for every performance are $10. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit lamama.org/shows/posaka-2022 or call 646-430-5374.

Combining healing chant, thunderous gong, tantric movement, and foodways transmitted by Indigenous rituals, Posaka awakens all the senses in an encounter guided by authentic tradition-bearers visiting from the Southern Philippines. Joining Kinding Sindaw and its New York-based community of musicians, dancers, and martial artists living in diaspora, Posaka is a performance series that explores themes of displacement, resilience, and collective healing through ancestral arts.

Through ritual dance and chanted epics, Indigenous Master Artists visiting from the Philippines share the living traditions of four unbroken lineages: Maguindanao, Meranao, Tausug, and Tboli. Set to the pulse of sacred drums and a live kulintang ensemble, Posaka navigates the boundaries of ceremony and theater to empower collective healing through ancestral arts. From the Sanskrit for "one who nourishes," posaka (i.e. heirlooms) retain an ancient Austronesian animism denied in English to so-called "things." Performing cultural translation at many levels, these tradition-bearers as embodied pusaka repair the erasures of hegemony and enduring objectifications of colonialism.

A dance community and resident of LaMaMa, Kinding Sindaw celebrates its 30th anniversary in NYC. Founded by Potri Ranka Manis-daughter of the late Sultan a Gaus of the Royal House of Borocot-Kindaw Sindaw campaigns for the self-determination and liberation of Indigenous peoples around the world.

Posaka is choreographed by Kinding Sindaw Artistic Director Potri Ranka Manis, Bai Labi a Gaus sa Borocot, Maguing, and features Master Artists-in-Residence Lynn Buti, Tboli tradition-bearer; Leonorah Dirampaten Grande, Meranao tradition-bearer; Datu Faisal Monal, Maguindanao tradition-bearer; and Sitti Airia Sangkula Askalani Obesso, Tausug tradition-bearer.

About Kinding Sindaw

Kinding Sindaw is an 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 orature of the indigenous peoples of Mindanao, Southern Philippines.

Founded by a Meranao Bai Labi, Tradition and Culture Bearer, Potri Ranka Manis, Kinding Sindaw recreates the oral traditions of ancestral art forms from Mindanao and is a resident company of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Company. Our mission is to educate and enlighten communities about the history and cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Philippines. Through the use of indigenous music, dance and cultural art forms, we serve as an important educational and cultural resource in New York City. We aim to promote the advocacy for indigenous peoples, as well as increase awareness of universal themes that are part of the human experience. The range of our programs also integrates the health benefits of the ancestral movements that we show and teach to our audiences. Through these cultural art forms, we advocate for the preservation of natural resources that are the livelihood of the Indigenous peoples. Wellness and healing rituals are also embodied in the repertoire of Kinding Sindaw to increase health and healing awareness of participants and audiences. KindingSindaw.org

About La MaMa

La MaMa is dedicated to the artist and all aspects of the theatre. La MaMa's 61st "Remake A World" Season believes in the power of art to bring sustainable change over time and transform our cultural narrative. At La MaMa, new work is created from a multiplicity of perspectives, experiences, and disciplines, influencing how we think about and experience art. The flexibility of our spaces, specifically the newly reimagined building at 74 East 4th Street (La MaMa's original permanent home), gives our local and remote communities access to expanded daytime programming. The digital tools embedded in the space allows artists to collaborate remotely, and audiences worldwide to participate in La MaMa's programming.

A recipient of the 2018 Regional Theater Tony Award, more than 30 Obie Awards and dozens of Drama Desk, Bessie, and Villager Awards, La MaMa has been a creative home for thousands of artists, and resident companies, many of whom have made lasting contributions to the arts, including Blue Man Group, Bette Midler, Ed Bullins, Ping Chong, Jackie Curtis, André De Shields, Adrienne Kennedy, Harvey Fierstein, Diane Lane, Playhouse of the Ridiculous, Tom Eyen, Pan Asian Rep, Spiderwoman Theater, Tadeusz Kantor, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Mabou Mines, Meredith Monk, Peter Brook, David and Amy Sedaris, Julie Taymor, Kazuo Ohno, Tom O'Horgan, and Andy Warhol. La MaMa's vision of nurturing new artists and new work from all nations, cultures, races and identities remains as strong today as it was when Ellen Stewart first opened the doors in 1961.




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