Philippines Tour 2024 – Dumaguete Newsletter

Performers Without Borders Philippines Tour 2024

Dumaguete!

Welcome back to the second edition of the Philippines 2024 Tour newsletter.

The Team

Gina (Bazzinga), Jamie (Mr Sunshine), Meg (Nutmeg), Ryn (Ryn Hooligan), Szymon (Sai), and JMS (The Goon)

Here We Go

The team continued their journey to Dumaguete after having a magical swim with the whale sharks; we felt rejuvenated and eager to get started at the first location of delivery. We travelled 5 hours from Cebu City by land and sea in various vehicles of transport, which included an argument with a taxi driver, a foot passenger ferry with all the luggage, and nearly losing a juggling club to the ocean, and the first ride in the local preferred mode of transport called a jeepney.

The City Awaits

The city of Dumaguete was bustling, with scooters, jeepneys, and put-puts filling the crowded streets. Shops, markets, and malls sprawled endlessly, the smell of barbeque in the air, accompanying a warm breeze that notified us of our proximity to the ocean. It was the perfect place for the team to shop for final necessities and gear up for our shows, including extra fire blankets, jet lighters, balloons, and basketball shoes.

The accommodation was comfortable, a practical and well-ventilated space offering us decent beds, a hot plate to cook basic meals, a fridge, and a wet room as well as a shower. To our amusement (and frustration), our kettle had no base to sit on, but this was a problem quickly solved by the nearby cafes – and a moment of hilarity when the kettle’s base was randomly found in the garden on the last day of our stay. We were blessed with a shaded space outside for rehearsals, and Sai and Ryn set about turning the lobby area into a stretch area with the yoga mat and mirror, which was also somewhere for us to sit communally and finalise last-minute pieces of choreo. Our alarm clock in the morning was a small bird tapping his beak against our bedroom window, and we were visited by all sorts of wildlife. However, the millipedes, baby scorpion, and ants were not quite as warmly welcomed as the arrival of a giant snail on our doorstep, with whom we promptly fell in love.

Harmony For Humanity

Our first show was for our partner organisations, the UN SDSN (United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network) event called Harmony for Humanity, which was part of a string of human rights advocacy and awareness events happening around the Philippines.

This one was taking place in Dumaguete’s Foundation University; our performance would be for an audience of 150 pupils, teachers, and members of the organisation, with ages ranging from 16+. We contributed to a wider showcase of talent by the students, alongside speeches from governors, spoken word artists, singers, dancers, and theatrical pieces. It was an amazing way for the team to integrate with the local youths’, engage with their preferred art forms, and bring something new through introducing the attendants to our circus skills.

Show Time

Adaptable as ever, the team decided that our kids show was not appropriate for the maturity of this audience. The venue, with its lavish curtains and beautifully decorated stage, was certainly not appropriate for the fire show. Proving themselves again to be malleable and resilient to changing plans, the team decided with very short notice to create a cabaret-style show of solo acts showcasing their best circus skills. Our cabaret was warmly received by an impressed audience; some feedback that was given included “you were the highlight of the show,” which was very high praise alongside so much young talent.

The students marvelled at a whole spectrum of hula hoop skills, giggled and gasped at acrobatic rope dart clowning, were mesmerised by elegant poi flow, and cheered hysterically for the grand finale, which was a ludicrous rolla-bola/juggling/head balance/poi hybrid trick! JMS made a captivating and articulate MC, managing with ease the task of introducing PWB and engaging the crowd.

Represent

After our performance, Jamie was asked to be a judge for the remainder of the show. His training in theatre school and years of experience in a wide variety of the performing arts sector made him a competent and knowledgeable judge, despite the challenges of facing a language barrier to the acts, most being in Tagalog. But Mr. Sunshine was clearly well equipped for the job and evidently adored by many of the students, which was apparent as they cheered for him as he stood smiling for many pictures.

Meanwhile, Gina and Ryn sat on the panel at a press conference, alongside representatives from UN SDSN, the local mayor, and the president of the university. The president was also the architect of the campus, which was an unbelievably beautiful space with sprawling gardens, ponds, fountains, trellaced walkways, collumned doorways, and native plants decorating the lawns. Witnessing the beauty of the university, we were able to understand the president’s vision for the place, where 25 years of commitment and hard work to the space was the visible result of his drive to inspire the students and benefit their wellbeing.

Sustainability

Representatives from UN SDSN spoke about their recognition of human rights and their goals to extend the definition of human rights to include the arts. We listened to speakers express an ethos that was rooted in access to education and motivated by the idea that access to cultural and artistic society is also a valid right that everyone is entitled to. It was clear to see that their mission ran parallel to our own aims.

The mayor and the local press listened with both amusement and admiration to PWB’s past stories of clowning with children and how transformative it is. Notably, there was a moment of testimony of the India tour referencing one group (The Kashi Fire Warriors) that became so immersed in circus art that they are now able to make a career for themselves and support their community. The sustainability of the project was apparent in these conversations, as it was easy to recognise how quickly the passion spread for the students as soon as the seed was planted.

A New Chapter

The press conference was an opportunity for PWB to ignite this passion in the Philippines, sparking the curiosity of journalists and influential people from multiple different sectors. It was also useful for some of the team’s newer volunteers to see PWB being represented in more of a conservative, formal environment, thereby gaining a deeper insight into our aims at the start of the tour.

The way in which PWB is reframing their rhetoric was also apparent, that instead of “bringing circus to disadvantaged communities,” we were actively eradicating the implication of hierarchy and were now rephrasing to “bringing our art form to communities who usually lack access.” This felt like a powerful shift to witness in the identity of the charity and a recognition of the strength and happiness of the children and young people we were already arriving to. It created an atmosphere of inspiration and excitement for a future that was already abundant with possibility, deepening creative skill sets and furthering our ability to increase community resilience and connection with ourselves and others.

This event was an exciting kickstart to our tour; we had tasted briefly the excitement of what was to come, and the first delivery of the project had illuminated each other’s strengths. As a result, our bond and trust in each other had strengthened.

The trip was punctuated by a dinner in Dumaguete with our partners and the local mayor, where an excessive amount of barbecue chicken was consumed over conversations about working more in depth in Dumaguete in the future, and an immense feeling of satisfaction in the team was felt by all.

Thank you for all your support, next stop, Bayawan…

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