This year our Mountain dances are: Pattong, Ragragsakan, and Budong

The Mountain suite will take you through a journey of hard work and sacrifice. You’ll see what lengths some families go to in order to provide for their families. Sometimes, the means to get where we want isn’t pretty and we must fight others–but, all most people want is to live peacefully with their family, right?

Pattong

Pattong is a Bontoc war dance performed to provoke courage and strength in headhunters and warriors preparing to attack their enemies. This dance is performed by successful head-takers called the Mingers, together with Bodans who came home without heads.

Ragragsakan

The Kalinga borrowed the word ragragsakan, which means “merriment,” from the Ilocano. This dance is a tradition in which Kalinga women gather and prepare for a peace pact between warring-tribes. The walking and carrying of water pots on their heads imitates the climb up the rice terraces in the mountain provinces of the Philippines.

Budong

Budong refers to the peace pact, or peace council, used in the province of Kalinga in the northern part of the Philippines. In this dance, male members of different tribes come together to form a peace pact or some type of allyship.

 

Past Mountain dances

2018 – Banga Kayasig, Salip, Lumagen

2017 – Idaw, Kayabang, Bumayah

2016 – Salidsid, Takiling, Lumagen