Performing Arts at FACSPS

Folk Dance

The Folk Dance Troupe has been with the Community since 1987 pioneered by Choreographer Nancy Garcia. The dancers are children of members who hone their artistic skills under the patient tutelage of Nancy. They have performed in numerous cultural and functions in schools and civic clubs in the Olympia, Yelm, Tacoma and Seattle areas. The students and the audience particularly are impressed by their beautiful and delightful folk pieces. Their repertoire included Pandanggo sa Ilaw, Sayaw sa Bangko, Tinikling, Salakot, and many others.

Innovative dance pieces are choreographed every year with the training of new and older batch of dancers. There were times when parents participated in various engagements, and they, too showed their skills in such pieces as the Balitaw, Rigodon, Tinikling, and the like.

The change is noticeable in the poise and élan the student dancers carry themselves, in and out of the performance halls. All told the kids have matured with grace and enviable personality from elementary, high school and college days. And always, they look back at their development during their membership in the dance troupe. In college, some even taught other American students to dance Filipino ethnic pieces.

Sally Roque took over from Nancy Garcia as Choreographer starting in 2001. Sally worked hard in filling the big shoes that Nancy left. In 2003, Tes Fernandus and Lucy Hochrine took the joint responsibility of further developing the folk dance troupe.

Chorale Ensemble

The Choral Ensemble, in their colorful sequined attire, has performed in different programs sponsored by the Community in Olympia and Tacoma. The Ensemble normally opens gala shows of Visiting Artists from the Philippines with their unique rendition of the Philippines’ Bayang Magiliw and America’s Star-Spangled Banner. The Ensemble has a standing invitation to Chorale Director Boy Delarmente of the world-famous De La Salle University Chorale in Manila to spend his sabbatical period in Olympia to conduct the FACSPS Chorale. Boy has watched our chorus and was impressed with their self-thought talents in singing. Ms. Chelo Cox is our Choral Directress.

Dramatic Arts

The FACSPS has been presenting stage plays and theater pieces in the last six years in Olympia, and on several occasions in Tacoma, Seattle, Bellevue and other cities. The plays included Wanted a Chaperon, New Yorker in Tondo, Bannatiran, Condemned, Half an Hour in a Convent, The Right Way, Movie Artists, One More Chance, and others.

The Community’s Mobile (Traveling) Theater Program with the premier presentation of the one-act comedy play “Movie Artists” at the Pagdiriwang Celebration on June 10, 2001 in Seattle was an outstanding success. The play was received by the enthusiastic crowd who laughed all the way through the show. The original play was written in English by Philippine National Artist Wilfredo Ma. Guerrero. However, the production staff has only the Tagalog version so the play was re-translated to English interposing it with native dialect and lingo, something that clicked with the audience which reminded them very much of bodabil in the homeland. The story revolves around a widower Felipe and his three daughters where one is on the verge of being a bomba star.

Movie Artists was followed by other traveling stage plays including the latest, One More Chance in 2003.

With the unprecedented interest of Filipino Americans and the general audience for plays of local color, the FACSPS will continue to produce dramatic shows whose objectives are to foster consciousness of Filipino culture and heritage especially with the youth, and to provide enjoyment in the performing arts – to the audience and to the artists. The plays, almost always, comedy or drama, impart lessons in ethics and morals.