Parangal Dance Company brought a rare Kalinga healing ritual to a downtown San Francisco stage with its “Palin-awa: Healing Ritual of Kalinga” production, opening a summer and fall season of performances and workshops designed to keep Philippine indigenous traditions alive for U.S. audiences.
The San Francisco-based nonprofit, known for its research-driven work with Philippine indigenous communities, presented the ritual-inspired show at Sentro Filipino as part of a broader push to highlight culture bearers and ancestral practices through contemporary staging.
Developed in collaboration with the Bawer family of Lubuagan and Kalinga culture bearer Jenny Bawer Young, “Palin-awa” centers on a traditional rite that calls a person’s spirit back to the community after moments of profound joy or sorrow. The piece, performed with live music and detailed, community-informed attire, served as a focal point for Parangal’s Bay Area programming as the troupe moves into a busy summer and fall lineup.
The company’s tour schedule includes festival dates such as the Montana Folk Festival in Butte, Pistahan at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco, a Global Filipino History & Legacy showcase at the New Orleans Jazz Museum, and Pinoy Festival Las Vegas, alongside hands-on workshops in kulintang music and regional dance traditions.
Founded in 2008, Parangal (the Tagalog word for “tribute”) is led by founding artistic director Eric Solano, a Philippine-born, Bay Area-raised dance and cultural practitioner who also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco teaching Philippine dance and culture.
Solano regularly travels to the Philippines to study under indigenous elders, work that has shaped Parangal’s signature suites and ritual-inspired productions and positioned the company as a bridge between Filipino American communities and their ancestral roots.
Parangal’s contributions to cultural preservation have also been recognized nationally.
The company was named a TOFA100 honoree in 2020 during the 10th anniversary virtual gala of The Outstanding Filipino Awards, cited for its role in connecting next-generation Filipino Americans to their roots and educating diverse communities in the United States about Filipino culture.[usa.inquirer]
A longtime contract performing artist for TOFA, Parangal has appeared at major TOFA events from New York to Los Angeles, Honolulu, and Las Vegas, and is considered a resident artist of the organization. The company is also expected to appear at this year’s TOFA program in Jacksonville, Florida, where the 16th Annual TOFA Awards is scheduled for Oct. 24.
In 2024, at the 14th Annual TOFA Awards in Honolulu, Solano received the President Biden Lifetime Achievement Award, a TOFA honor presented through the organization’s accreditation with the Presidential Volunteer Service Awards program, recognizing his decades of community-centered cultural work and Parangal’s enduring impact on the Filipino diaspora.
