Filipino youth put skills to test as part of decades-old Maharlika dance group
Folk dances with long Filipino history will be on display during this year's Mosaic festival in Regina
This story is part of a series from CBC Saskatchewan, featuring four stories from the 15 pavilions that are part of Mosaic 2025. For more, visit our Mosaic home page.
When Kian Gilongos decided to join his local Filipino dance group, he was excited about the opportunity to be part of a family tradition that stretches back four decades.
Regina's Maharlika dance group has existed since the 1980s, which is when Gilongos' father first joined the group as a teenager.
"Maharlika was a really good opportunity to bring together other Filipinos that had immigrated or had been born here, and it was a really great way of sharing culture, and I decided I wanted to do that too," the 14-year-old said.
The youth group features 65 dancers between the ages of six to 27. They've been practising since January for the routines that they'll perform during this year's Mosaic festival, June 5 to 7.
The energy is palpable during rehearsal, the excitement reaching a fever pitch for the tinikling dance, which sees older dancers deftly step and hop over moving bamboo sticks.
Gilongos describes the dance as "exhilarating."
"There's just so many things that could possibly go wrong, right? Somebody could clap off, somebody could take a step wrong, and it's truly stupefying to see all of this happening and working together."
Last year at Mosaic, one of the dancers had a toenail slam into his foot and began bleeding, yet finished out the dance, Gilongos said. It speaks to the level of commitment the dancers have.
"The show must go on, right?"
The dancers say there's a camaraderie here that they don't get anywhere else — and they take pride in extending that to others who appreciate their culture.
Twenty-one-year-old Karyss King is an instructor with the group, and is among the participants who do not have Filipino ancestry. She got involved when Filipino friends, knowing she was a dancer, invited her to check out a practice.
She got hooked.
"I loved it so much," she said. "I think something to appreciate is just the love that everyone has. You don't have to be Filipino to be a part of Maharlika."
She appreciates the challenge of certain dances, including one where dancers balance a glass of water on their heads. However, the tinikling dance intimidated her, especially as a dancer who needs to protect her feet.
"When I tried it for the first time, I was honestly horrified, but I was like, 'I can't show that I'm scared,'" she said, adding that dancers begin to lose their stamina as the pace gets faster.
"But when you look up and you see your friends around you, it's like, 'I have to keep going. I want to keep going and I'm going to do this dance.'"
Participants say visitors will feel the good vibes and energy from the Philippines Pavilion at Mosaic and its close-knit Maharlika dancers.
"It's truly like a family that's like no other," said King.
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