A collaboration with Bay Area Pilipino master artists, Philippine dance choreographer Jay Loyola, composer Florante Aguilar of the award winning documentary Harana, and Kularts Artistic Director Alleluia Panis, presented by Kularts, Ba-e Makiling re-imagines an indigenous mythological love story told through the dynamic emerging genre of Philippine dance theater performance. Set before the coming of Europeans, in an imagined remote village at the foot of Mount Makiling, the deity Ba-e Makiling, guardian of the dormant volcano unexpectedly falls in love with an injured villager, hunter Lakai. Inspired by Philippine myths and native spirituality, their relationship serves as an empowering message to re-discover and reclaim the indigenous self denied by centuries of colonization. For this production, Loyolas innovative dance movements deliberately draw upon barrio or rural, celebratory native dances by Christianized Pilipinos of Luzon and Visayan islands. Rooted in deep pre-colonized cultures, when the Spanish came, these dances were strategically disguised as depictions of peacefully content farmers and fishermen to prevent Spanish Catholic priests from banning them as dances of the devil. The choreography in Ba-e Makiling will investigate the hidden characteristics harbored in the celebratory dance form and its connections to other indigenous forms of warrior arts, spirituality, rituals and tribal justice. The music is an original all-percussion contemporary score inspired by traditional Philippine indigenous music by Florante Aguilar.