The Philippine Performance Archive is a digital humanities project by professors and inter-disciplinary research specialists from the University of the Philippines (UP). It is a consolidation of performance practices (dance, rituals, festivals, and theater) in an online database of multimedia materials gathered from the different Philippine regions in collaboration with the constituent universities of the UP System.

The project, with a grant from the Emerging Interdisciplinary Research Program (EIDR) of the UP Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs (OVPAA), is composed of four distinct archival projects: Philippine Cultural Performances, Philippine Dance, Philippine Theater, and Philippine Performance: Bibliography, Scholarship, and Criticism.

The Project’s program leader is Dr. Judy Celine Ick of the UP Diliman College of Arts and Letters (UPD-CAL) Department of English and Comparative Literature (DECL). She is joined by project leaders Dr. Sir Anril P. Tiatco of UPD-CAL Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts (DSCTA) (Philippine Cultural Performances), UPD-CAL dean and of DSCTA Dr. Amihan Bonifacio-Ramolete (Philippine Theater), Dr. Ruth Jordana L. Pison of the DECL (Philippine Dance) and Dr. Patricia May B. Jurilla of the DECL (Philippine Performance: Bibliography, Scholarship and Criticism), and Prof. Peter A. Sy of the UPD College of Social Sciences and Philosophy Department of Philosophy as the Project’s Digital Humanities Specialist.

Philippine Cultural Performances. This archive explores cultural activities in the Philippines where Filipino communities dramatize their collective narratives in rituals, festivals, and spectacles.

Philippine Dance. This archive aims to complement the works done in the field of dance by collating existing works with video recordings of performances accompanied by descriptions, photographs, and notations.

Philippine Theater. This archive provides access to audio-visual and print materials of performances along with scholarship and criticism on Philippine theater.

Philippine Performance: Bibliography, Scholarship and Criticism. This archive provides bibliographical information on the written materials on Philippine performance history and criticism.

For more about The Philippine Performance Archive, visit http://blog.palabas.org/