CounterPULSE

Located in SOMA in San Francisco, CounterPULSE is a non-profit theater, performance space, community center, and gallery with roots deep in the Bay Area’s provocative performance and dance scenes. CounterPULSE produces its own shows, helps support local artists and activists with its programs and can be rented for productions and rehearsals.



Artist Interview

Dulce Capadocia

Artistic Director of Silayan Philippine-American Dance Company

Los Angeles, CA

Dulce Capadocia is well-known as an award-winning Artistic Director and storyteller uniquely trained in both contemporary dance and Philippine folk traditions. Her choreography is a theatrical interpretation of her heritage as a Filipina growing up in Los Angeles’ inner city. Capadocia and her critically-acclaimed multi-ethnic Silayan Dance Company will premiere an exciting original dance drama. Taking inspiration from urban sources and her experience being raised in a home where dance and culture flourished, Capadocia’s newest creation examines the cultural phenomenon of the “Hip Hop Tinikling” and promises to be a dramatic, thought-provoking dance theatre expression of the Filipino-American experience.

Festival Weekend 3 Artist
Performing Thursday-Sunday, November 19-22, 8pm
Buy Tickets!

“BIHAG”
The Tikling bird (goddess of legacy) trains her young to avoid deadly bamboo traps in the jungles of ancient Philippines. Fast-forward to the urban jungle of Los Angeles, where many Filipino teens are finding new expression in the phenomenon of “Hip Hop Tinikling,” a fusing of traditional rhythmical dances with bamboo poles and the pulsing beats of urban hip hop. With music by an award-winning sound design crew which includes a foley artist and a DJ, BIHAG is a journey through mythical and contemporary stories of personal entrapment and escape. A violent battle for territory and power is the exciting climax and centerpiece of this new work performed by members of the intergenerational Silayan Philippine-American Dance Company.

Dulce's Blogs

Bihag, my choreographic take on the Hip hop Tinikling – part 2
By Dulce Capadocia Aug 25th, 2009 Category: CounterPULSE, Dulce Capadocia, Performing Diaspora

Archival Photo of  Silayan Dance Company  featuring dancers Sandy Mendez and Mandy Burgos  from article on  “Filipino Life”,   Los Angeles Times 1986
(Costume idea for Tikling Bird Goddess in “BIHAG” – look at male dancer in the back)
I write in my pajamas in this late bright sunny afternoon wondering why I haven’t changed since [...]

“Bihag”, my choreographic take on the Hip hop Tinikling
By Dulce Capadocia Jun 1st, 2009 Category: CounterPULSE, Dulce Capadocia, Images, Performing Diaspora

This week, I frantically drove to a graffiti exhibit and documentary screening in Downtown Los Angeles of the movie “GraffLife” directed by Randy DeVol. It follows the secret night missions and on the run daytime activities of urban taggers living in my home and city. I thought I was late; this was one [...]