Artist:
Ili Dances
PROGRAM
ILI Dances-ILI Performing Arts
Filipino Traditions, Creativity, and Grace
Desiree Quintero, Ph.D. and Wayland Quintero, Ph.D., MFA
Performing Artists, Educators, Scholars
BIOGRAPHY
ILI refers to town, homeland, motherland. Within the context of ILI Dances-ILI Performing Arts, ILI connotes traditions and innovations within tradition in a repertory of dances and music of the Philippine archipelago. Desiree Quintero and Wayland Quintero are Americans of Filipino ancestry and the co-founders of ILI Dances-ILI Performing Arts.
Desiree Quintero is trained in Philippine, Western, and Balinese dances and is a lifelong dancer. She has performed at venues such as Symphony Space, La Mama Theatre, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Indonesian Consulate in New York City, the Manilatown Heritage Center in San Francisco, and local venues such as Kennedy Theatre and the Barbara Smith Amphitheatre at UH-Manoa. Desiree earned her doctoral degree from the University of Malaya Faculty of Creative Arts in Kuala Lumpur. She was a recipient of an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship for research conducted in 2019 in the Philippines and Malaysia.
Wayland Quintero was born in the Philippines, raised in Hawai‘i, and holds a Theatre, Philippine Folkdance, contemporary dance, and children’s creative movement background. He brings over two decades of performance and teaching experience touring the continental US and overseas and was a longtime resident artist at La Mama Theatre in New York City with his ensemble, the Slant Performance Group. He earned his Masters in Fine Arts from New York University- Tisch School of the Arts and his doctoral degree from the University of Malaya Faculty of Creative Arts in Kuala Lumpur. He is a past recipient of: a New York Foundation for the Arts Multidisciplinary Artist award, support from the Jerome Foundation via Mulberry Street Theatre (Chinatown, NY), and a Joseph Papp Theatre/The Public Theatre commission for new work. Wayland has also served on panels for Dance USA, the Lower Manhattan Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Together, Desiree and Wayland perform locally at events such as Filipino Fiesta and the Honolulu Festival, and have taught workshops in San Francisco and New York. They have given virtual workshops on Filipino culture, history, identity, and the arts, and are lifetime members of the Philippine Folkdance Society based in Manila. They teach the history, culture, identity, and the arts courses in the Filipino Studies program at Leeward Community College, a program for which Wayland is the Discipline Coordinator.
Sample pieces from the repertoire
Bannatiran (a dance based on a poem describing a bird as a metaphor for one’s beloved), Pangalay (a dance performed with extended fingernails), Igal (a festive dance), Ballangbang (a celebratory communal dance with handheld flat gongs), Bailes De Antanio (Dances of Yesteryear), kulintang gong music and dances of the Southern Philippines.
PERFORMANCE NEEDS
PA system that can play musical tracks from a thumb drive or via bluetooth
One vocal microphone, preferably handheld wireless. Or, a vocal mic cabled into PA system. Microphone stand.
Two to three microphones with height-adjustable mic stands to amplify gong instruments would be ideal
Two armless, folding chairs
A dressing room
Iron and ironing board or clothes steamer (if possible)
OTHER
Bottled water/Clean drinking water
