
Still One
Updated: Nov 26, 2020

'Still One' is a screendance about touching base with the subtle inner landscapes of the self, and how it constellates to corporeal memory, culture and history.
It is part of my doctoral research on meditative movement through a creative process called 'galaw-nilay,' an iteration of meditative movement through Philippine language. In my native language, Filipino/Tagalog, galaw means 'movement' and nilay is the root of 'pagninilay' which means 'to meditate or contemplate.' I created a somatic practice around this which forms part of my dissertation.
Shot in a beach in Matuod, Batangas, Philippines, and a few parts in Yarra river, Melbourne, the creative process allowed me to conjure images that were a result of an ongoing reflection of what meditative movement could mean, imaginatively, bodily, spatially and culturally, taking inspiration from Philippine baybayin writing, sacred sculptures, the imagery of water, and personal story. It was also a dialogue with the dance language that I personally learned from Filipina-American choreographer Kristin Jackson’s works, and how I responded with my own body memory and story.

The work was partly inspired by a poem I wrote, similarly titled, which was about my experience of meditating in the early hours of morning. Interestingly, the Matuod beach house itself where we mainly filmed this, has been frequented by raja yogis for silent and meditation retreats. While there, I tuned into those energies of calm and inner quiet planted by those yogis whom I have known and have been part of my own spiritual path. But I also tuned in to the silence of my own self, of the divine, of nature, and of the dance which was both choreographed and improvised in the course of my research.
Direction: Rina Angela Corpus, Antonne Santiago
Performance: Rina Angela Corpus, Tina Diaz
Original Score: Isha Abubakar
Cinematography: Ron Mosot
Production Design: Zara Loayon
Editing: Glenn Barrit, Antonne Santiago
Additional Footage: Takeshi Kondo
Producer: Abby Madriaga
Part of my creative portfolio for her Phd in Dance at Victoria College of Arts, University of Melbourne, 2020.