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Born : July 24, 1917, Jolo, Sulu

She is the second child of pioneer


physicians Sixto Orosa and
Sevedna Luna, and the elder sister
of critic Rosalinda Orosa.
She is married to Benjamin
Goquingco. They have three
children, two of whom-Rachelle
and Regina-are both dancers.
Orosa-Goquingco graduated
valedictorian of her high school
class, and finished bachelor of
science in education, summa cum
laude, at St. Scholastica's College.
She took graduate courses in
theater craft, drama, and music at
Columbia University and Teachers
College in New York City, USA.
Her early ballet training was
under Lilia Lopez, Epifania
Rodriguez, and Luva Adameit. She
took professional and teacher's
courses at the Ballet Russe de
Monte Carlo
Coming under the tutelage of
Ifilda Butsova, Thalia Mara,
Anatole Vilzak, and Madame
Ludmilla. National Artist in Dance
Francisca Reyes-Aquino was also
once her mentor.
In 1934, at the age of 17, she
started her major dance
experiments and, in 1939, was
the only dancer on the First
Cultural Mission to Japan.
That same year, she
produced Circling the Globe, and a
year later, Dance Panorama. In
1940 she created The Elements, the
first ballet choreographed by a
Filipino to commissioned music
And Sports, featuring
cheerleaders, a tennis match, and
a basketball game. A year later,
she choreographed the first
Philippine folkloric ballet, Trend:
Return to the Native
After World War II, she organized the
Philippine Ballet where she brought
to life Maria Clara, the leper, Sisa,
Elias, and Salome-all characters in
Rizal 's novel Noli Me Tangere (Touch
Me Not)
In 1958 she founded the
Filipinesca Dance Company.
Orosa-Goquingco was inclined not
only to classical ballet but also to
Indian and Spanish
As well as modern, dance. She is
noted for her courage in breaking
traditions in dance despite public
indifference. Her other important
works include Vinta!
Morolandia
Festival in
Maguindanao (depicting a Muslim
royal wedding), Eons Ago: The
Creation (depicting Philippine
legends of the creation of the
world
And of the first man and
woman), Filipinescas: Philippine.
Life, Legend, and Lore in
Dance, and Miner's Song.
Inevitably her innovations
revolutionized the folk dances
The Bird and the Planters is the
first weaving together of the
various rice-planting
sequences,climaxed by a new
version of the tinikling where the
dancer personifies the tikling bird
It was the first to utilize bamboo
poles to catch the bird, the first to
use a double-time finale and
breathtakingly rapid turns while
the dancer hops in and out of the
bamboo poles.
Orosa-Goquingco's Tribal, about
the death of a warrior, is the first
dance composition in the
Mountain Province-dance style.
Other works along the same line
are "Ang Antipos" (The
Flagellant), " Salubong ",
(Meeting), "Pabasa" (Reading of
the Pasyon)--all dance sequences
celebrating Philippine lenten
practices.
Philippine games such as palo
sebo, sipa, and juego de
anillo were depicted in Easter
Sunday Fiesta. Orosa-Goquingco is
also remembered for her
transmutation into dance theater
of the cockfight, the asalto, and
the fiestas.
Additionally, under her
own name and pen
name (Cristina Luna),
she has been published
by the Philippine
Cultural Foundation and
Philippine periodicals,
by Arts of Asia (Hong
Kong), Enciclopedia dello
Spettacolo (Rome, Italy),
and Grove's Dictionary
of Music and Musicians.
She is the author of a history of
Philippine dance, Dances of the
Emerald Isles 1980, and of the
popular one-act play, Her
Son, Jose Rizal.
Orosa-Goquingco has received
numerous awards, among them
the Patnubay ng Sining at
Kalinangan Award, 1961; the
Rizal Centennial Award, 1962;
Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan
award
And Republic Cultural Heritage
Award, 1964; Presidential Award
of Merit, 1970; Tandang Sora
Award, 1975; and the Columbia
University Alumni Association
Award, 1975.

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