The Integrated Performing Arts Guild (IPAG) has significantly contributed to a robust culture-and-arts environment. As catalyst that has enhanced a consciousness for Philippine Arts, IPAG has spread out its influences that cover creative production, education, craft enhancement, the management of creative resources, and social advocacy. In almost four decades, it has used the performing arts to li
nk our peoples. Its celebrated repertoire has performed in most parts of the Philippines and in over a hundred cities, among these in Hawaii, the U.S. Mainland, Europe, and Asia enthralling large audiences and building goodwill for the Philippines. IPAG has drawn acclamation for its innovative productions that integrate dance, music, literature, and the visual arts created from the Hispanic, Islamic, native and cosmopolitan artistic expressions of the southern Philippines where it is based. Its signature dance idiom is based on the pangalay, inspired from the dances of the Sulu Archipelago (introduced by its Founding Chairperson Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa) where the performer in motions of the hands and body like the sea seem to glide through space. The Guild was founded in 1978 by its Artistic Director Steven P.C. Fernandez and dance researcher Amilbangsa, its founding Chairperson. It is recipient of various awards and endowments from international and national bodies that have acknowledged IPAGโs contributions. Corollary to these are the awards that have recognized the works and artists associated with the IPAG including the Palanca, CCP Gantimpala, CCP Pilak, Fookien Times, U.P. Likhaan, Umpilโs Gawad Francisco Balagtas, and the Ramon Magsaysay Award to its Founder Amilbangsa. IPAG has been featured in international and national media, most notably the 2004 Philippine Yearbook of the Fookien Times, Living Asia-Isla documentary, LA18 TV, the Cultural Center of the Philippines Encyclopedia of Philippine Art, the Harvard Asia Quarterly, Xtreme Singapore syndicated TV, Knowledge Channel, in numerous anthologies, and in most national broadsheets, among many others. It has participated in major cultural events here and abroad among these the CCP National Theater Festivals, the many International Organization of Folk Art (IOV) and CIOFF festivals, the 2006 Hawaii-U.S. Centennial events, the Washington DC International Dance Festival, the CCP National Drama Competitions (where it won), and the UNESCO-ITI Asia Pacific Bureau of Theatre Schools in Taipei, Ho Chi Minh, Shanghai, and Singapore. In the Port-sur-Saone Festival in France, IPAG emerged as the winningest country among 12 other foreign representatives. IPAGโs prominence as one of the more dynamic performance companies in the Philippines today is well acknowledged. It presents a Theatre characterized by a distinguishable form, of movement, color, poetry, rhythm, and a presence that captivates. THEATRE PHILOSOPHY: Quest for ideal Orders towards a compassionate, empowered, and liberal society
