Pay Salutation
2022
Performance by the Chrysalis Kali Collective: Katrina Cabanban, Kristen Cabildo, Caroline Garcia, and Princess Manuel
13:18 mins
Choreographed by Caroline Garcia; with support from the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts.
Audio: Ana Roxanne Recto (from ~~~: Slowness; Immortality; It’s a Rainy Day on the Cosmic Shore)
Pay Salutation is a somatic exploration of Kali - the national martial art of the Philippines, also known as Arnis/Escrima/Eskrima. It is a system that emphasizes weapon-based fighting with sticks, knives, bladed weapons, and various improvised weapons, as well as "open hand" techniques.
The choreography is performed by members of the Chrysalis Kali Collective, “a group of Filipina/x women redefining power, reclaiming ancestral wisdom, and restoring resilience through the practice of Kali, Filipino Martial Arts” with whom Garcia trains. This performance addresses bio-behavioural stress responses, focusing on when one is not operating in the reactive modes of fight, flight, or freeze. It offers slowness as an aesthetic platform for somatic curiosity and assessment as a way to “tend-and-befriend,” which is synonymous with oxytocin, correlating with female reproductive hormones.
Pay Salutation includes offensive drills and combinations to demonstrate the importance of repetition and practice, all useful techniques in the spectrum of healing collective trauma - as a way to honor our union and friendship forged as students of Filipino Martial Arts.
To view a recording of the performance in full, please contact me
Pay Salutation was presented in tandem with the following artwork:
Flow Continuum
2022
Three rattan Kali sticks with custom burned personalized pattern design and “Chrysalis Kali” logo
28 x 28 x 1”
This work references the one of the strongest geometrical structures: the triangle - an important symbol in Filipino Martial Arts that represents underlying philosophical, theoretical and metaphysical principles. Here, it is appropriated to represent the ethos and spirit of the Chrysalis Kali Collective and prioritizes the concept of feminine flow over force. The triangle also represents three components: defense, offense, and bystander, which are a continuum when one participates in this artform (and in life).
Exhibition History: The Clemente, Montclair State University Galleries (all 2023); Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Recess (all 2022)