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This "Love of Taroko" Dance May Be Similar to a Dance from the Banaue Rice Terraces



In the quest to study Filipino culture, it's important to know what culture was brought by the settlers. Most Filipinos are of Malay and I think also of Indonesian descent. The aboriginal dances of Taiwan are similar to the Philippines due to common ancestry. I did some writing about how most of Southeast Asia may be of Malaysian descent. I'm not surprised to see that Taiwanese natives have dances similar to the Filipino tinikling, and use certain words similar to the Filipino native language. I did also write about the similarities between Filipino aborigine songs and Taiwanese songs.

This performance of 太魯閣之戀 (Tài lǔ gé zhī liàn) or "Love of Taroko" feels like something from a Buwan Ng Wika (Month of the Language) presentation. There were some Ifugao and Igorot dances. The dance steps here resemble some Ifugao dance I witnessed during my high school days. What disappoints me (now) is realizing that there are some cool-sounding Ifugao songs! If Taiwanese tribal dances can be performed with lyrics then why not Filipino tribal dances?


Ifugao dances are usually presented with drum beats. I guess it was that hard, back then, to secure Ifugao dance music. I still think if the song "Love of Taroko" were purely written in the Taroko dialect--it could easily be mistaken to be an Ifugao or Igorot song. 


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