Opening Celebration: Mountain Spirits

Celebrate the opening of . The evening will feature music and performance, highlighting cultural pride and global connections between the Philippines and Los Angeles.

The evening features “Echoes of the Cordillera Mountains,” a dynamic performance by Malaya Filipino American Dance Arts, based in Los Angeles, in collaboration with community artists. Curated by Artistic Director Peter de Guzman, the program offers an inspiring exploration of music and dance deeply rooted in the highland cultures of Luzon, Philippines. Drawing inspiration from everyday life, courtship rituals, and thanksgiving celebrations for a bountiful harvest, the program highlights expressive movement and musical forms shaped by generations of Indigenous knowledge. Audiences will encounter dances influenced by the traditions of the Ifugao and neighboring communities, alongside the resonant sounds of bamboo instruments and gongs central to Cordillera ceremonial and social life. By honoring these living artistic practices, the performance deepens appreciation for weaving traditions, rhythmic structures, and the layered symbolism embedded in gesture and sound. Echoes of the Cordillera Mountains brings the vibrant cultural heritage of the Cordillera to life, fostering understanding, connection, and cultural pride.

About the exhibition

For generations, the Ifugao of northern Luzon have transformed steep mountainsides into rice terraces—astonishing feats of engineering that are also sacred landscapes shaped by ritual, community, and a profound connection to land.

Mountain Spirits immerses visitors in this world through carved guardians, ritual bowls, woven blankets, farming tools, soundscapes, and video installations. Together, these works reveal how sustenance and spirituality are entwined, and how generosity, labor, and environmental care nurture Ifugao life.

Recognized by UNESCO for embodying ancestral knowledge and sustainable practices, the terraces remain enduring testaments to human ingenuity and ecological balance. They are not monuments to the past, but living sites where memory, work, and spirit continue to converge.

Co-sponsored by the Asian Pacific Alumni Association of UCLA, UCLA Division of Social Sciences, UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles, and the Office of Senator Loren Legarda (Senate of the Philippines)

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