Fri, October 9, 2026, 8:00 PM
Sat, October 10, 2026, 8:00 PM
Sun, October 11, 2026, 5:00 PM
Dance Mission Theater
3316 24th St, San Francisco, CA 94110
KULARTS, the nation’s premier presenter of contemporary and tribal Pilipino arts, will present Tubong* to Living Ancestors, a new production by Executive Artistic Director Alleluia “Manai” Panis honoring seventeen diasporic Pan Asian American legacy artists and cultural leaders, October 9 through 11, 2026, at Dance Mission Theatre, 3316 24th Street, San Francisco.
Arriving as Filipino American History Month and Indigenous Peoples’ Day converge, the timing is no accident: over three nights on Indigenous Peoples’ Day weekend, the production transforms the stage into an immersive sacred space where Alleluia Panis Dance Theatre, John Calloway and the Kulintang Jazz Art Ensemble, and select legacy artists perform new works alongside restaged excerpts from the 1990s productions “Cycles: Timeless Rituals to Ancient Icons” and “Diwata,” exploring the intersection of indigenous ritual and contemporary performance to pay homage to our legacy artists.
The project is rooted in a single idea: these artists and curators are honored while they are here to receive it. Rather than a retrospective or a memorial, the evening offers music, movement, poetry, and flowers in place of formal portraiture, inviting audiences to experience a distinctly diasporic practice of honoring sources of wisdom and blessing. A ritual procession travels from 24th Street into the theater, and each night closes the distance between the artists whose contributions shaped the Bay Area’s Pilipino American arts community and the younger generation now building on that foundation.
We’re honoring our legacy artists and curators while they are living. We’re proactively, intentionally giving live homage for them now, while they can participate in it.”
“Manai” Alleluia Panis, Director and Choreographer
*Tubong [too-bung], also known as “Putong” means ‘to crown’ is a communal ritual performed to honor the village elders.
Where the tubong ritual once crowned the elders of a village, this production crowns the artists and cultural leaders who helped build the Asian American cultural movement. The honorees span dance, music, literature, theater, comedy, and cultural production. Among them are founding members of Kulintang Arts, Inc., and original members of the Kulintang Arts Ensemble (KAE), KULARTS’ founding ten-member music and dance company. KAE’s landmark
works “Cycles: Timeless Rituals to Ancient Icons” and “Diwata” return to the stage in restaged excerpts, performed by a new generation of artists in the presence of the legacy artists who originated them.
Allan Samson Manalo Theater / Stand-Up Comedy
Anna Sun Foo Dance
Anne Huang Producer
Frances Cachapero Dance
Francis Wong Music
Frank Holder Music
Genny Lim Literary / Theater · Poetry Reading Friday, Oct 9
Gregory de Silva Dance
Indra Mungal Producer
Jesselito Bie Dance
John Calloway Music · Music Director
Jon Jang Music
Joshua Francisco Dance
Marcella Pabros-Clark Dance
Oscar Peñaranda Literary · Reading Saturday, Oct 10
Ric Serrano Dance
Sharon Sato Dance
The evening begins before the audience ever takes a seat: a participatory movement meditation procession carries performers and public together from 24th Street into the theater, where the night unfolds through live music from John Calloway and the Kulintang Jazz Art Ensemble and dance performances by Alleluia Panis Dance Theatre. Music Director John Calloway performs “Crisis of Consciousness,” a work inspired by the experiences of his grandfather, who was a Buffalo Soldier during the Philippine American War. Composer Conrad Benedicto contributes a new kulintang composition in honor of his late master teacher, Danongan Kalanduyan. The program debuts six docu-memoir short films of the legacy artists by Bay Area filmmaker Johan Casal, presented alongside media projections of each honoree. Readings come from two of San Francisco’s most celebrated writers: Genny Lim, San Francisco’s ninth Poet Laureate, on opening night, Friday, October 9, and award-winning writer Oscar Peñaranda on Saturday, October 10, while Allan Samson Manalo performs a short stand-up set on Sunday, October 11.