Lemlunay

Kinding Sindaw’s Lemlunay, a dance and musical drama meaning “Land of Light,” is based on an epic of the T’boli people of Mindanao in the southern Philippines. Comparable to Greek myths and legends, it tells the story of Prince Tudbulol and his seven sisters, each possessing distinct supernatural powers. They battle an evil king who is desperate to abduct them, steal their lands and destroy their existence. Kinding Sindaw stages the epic with the T’boli people’s sacred, ritual and secular dances that imitate and honor nature, and with the T’bolis’ lively and rhythmic percussive music, using pitched hanging gongs, handheld gongs, the kubing (jaw harp), the saluray (a polychordal, bamboo tube zither) and the hegelong (two-stringed lute).