R. Patrick Alcedo (Dance) is the author of the chapter, “How Black Is Black?: The Indigenous Atis Compete at the Ati-atihan Festival”, which was recently published as a part of Dance Ethnography and Global Perspectives: Identity, Embodiment, and Culture, edited by Linda E. Dankworth and Ann R. David (Palgrave Macmillan, February 2014).
The edited book presenters the work of dance scholars whose professional fieldwork spans several continents and includes studies of the dance and movement systems of varied global communities.
Alcedo’s article examines the Ati-atihan Festival, which is popularly considered as the Philippines’ equivalent to the famed Mardi Gras of New Orleans and the Carnival of Rio de Janeiro. For some of the Festival participants, their dance is not simply for fun, but is an offering to Santo Niño, the Holy Child Jesus, whose image was first brought by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. For others, their dance is also in remembrance of the indigenous Negritos, who are called Atis in the Aklanon language, the vernacular in this central region of the country.
Information about the publication can be found here: http://us.macmillan.com/danceethnographyandglobalperspectives/LindaEDankworth.