Pilipino Cultural Nights

On U.S. college campuses since at least the 1970s, especially on the Pacific Coast and usually at institutions with an organized group of Filipino American students, Filipino/Pilipino Cultural Nights (PCNs) are performance programs featuring a sampling of traditional dance styles associated with the Philippines. The dance styles are usually taken from a range of regions in the archipelago. Often referred to as PCNs for short, these productions have involved fairly large casts of students and have been organized and produced [Page 1663]almost entirely by the students themselves. It can take almost an entire school year of preparation to mount such a production, from fund-raising and publicity to costuming and choreography to post-production self-evaluation. These elaborate productions have generally been presented free of charge to the ...