Hellohello from Iloilo

I am in Iloilo as part of the Balik Scientist Program “give as many talks as possible while we are funding you till May 2026” task.

Iloilo positions itself as a cultural, heritage and culinary destination in the Visayas. The Iloilo trip organizers took my “I am a museum geek” statement to heart and ran away with it: they arranged for a talk at an actual museum. So here we are at Museo Iloilo on a Thursday afternoon with an activity highlighting the health of Filipino performing artists and a bonus of being able to view artifacts from the city’s history and paintings… including paintings from some of the city’s physicians (hooray, medical humanities!).

I’m still not sure how to describe this activity: a lay forum? A panel discussion? A masterclass? Whatever it was, we had a lovely afternoon watching dance performances, learning from each other, and forming new connections across medicine and the arts.

Damo guid nga salamat to Philippine Academy of Rehabilitation Medicine group in Panay, including and especially Drs. Kenneth Ng, Minda Cabrera and Mikay Almeida.

I think PAM Advocates National Association of the Philippines has to come back to Iloilo with a little more reinforcement for Dance Medicine because as a non-dancer I can only offer so much… we need the invaluable experience of our medical professionals who are lifelong dancers!

My Iloilo visit centered around this talk with the University of the Philippines – Philippine General Hospital Alumni Foundation at their general assembly. After this, we had some experiential learning with line dancing and bachata – a popular Latin dance genre originally from the Dominican Republic.

Damo guid nga salamat! So much art and culture here in Iloilo. Hoping to return with more of PAM Advocates National Association of the Philippines PAMANA PH.