dance

The Day The Dancers Came Benvenido N. Santos Benvenido N. Santos 'classic 1955 short story The Day the Dancers Came depicts the life of two Filipino immigrants in the Chicago. The plot centers on the short story’s two main protagonists, Filemon Acayan, a fifty year-old, naturalized Filipino citizen and Antonio Bataller, a former Pullman porter who is suffering from a rare skin disease.
It was early November, yet the streets of West Sheridan Road were covered with snow. For Fil, the snow fell perhaps in anticipation of the young and elegant dancers from the Philippines. For Tony, it was perhaps a sign of the dreaded cancer.
Fil was so excited with the coming of the dancers. He planned to invite them to the apartment he and Tony had been occupying for the last ten years. He imagined that despite the of the apartment’s small size, the delicious chicken adobo, the well-stuffed relleno and his warm hospitality will make up for it and the dancers will enjoy their stay at their apartment.
Unfortunately, Fil’s imagination was far from reality. The dancers came, but they were perhaps too young and too elegant to accept an invitation from an old, stalker-like man. The day the dancers came, Fil felt inferior and poorer than ever.
He felt as if he was directly detached from his roots in the Philippines and alienated by the young Filipinos and Filipinas who have arrived in his new found land in Chicago. Nevertheless, Fil still pursued his love and admiration for the young dancers.
He recorded the dance troupe’s performance on his old portable tape recorder in hopes of inspiring Tony, who was not as excited as he was the day the dancers came.
The Day the Dancers Came ended with Fil in despair. He lost his memories of the dancers as he mistakenly erased the recordings.
Bienvenido Santos’ The Day the Dancers Came was a tale of nostalgia and homesickness usually experienced by Filipino expatriates and immigrants.
Santos illustrated not just how Filipino expatriates and immigrants long for their fair share of the Philippines, only to settle for a meaningless homecoming, but also for how America is perceived as a land where dreams are made only to turn gray and irrelevant.
Similarly, The Day the Dancers Came presented a liberal and a more advanced picture of the Filipino youth and how far they are from the Filipino old-timers in America – good or bad, nobody can really say.
It’s either the old folks are just too entrenched with their nationalistic ideals or the young guns are just too fastened with their globalized concepts.