Francisca Reyes Aquino, also known as “Mother of Philippine Dancing,” was an educator and nationalist.
Francisca Aquino was born on March 9, 1899 in Lolomboy, Bocaue, Bulacan to Filipe Reyes and Juliana Santos Reyes and the eldest among three children. She finished her Bachelor of Science in Education degree in 1924 from the University of the Philippines and obtained her High School Teacher's Certificate in 1923.
From 1921-1923, Francisca traveled to remote communities in Central and Northern Luzon in search for folk dances to use in her Physical Education class. She continued gathering folk dances, songs, and games for her master's thesis at the University of the Philippines in 1926. She revised her work in 1927, and published it as Philippine Folk Dances and Games. Then she was asked to chair a committee at the university that would go to the most remote areas of the Philippines to gather material directly from the old people who used to dance them in their younger days.
In 1934, Francisca married Professor Ramon P. Tolentino, Jr., then Assistant Director of the Department of Physical Education but after four and half years of a close personal and professional partnership,her husband died in 1939.
In 1947, she married Serafin Aquino, secretary-treasurer of the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation, an enthusiastic collaborator in presentation of his wife's work. That same year, Frances Reyes Aquino became the superintendent of Physical Education, Bureau of Public Schools. She was awarded a Doctor of Sciences degree in Physical Education, Honoris Causa, from Boston University and, in 1959, a Doctor of Humanities, Honoris Causa, from Far Eastern University.
http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Francisca_Reyes_...
|
: 
0 | 0% AC 
Categories
