By Therese Padua HoweFor My Jungle Rules

San Diego’s Guma’ Imåhen Taotao Tåno, led by fafa’någue Rosemary Mantanona, will be captivating audiences in France starting Friday as one of the headlining dance troupes at this year’s Festival des Cultures du Monde. The annual celebration brings together performers from across the globe, offering Guma’ Imåhen an international stage to showcase CHamoru culture.

Established in 1983 by Nicolas Charléty as the Festival of World Cultures of Voiron, this year’s event features a gala show, a giant barbecue, street entertainment, shows for schools in the French Alps region, and more.

After resting on Thursday, Guma’ Imåhen will have a full schedule of performances at the festival, which takes place in different venues June 27 to July 5. Besides Guma’ Imåhen, other headline groups are coming from the Solomon Islands, Spain, Poland, Turkey and Argentina, according to the festival website.

Rosemary, who established the nonprofit dance group in San Diego in 1999, will be performing with a dozen members: her mother, Tam Huynh; her son, Fua Matantaotao Mantanona Duquet; Jorell Tuncap and her daughter Jaeanaca Villagomez; Michelle Arellano and her daughter Alexza; Tasiana Castro; Marie Umayam; Trent and Hannah Gallagher; Joanna Fontanilla; and Rochelle San Nicolas.

“We have a team of 13 individuals who have the multiple skills of singing, chanting, dancing, guitarist, kulu, flag bearer, drummer and photographer and videographer,” said Rosemary, who was interviewed Wednesday during the flight to Paris. “We don’t have extra family members traveling with us. We will juggle and execute all these responsibilities by ourselves.” 

Rosemary’s vision for their performances is a throwback to Guahan before the island was colonized by Spain. “I’m focusing on pre-contact in all our shows. I want to bring a raw, vintage, dated appeal — not commercialized and contemporary,” she said, adding that the performances are meant to “give honor to our ancestors.”

Their costumes will reflect the connection between the people and the land, with coconut hats, flowers and fans woven by her cousin, Tony Mantanona, an esteemed cultural practitioner at Sagan Kotturan CHamoru and Valley of the Latte on Guam. Artificial puti tai nobio from Diane Duenas will add a colorful representation of Guam’s official flower to their costumes as well.   

In between their performances, the group will be participating in several cultural exchanges where they will be giving gifts including mini Guam flags from Melissa Salas Ramirez, and lanyards and pins from the Guam Visitors Bureau. 

Other donors included fafa’någue Dana Q. Cruz Kim of Guma’ Taotao Lågu, Manny Crisostomo, Mario Borja, Fresku clothing brand, and other dance guma’ and organizations in California, Texas, Washington and Las Vegas.

Indeed, it took a village to get Guma’ Imåhen Taotao Tåno to France. Rosemary had rejected the festival director’s invitation three times before finally agreeing this year to participate. 

“We accepted the offer from the Director Nicolas Charlèty in February and started our fundraising campaign. … For the first time, I had to seek help for guidance and financial support in order to make this dream a reality,” she said. 

“Chamorro Hands in Education Links Unity (CHE’LU), whose chair is Danny Baza Blas, is our Title sponsor. The funding they afforded us gave the giant push to meeting our budget goal for this cultural journey. Another organization we work intimately with in San Diego is House of Chamorros (and) President Jeff Macareg. They are our Heritage Partner sponsor.”

The festival itself has covered their lodging and meals, as well as donated funds toward their airfare. 

“It is a huge honor and responsibility to be the representation for our indigenous Chamorro people and beautiful island of Guam especially when we are a guma’ in the mainland diaspora,” Rosemary said.

Aside from representing the island on the international stage, Rosemary is participating in the festival to pay tribute to Frank Rabon, her mentor and Guam’s Master of CHamoru Dance who founded Taotao Tano’ Cultural Dancers in 1983.  “I wish to give honor to the man who sacrificed his life over four decades to gift us a vision of what our way of life might have been like before our colonizers,” she said.

Rosemary was one of the first dancers to perform with Taotao Tano’, back when she was a teen on Guam studying under Saina Frank. “He came to Inarajan High School to teach electives, and so I didn’t want to do PE — I’d rather dance. It might sound like an easy A but nope! He made you work to earn it. And he made us go down to Gef På’go (Cultural Village in Inalåhan) to dance for the tourists during lunch hour.”

Having completed a cultural arts apprenticeship under Saina Frank and certification as a cultural arts teacher, Rosemary has continued to share his teachings through her guma’, which he named. “So Imåhen Taotao Tåno is the living legacy of Frank Rabon’s Taotao Tano’,” she said.

Numbering about 30 members currently, the troupe regularly practices the dances, chants and drumming at her home, or a nearby police station when they need a larger space. She said membership consists entirely of families: “Dads drumming, children and wives dancing.”

She teaches them the same dances she learned as a high schooler — nothing fancy, just “simple, beautiful, meaningful.” 

Despite performing around the country and receiving international with her guma’ over the years, she said she continues to encounter the same rejection she faced when she first started.  

“Today, just like back then, I experience the feeling of rejection and opposition of my work. Because this is the vision of revitalizing what is dead in our culture, there is still resistance. However, there is love from those who truly believe in what we do and why we do it.

“For what we do lays the foundation for generations to come. Three hundred years from now, those children and individuals will be even prouder and more confident knowing who they are as Chamorros.”

So as Rosemary and Guma’ Imåhen Taotao Tåno’ take the stage at the Festival des Cultures du Monde on Friday in France, they will be performing more than just powerful dances and chants. They will be sharing the spirit of Guam, a deep respect for our ancestors, and the enduring legacy of Saina Frank Rabon.