YOUTH PROGRAM
SPRING 2024 DATES ANNOUNCED!
A family environment where youth can take pride in the rich cultures and heritage of the Philippines.
RONDALLA WORKSHOPS
Intergenerational rondalla music workshop, jam sessions and performance at community gatherings.
HERITAGE • HXSTORY • SOCIAL JUSTICE
About Agos
Agos (“currents or flow”) began in Oakland in 2009 as American Center of Philippine Arts, an Oakland-based community arts program, serving over 15 Bay Area families (approximately 25 youth, 5-17 yrs old).
We teach folkloric dance, its musical accompaniment and its origins. The curriculum is contextualized with indigenous belief systems and related cultural practices such as weaving, farming, fishing. Through this approach, teaching artists and their students address the history of colonization, immigration, cultural and racial equity issues impacting the Pilipino youth and their families. By intertwining art and political education, youth look holistically at ideas around healing and belonging, informed by traditional practice, but within the context of the Bay Area’s diasporic Pilipino community.
Our core programs include:
Agos Youth Programs – Instructing youth ages 5-17 in Philippine folk dance
Rondalla Music Classes and Workshops – Rondalla intensives for Pilipinx community and organizations across NorCal
AGOS PROGRAM TEAM
Meet the Team
HERNA CRUZ-LOUIE
Program Director & Founder
Herna has over 15 years of experience working as a nonprofit administrator, community organizer, and youth development practitioner. She earned her B.A. in Asian American Studies at SFSU, and completed her M.S. in HR Management from Golden Gate University. She is a certified community mediator through Community Boards of SF and holds a certificate in Diversity & Inclusion from Cornell University. She was the Chief Organization and People Officer at Girl Scouts of NorCal, KULARTS teaching artist (2004-2006) and Board Secretary (2020-2022). She currently serves as VP of Operations at Equity in the Center, Board Chair at World Arts West, a musician and Folk Arts Consultant for Larry the Musical.
SYDNEY RAE LEONG
Youth Dance Teaching Artist
Sydney is a performing/teaching artist and Pilates instructor based on Ramatush/Ohlone land in San Francisco. She received her training through CA State Summer School for the Arts, Ailey School Summer Intensive, LINES Ballet Winter Intensive, and State Street Ballet. She earned her BFA in Dance Performing Arts from UC Irvine (2020). She has performed Xochipili Dance Company. She currently performs with KULARTS under director Alleluia Panis and Parangal Dance Company.
ERIC DONG
Youth/PCN Dance and Music Teaching Artist
Eric began his interest in Philippine Folk Dance and Music while he was a student at the University of San Francisco (USF) and was an active member of the Kasamahan Filipino student organization on campus. Eric began taking Rondalla classes with Herna Cruz-Louie in 2014, and took on the leadership role as Cultural Coordinator for the USF Kasamahan Barrio Fiesta (Pilipino Cultural Night) Production in 2016. Eric is an active member of Agos’ Music Ensemble and is a performing artist for the Parangal Dance Company of San Francisco, he became Agos Teaching Artist in 2016.
JONATHAN M. MERCADO
Youth Dance Teaching Artist
Jonathan is an interdisciplinary artist based in Bay Area. His movement is inspired through his experiences of hip-hop/urban choreography and Filipino folk dancing. He currently dances with KULARTS under Alleluia Panis and Parangal Dance Company under Eric Solano. He performed with BarangaySF, Philippine dance master Sydney Loyola, and Project M, hip-hop group led by Emerson Aquino. He travels to Mindanao, Philippines to learn from Maguindanaon Sagayan dance masters including culture bearer Faisal Monal.
MATTHEW ESPINA HARRIS
PCN Music Teaching Artist
Matt joined Agos as a musician in 2018 and now serves as an advisor to numerous collegiate Fil-Am organizations in NorCal. He is a student of traditional Kulintang music under House of Gongs, and went on to establish one of the only student-run, traditionally based Kulintang ensembles in the US through Mga Kapatid at UC Davis. He is an active cultural researcher with Parangal Dance Company and Music Coordinator for Little Manila Kulintang Academy in Stockton, and member of Kulintang Dialect led by Conrad Benedicto.
CYRIL MILLENDEZ
PCN Music Teaching Artist
Cyril joined Agos in 2014 as a student musician in the Pilipinx Cultural Night (PCN) ensembles at UC Davis under the direction of Herna Cruz-Louie. In addition to serving as a rondalla and vocal ensemble leader for the Fil-Am student organizations, Filipinx in Liberal Arts and Humanities (FILAH) and Mga Kapatid, he also studied and composed in the style of Philippine music while pursuing a B.A. in music history, theory, and ethnomusicology. Cyril continues to instruct, arrange, and perform rondalla through Agos’ cultural art programs.