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Ramon Obusan

Filipino artist (1938–2006)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ1996915 ↗
Source-derived summary

Ramon Arevalo Obusan (June 16, 1938 – December 21, 2006) was a Filipino dancer, choreographer, stage designer and artistic director. Obusan is credited for his work in promoting Philippine traditional dance and cultural work. He is also an acclaimed archivist, researcher and documentary filmmaker who focused on Philippine culture. He also founded Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group in 1972. Among the awards Obusan received was the Patnubay ng Kalinangan award by the City of Manila in 1992, the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining award in 1993 and the prestigious National Artist of the Philippines for dance in May 2006.

Works

Among Obusan's notable works are the following:

Vamos a Belen! Series (1998-2004) Philippine Dances Tradition

Noon Po sa Amin, tableaux of Philippine History in song, drama and dance

Obra Maestra, a collection of Ramon Obusan's dance masterpieces

Unpublished Dances of the Philippines, Series I-IV

Water, Fire and Life, Philippine Dances and Music--A Celebration of Life

Saludo sa Sentenyal

Glimpses of ASEAN, Dances and Music of the ASEAN-Member Countries

MJ (Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group): Philippines Costumes in Dance

Death

Obusan died on December 21, 2006, due to cardio-pulmonary arrest at the Makati Medical Center. Up to the time of his death, the annual Christmas program Vamos A Blen at the Cultural Center of the Philippines was at his oversight. Obusan was also preparing for the cultural presentation to be made during the state dinner for the 2007 ASEAN Summit to be hosted by then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ramon Obusan” is filipino artist (1938–2006). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ramon, Obusan and Filipino, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1938, 2006, 1972, 1992—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1938-06-16. For this dossier, Ramon, Obusan and Filipino is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “filipino artist (1938–2006)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1996915. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1938, 2006, 1972 and 1992.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ramon Obusan”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ramon Obusan primary sources, Ramon Obusan archive and Ramon research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ramon Obusan”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Ramon Obusan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.