Sinulog Sa Carmen

The Municipality of Carmen celebrated its 39th Sinulog festivity last Sunday.

Categories like Upper and Lower Barangay and Open category were contested.

In the Open category, Siloy sa Alcoy won first place, with second place to the contingent from Don Sergio Osmeña Memorial National High School and Mantawi Integrated Dance Company in third place. Other groups who joined this category were Tayud National High School and Consolacion Central School, Tribu Cabancalan and Guinsay National High School.

Siloy sa Alcoy was also adjudged Best in Streetdancing.

Siloy, fourth placer in the recent Sinulog grand parade (Sinulog-based category) of Cebu city, performed a powerful number that overshadowed the defending second placer of the city’s festival Don Sergio Osmeña Memorial National High School.

The Upper Barangay contingents who joined last Sunday were Liboron, Lower Natimao-an, Caurasan, Corte, Catumog, Cantucong, Cantipay, Hagnaya, Ipil, Sac-on, Lanipga, Upper Natimao-an and Triumfo; the latter three won first, second and third, respectively.

Dawis Norte, Cogon West and Cogon East won first, second and third place against Poblacion, Luyang, Puente, Dawis Sur and Baring.

The thing about the generic performance of the Upper and Lower barangays is that most of them (except for the three lower barangay winners) lacked the grandeur of a very good production, leading to very poor impact and often boring presentations. There were occasional brow-raising numbers that were clueless enough to prompt organizers to call for a Sinulog dance workshop. Imagine a Sinulog dance canned with Fergie’s “Clumsy” hip hop beat and Pussycat Dolls’ “Push the Button”? And the “indak-indak” steps which have become obsolete in Sinulog (Cebu City) presentations have become a denominator in almost, if not all, performances of these barangays.

We cannot consider these as performance flaws as these stemed from the nature and characteristic of the rural denizens, but surely ignorance is not bliss. This, therefore, pose as a challenge to the organizers who would want to improve their festival.

Gracing this event were judges Ricky Ballesteros and Dolores Suzara from the Sinulog Foundation, Inc., Francita Pacana and Miguel Cabasagan of the University of San Carlos PE Department and Jesus Longinos and this writer for Cebu State College of Science and Technology Main Campus CAS Department.