Less dance, more prayer

CEBU, Philippines - Differing styles of the sinulog dance have slowly been accepted because some audiences will want something more interesting every time.

Dr. Erlinda K. Alburo, cultural worker and former director of the Cebuano Studies Center, pointed this out in her paper “Sinulog: Cebuano Current of Faith.”

In 2003, she learned of a judge in the Sinulog Grand Parade reacting to an accident during a performance where a dancer fell from the bamboo poles raised on the stage. The judge said that to avoid a similar happening in the future, such hazardous numbers should be “controlled or tempered.”

Anyway, the judge said, the bamboo props with dancers on top was an “overused style” and that newer styles should be discovered; that innovations may themselves be modified further or even “returned to the original form” depending on whether they serve contemporary goals and functions which are themselves subject to review.

The Original Form

There are contrasting elements in the sinulog dance – the feminine and the masculine. Estelita “Nang Titang” Diola of Mabolo, Cebu City, referred to as “keeper of the original Sinug (take note of the shortened spelling which Nang Titang prefers) beat,” herself distinguishes between the natural and the kinampilan steps. Nang Titang also serves as keeper of the original Sinug steps. So if we are to return to an original – old, that is – form, her troupe’s moves should be studied by more choreographers to educate today’s crop of dancers on how to “move with the current.”

Another point to be restudied: The sinulog dance is a war dance. According to Dr. Alburo, a Hiligaynon dictionary by John Kauffman, published in 1935, referred to sinulog as a “war dance with very swift movements.”

One book on music and dance by Francisca Aquino, published in 1948, notes the sinulog movement as a “forward leaping movement of either the left or right foot, while the hind or rear foot slightly flexed as the front foot lands on the floor simultaneously and with slight forward bending of the body.” Dr. Alburo noted that this leaping is also how Nang Titang describes the kinampilan dance steps of Sinug in contrast with the more simplified two-steps backward and one-step forward that are now followed in the grand parade.

“The performance of the Diola troupe, if you have seen it at Casa Gorordo or on YouTube, is more a mime of war between Christians and the Muslims rather than the gentle feminine swaying of the tinderas (vendors) at the Basilica or Cathedral, which is the natural style,” Alburo underlined.

Further, the association of Sinug with the Moro war dance is also pointed out by the Tausugs of Sulu who assert that Sinulog comes from the name Sulu. In their language, sulog also refers to current. “It seems that the Tausug, like the Cebuano folk, also shorten a word by omitting the sound ‘L’,” Alburo noted.

“Such article suggests that while the sinulog dance was labeled as; ‘Moro-Moro’ by the Spanish, the name sinulog itself was taken from the name Sulu. However, the same article says that the sinulog or sinug dance was performed by the Sugbuanon even during pre-Spanish times when the Sulu diplomats used to come to Sugbu, so the term couldn’t have been used first by the Spanish. It was probably the tribal wars then that were mimicked by the sinulog dance. The Spanish simply substituted themselves for one side of the war and introduced the Sto. Niño to reconcile the warring groups,” she added.

Further, the Sto. Niño image or icon is an object of reverence, of veneration, therefore, must be placed on the altar before which the dancers pray. Both Dr. Jose R. Gullas (chairman of The FREEMAN) and Nang Titang criticize the parade practice of holding up the image of the Sto. Niño during the whole dance.

In Alburo’s paper, she quoted choreographer Mike Gonzales to have quipped: “Kay malipong sad intawon ang bata nga sigeg uyog-uyog.”

“With regard to the Sinulog festivity, we have now come to expect what may be inauthentic in the Sinulog parade, but these seem to work in attracting a bigger crowd,” Alburo stressed, “so that every year the costumes and props become more colorful, the movements faster and more interesting, and the troupes generally perform more in harmony.”

However, no matter how pompous and colorful the festivity is, we devotees of the Child Jesus are constantly reminded by the Church that the sinug/sinulog dance is actually less of a dance and more of a prayer. (FREEMAN)