Shariena Angelyne A.

Grandea
9-Agapito Flores

Assess the performance according to the

following criteria:

Concept/Theme

Talking about the concept and theme, I would like to mention the costumes and props they used and the overall
effect with their movements. First, the fans’ that were held by the group ladies in front, I noticed that the texture is
feather-like, and when they were waved and turned, they resembled the wings of the angels. Next is the flowers in the
hands of the other group of ladies. Flowers have many meanings, in the bible, it means fleeting beauty and fragility.
While, it can also symbolize spirituality, the deep feelings and beliefs of a religious nature, and encourage someone's
spirit and inspiration about life. There’s a part when the ladies who are holding the bouquet flowers were making
movements of reverence toward the figure of Santo Nino carried by a woman in a big gown. Then there are the batons,
two batons per the men dancing. I don’t know what exactly the baton-shaped is, but there’s a phrase about a baton I
know and it says, “pass on the baton,”. We can interpret it as passing the knowledge, the culture, and the teachings to
the next generation. So, when the men are waving the batons, it is similar to saying ‘oh, this tradition is beautiful, see
our dancing, see this festival, see our faith and belief, and continue doing it, continue preserving it even after thousands
of years in the future’. These remind me of their costumes, the men are wearing red suits, women are wearing red
Filipiniana with a large volume, the man that was dressed as pastor and holding a figure of Santo Nino, and the woman
dressed in a large white ball gown with a puffed-up sleeve and wore long gloves. For me, it represents the influence of
the American colonization brought to us.

If we connect it with the purpose of the Sinulog festival, which is to honor Santo Nino (the Child of Jesus) and
celebrating it with a ritual dance in which it tells the story of Filipino people’s pagan and their acceptance of Christianity,
I can think that the theme of the performance of the Sinanduloy Cultural Troupe is about the conviction of the
Cebuano’s’ toward their faith and values. Their performance expressed that even though there are many changes
including the American influence that have happened and are happening, they will forever remain hand-in-hand in
continuing in preserving this tradition and culture as they walk towards greater prosperity.

Moreover, if we expound the color of their costumes and props, red symbolizes energy, action, confidence,
courage, and change. In the bible, it symbolizes blood. The golden color is associated with higher ideals, wisdom,
understanding, and enlightenment. The color white represents righteousness, purity, and the light of God. And the color
blue carries the meaning of open spaces, freedom, intuition, imagination, inspiration, and sensitivity. Blue also
represents heaven. Speaking of the color blue, I observed that the color blue is a very conspicuous color in the
performance. Together with the white in the fans and the gold color of their props, it looks like the tail of a peacock.
Coincidentally, a peacock was seen as a symbol of Christ's resurrection. In some of the other religions and cultures, a
peacock is also an emblem of immortality. They are also connected with prosperity and good health.
Variety of Movements

Here’s a trivia, the word “Sinulog” means “graceful dance”, wherein it all started in 1980 with a simple dance
that represents the “sulog” (or current) of a river in Cebu. And like what the word conveys, the movements of the
dancers are comparable to the flowing water of a river.

Throughout the performance, there’s a lot of up and down movements of the hands, as well forward and
backward motions. Swaying, turning, gestures, and lowering of the body is also involved. The formation changed a few
times.

Creativity (application of the elements of movements)

The performance of Sinanduloy Cultural Troupe is just flowing of creativity. There are many highlights and
features that made watching them pleasing to the eye.

Space - The dancers are aligned and have enough space for them to move. When they are almost
perfectly, the space between the dancers, their gowns, and props are almost the same, they look very
synchronized, and they make a symmetric pattern. They also changed formation, when they are close to each
other they stand out as a group, and when space is larger it makes you focus towards one subject. For example,
what they did with the woman in white gown holding Santo Nino. When the performance wants us to focus on
the whole, they are close to each other. And when they want you to focus on the lady in white they will give her
a larger space.

Shape - One of the most notable shapes they made is at the start, when they are in this rectangular
formation and all of them got up and started dancing. As farther as they dance, they made various of
movements and alignments such bending, stretching, turning, waving, and swaying. They expressed their
creativity here by using these actions and synchronizing to make a pattern and make a domino effect. Another
particular moment is toward the end of the performance, when they swing one of their hands simultaneously.

Force - They applied a plenty of force in their legs when they need to bend up and down, turn around in
circular motion, and swing their hands and bodies left and right, one of reasons being the gown they are big and
quite heavy, when they wave their props, they also applied enough force to make it graceful and full of vitality.

Time - They dance with the beat of the music. The performance is lively and the steps are quick.

Flow - Most of the steps are executed smoothly with the regard to the highlights that are memorable.
Some of the dancers missed a beat, some lightly tripped, or some were disrupted because of the volume of the
gown for example when they are switching positions.
Cooperation

All members of the Sinanduloy Cultural Troupe that are in the performance gave their full cooperation
and did their best to synchronize their movements with each other. I also noticed that their movements are in
line with the lady in white who was holding the Santo Nino. And her gestures are with the rhythm of the music.
So, I think they really need to cooperate with each other so they can present a performance they want, because
once the beat is missed, it’s hard to make a recovery.

What went wrong/what went right saw no major mistakes as I watched the video. The concept, choreography, the
music, the costumes, the props are all well-thought out. The dancers did their utmost to give the audience a memorable
festival in the Philippines.