SAPANG PALAY NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL - SENIOR HIGH

City of San Jose del Monte

CRITIQUE PAPER

Submitted by
JESS NICHOLEI NERI
JOSHUA BARCE
JOSHUA AVELLANOSA
KENNEDY LONGAKIT
ALONA JANE DOMINGO
RAFAEL GARCIA
IRMA GARJAS
GEMMAROSE MECABANI
KANE JOSHUA CANSUNCAD
ZEPHANIE VENTURA

ABM 11 - MARKETING MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION

A Cultural Dance Competition among Grade 12 sections transpired with the theme "Unity
in Diversity: A Celebration of Cultures" on April 26, 2023. The mentioned event was held at the
Sarmiento Gym of Sapang Palay National High School. Through the joy of dancing, the event
seeks to enrich and remember the Philippine culture. And as the theme proposes, it intends to
bring unity despite having diversity. Even though one of the main purposes of having a
competition is to lead the participants to compete, in the end, they should be united as all these
grade 12 sections poured their hearts out on researching the culture behind their assigned
festival. Also, all of their performances aim to pay tribute to and celebrate the uniqueness of the
Philippine culture. It brings happiness to the audience as they discover new things about the
culture of their beloved country, the Philippines, but the lack of preparedness shows as the
students do their performance.

SUMMARY

Various grade 12 sections demonstrated their dancing skills by expressing their assigned
cultural dance. Different kinds of beautiful costumes are worn. Props are meticulously created to
add a wow factor to the visual appearance of the group. Several dynamic choreographies are
performed with the best energy the dance group can give. They competed against each other to
demonstrate their labor of love and determine who among them is the greatest.

CRITICAL EVALUATION

The dance cultural competition occurred at Sarmiento Gym. The place is great because it
is spacious. But as the number of participants was quite large and many people gathered to
watch, it resulted in crowdedness. Due to the numerous people inside the location, it produces
too much heat that can affect the performance of the participants. The audio system doesn't have
great quality. It's not loud enough for the people inside to hear.

The costumes of 12-Financial Management, 12-Marketing Management, and 12-

Engineering definitely stand out. It looks like they took careful consideration and really prepared
for their costumes while the costumes of others are nothing special and are quite common to the
eye. Another thing about the costumes is that at the time of the actual performance, the process
of changing them is not organized. Some costumes are just scattered on the floor and sometimes
others' costumes fall off because the costume they got doesn't fit. However, all grade 12 sections
that participated in this cultural dance competition based their costumes according to what
Philippine festival they were assigned.

In general, most of the section’s structure of the choreography is beautiful but it doesn't
show clearly because the dance crew is not fully synchronized. Other members of the dance
group made some mistakes and looked unfocused. Despite the amazing choreographies the
contestants demonstrated, there is a large gap between the choreography that was created by a
dance instructor and the choreography created only by the students themselves. Still, props to
those students who squeezed out their creativity to create a fantastic choreography for their
sections. The energy level that the group gives out is not balanced as some give out their best
energy while others do not. The participants' facial expressions are enticing to the judges and
audience. They smile to show that they are having fun performing.

On the other hand, 12-Economics doesn't show good signs of having a great performance
at first, but they proved otherwise. The fact that it appears like their outfits haven't been given
much thought and that their energy level isn't at full capacity are two indicators of a poor
performance. Their song selections are well-chosen since they can grab the audience's attention.
Their facial expressions matched what they were dancing to. In the middle of their performance,
they caught the spectators off guard when they suddenly changed their costumes into new ones.
And they also immediately switched from a fifty percent (50%) energy level to a one hundred
twenty percent (120%) energy level. And then there were people who stepped on the backs of the
boys and showed they were not afraid even though it was somewhat high and risky. When the
end was near, the music unexpectedly stopped but they still continued their performance without
any problems. Then, when the music is back again, they somehow managed to keep up with the
beats of the song. There is a huge possibility that the sudden disappearance of the music incident
is part of their plan to bring uniqueness to their performance.

The 12-Marketing Management performed the "MassKara Festival." It's one of the biggest
festivals in this country. The tragic ferry incident and the fact that the primary source of income for
the region, sugar, was priced very low caused the locals to be depressed. And to cheer their
spirits up and restore their smiles, the Masskara Festival was born. The large, colorful masks are
the main attraction of the MassKara celebration. Many barangays and groups are working hard to
deliver performances of the highest caliber with expertly hand-carved masks and eye-catching
attire. "MassKara" is a merged word of both words "mass" which means many and "kara" which
means faces. The dance group has bewitchingly colorful costumes. As they were assigned to the
MassKara Festival, they used bright-colored maskaras as their main props. And despite not
having a dance instructor to help them, they managed to create an astonishing choreography for
them to perform. Their facial expressions are engaging and complement the song they are
performing. One thing that highlighted their performance is that they have a muse whose costume
resembles the colors of the Philippine flag. And the most memorable part of their performance is
that their muse keeps on twirling, and then she stumbles out of the blue, but she stands up
immediately and continues to perform gracefully.

And the best of them all and the declared victorious, 12-Peforming Arts, has this special
aura that surrounds them which makes them special and great. They performed the “Kaamulan
Festival” which is held annually in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon. Kaamulan is rooted in the Binukid
word “amul” which means “to gather" and this also means the gathering of the seven tribes that
originally inhabited the Bukidnon region, specifically the Bukidnon, Higaonon, Talaandig, Manobo,
Matigsalug, Tigwahanon, and Umayamnon. Kaamulan Festival is mainly about the peace pact, a
thanksgiving festival during harvest time, datuship ritual, a wedding ceremony, or all of these
combined. And they certainly displayed the culture of the Thanksgiving Festival during harvest
time of the Bukidnon tribespeople through their props, which is a basket full of harvested fruits. At
the start of their performance, they are in a circle formation, with each of the members reaching
out their hands to their corresponding sides and waving their hands side to side. They flaunt their
dancing prowess through those intricate symmetrical hand movements that are satisfying to the
eyes. And some of the boy members of the group formed an inverted human pyramid by stepping
on each other's backs which is surprising since the base of this formation is only two people. It's
nice to see that they incorporated interaction between them and their props while dancing. The
dancers performed as a whole group, but sometimes they grouped themselves as girls only or
boys only. This grouping didn't perform one at a time but they performed at the same time doing
different choreographies. Their handling of props is quite good, as they put it in an aligned
position when they need to put it down and the positioning of it on the floor doesn't hinder the
dancer's path when changing formations while dancing.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, their dance's overall choreography and their dancing through their body
language and hand gestures are both excellent. Additionally, since everyone is on time and
performing flawlessly, it is enjoyable to see or watch their dance performance. They put on a
wonderful show and make for entertaining spectators since they are upbeat, self-assured, and
simultaneously innovative and nice in their movements when it comes to their customs. It's
incredible that they kept dancing even after their props dropped in another scene. It got even
better when they chose to let the objects fall rather than pick them up and carry on as if nothing
had happened.
 It's very important that the education program include this kind of activity where students
can compete and work their way to the top with the purpose of expressing the richness of the
Philippine dance culture. Because of these events, students have the opportunity to learn about
the buried and forgotten festive dance cultures of the Philippines. Not only did it benefit the
students, but it also benefited the spectators who watched the performances with the new
profound knowledge that may result in an interest in learning more about the dance culture of the
Philippines. This type of activity must keep going as it can ignite the fire within the hearts of
young Filipinos about remembering and celebrating their precious cultures.