The Creative Side of the Festival
One would be hard pressed to say that the Sinulog is only about the performances of its participating contingents, what with their costumes, props and the regalia worn by their lead dancers having a hand in framing it as the grandest festival of its class in the country. The participation of “higantes”, puppets and floats also add a unique vibrancy to the festival, and in this year’s Sinulog Grand Parade, these aspects to the Sinulog was in top form.
Here’s a roundup on the different creativity-entwined elements that played out as highlights of this year’s Sinulog Grand Parade.
Lead Dancer Regalia
The exact history of how the “standard Sinulog costume” worn by the lead dancers of Sinulog contingents came to be may be tricky to trace, but as blurry as its origin story is, the convention is easily the Sinulog’s most readily-identifiable element.
Typified as embellishment-rich iterations of traditional ball gowns, the dress style continued to be a fixture in this year’s Sinulog – which further underscored its association with the festival, all in all.
Though this year’s revue of lead dancer costumes did have more “streamlined” iterations that’re made for better mobility and flexibility for their wearers, this didn’t cause a dent in the dress’ reputation as a Sinulog fixture.
Detail-Rich Costumes
Like the festival regalia worn by their lead dancers, the costumes worn by Sinulog contingent dancers are Sinulog staples of their own right and accord.
Typically designed to complement what a lead dancer wears, the overall design of a contingent’s costume is often crafted to punctuate the theme that its choreographer is plying on – the message, so to speak, that its dance routine is espousing.
Over the years, various costume themes have been worn by Sinulog contingents – ranging from those that’re “honeybee themed” to those that embody the aesthetic of festivals other than the Sinulog.
This year, the costumes worn by the “Bacolod Masskara Festival” of Bacolod, the “Pasayaw Festival” of Canlaon City of Negros and the “Tribu Kamanting Performing Arts Guild” of Dinagat contingents did well in gifting the Sinulog crowd with glimpses of their festivals’ “costume standards” – a glimpse, so to speak, of the distinct look of their respective festivals.