3 ways to see the Sinulog Ritual Dance

Sinulog has that famous tag line: ONE BEAT. ONE DANCE. ONE VISION. Though it holds true, in terms of the dance however has some varied versions depending on it's purpose but don't get me wrong, it's the same but different, let me explain further.

The sinulog to the Cebuanos was an indigenous dance practised by the native population in pre-hispanic Cebu. The adaptive mechanism of culture evolved this pre-Hispanic ritual dance to the gods to the Child Jesus or Santo Niño. Dancing to the Beat of the drums and to the verbal prayers of praise and thanksgiving, penance, and petition for one's needs is experienced.

The dance has 2 basic steps. the natural and the kinampilan. The natural step is the popularly known two steps forward, one step backward while the kinampilan has one step right foot forward and one step backward, while the left foot stays in place.

But in this modern times I'd say there are 3 ways for you to see the dance:

Varied participants from different Tribes or Tribu have different costumes but dance to one beat [Photo Source] 

1. The Street Sinulog Festival Dance - which is what you can see on the street during the celebrations. You can also see some modified (the basic dance with additional steps) versions through the Sinulog Festival Dance Contest. The steps are the same, but the Santo Niño image is held by the Festival Queen and dances with it.

Children and Adults both dance this in front of the Holy Child Jesus

2. The Traditional Sinug Dance - which was danced for the Gorordo Family in Cebu. This is still being preserved even today by the CASA GORORDO MUSEUM which is owned and managed now by the RAFI - Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.. The difference from the street dance is that instead of holding and dancing around with the holy image of the child Jesus, the Image is instead placed in an altar like place and then the dancers will dance in front of the Santo Niño, like in paying tribute to a King.




3. The Dance for the Santo Niño - which can be seen in the Basilica of the Santo Niño danced by old ladies in prayer. The difference of this version compared to the previous ones is that, this can only be done in the Basilica I beleive, since it is done in prayer to the Holy Child Jesus - Santo Niño.

Have you seen the Sinulog Dance elsewhere?