Dancing to rebuild

Since supertyphoon Yolanda destroyed many places across the Visayas and the people of these islands are mostly devotees of the Holy Child Jesus, they are up for a bittersweet celebration instead of the usual festive peak of celebrating the Divine infancy in January.

Mayor Octavio Traya Jr of Abuyog, Leyte province will not send a delegation to next year’s Sinulog festival. Tribu Buyogan will not be around to wow the crowds with their bee-inspired costumes and dance routines.

Alang-alang town in the same province, whose dancers played runner-up to their Abuyog counterparts in the Sinulog Grand Parade’s free interpretation category will not send dancers this year, either.

The wounds of Yolanda are still fresh and we understand how these eagerly awaited performers feel.

They have brightened Cebu’s biggest annual celebration and it behooves us at this time to let them leave the dance of mirth, nay, the dance of encouragement and hope, to us.

Since Cebu is the Queen of the South and most of its population were left unharmed by the monster storm, it must step up to the call of the times, for its people to lead not only in the physical but also in the spiritual regrowth of the Visayas.

Cebuanos can do this not least by dedicating the Sinulog not only to the glory of Jesus as a boy but also to building hope among disaster-stricken people around them.

The Sinulog free interpretation dance category has for some time produced the most spectacular dance steps ever to grace the Sinulog emerged.

It must now become a medium through which narratives of rebuilding are conveyed.

The category must grow from being a showcase of the liveliness and survival of our Filipino indigenous dances to being a compelling narrative showing that light comes after grief and pain and in due season.

How will legendary dance troupes like those under Sandiego or Landonian, both of which hail from Cebu, dance this January?

Out-of-town contingents have delighted us and foreign visitors with dance dramas of the Holy Child warding off disease-inducing spirits as well as witches and enchanted creatures.

Will Sinulog dancers now show, to the best of their abilities, the face of the Santo Niño who cares for the natural world in his hands; who has not abandoned those who are bowed down?