By Mark Andrew B. Oppus
For many years, the Sandugo Festival have always been culminated through the street dancing competition. On the 29th of July this year, thousands of Boholanos and visitors from other places came by our homeland to witness the festive and colourful street dance as 10 contingents vie for the top spot of the Bangga sa Kuradang ug Subli sa Sandugo.
“Kuradang”, a traditional Boholano dance, is the highlight of the Sandugo Street Dancing Competition 2017. This year, 9 contingent from the towns and 1 contingent from a public school joined the competition in the hopes of getting the top awards.
The only campus entry for this year is the Dr. Cecilio Putong National High School, Tagbilaran City. The other nine are from the towns of Loon (Barangay Napo), Mabini (Barangay Concepcion), Baclayon, Balilihan, Catigbian, Pilar, San Isidro, San Miguel and Tubigon.
The participating contingents started their dance at Plaza Rizal and routed to the Carlos P. Garcia Sports Complex as each of them gracefully danced and pranced their hearts out to the beat of the “Kuradang”. With their beautiful smiles and lithe movements, they have definitely pounded the hearts of the crowd.
This year’s set of judges were Felipe Mendoza de Leon, chairman of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Marichu Tellano, NCCA deputy executive director, Shirley Halili-Cruz of theHalili-Cruz school of Ballet, Eric Zerrubo of the University of Santo Tomas Center for Conservation of Culture Property, and Maribel Legarda of the Philippine Educational Theater Association.
In the end, it was the Barangay Napo from the municipality of Loon who made history as they were the first overall winners of the said competition. They received a trophy and P200,000 worth of cash for the championship and P20,000 for topping the Kuradang Street Dance contest.
Aside from winning the competition, Loon was also awarded with two minor awards with P5,000 worth of cash each namely the Best in Kuradang Pair and the Most Colorful Group.
It was the Dr. Cecilio Putong National High School from Tagbilaran City who bagged the first runner-up spot receiving P150,000 worth of cash and also P5,000 worth of cash for being the Most Authentic Group.
The second runner-up spot was given to the municipality of Balilihan as well as the top spot for the Sandugo re-enacment category. They were able to receive P100,000 and P20,000 worth of cash respectively for the two awards.
A minor award was given to Holy Name University as they were able to bag the Best in Costume award with a cash prize worth P5,000.
