Kultura at Sayaw: A Reflection Paper of Kalimulan Performance

By: Nikko Shane Dar

The loud bamboo thuds and claps echoed in the gymnasium accompanied by the set of
harmonious gongs and drums when suddenly everything went black. The audience hurriedly
turned on their flashlights while Kalimulan Dance Troupe continued to sway and stamp their feet
on the last performance, Singkil, a Meranaw Dance. The Princess gracefully danced amid
blackout in her glittery, shimmery dress and faced a standing ovation and wide applauses.
The Kalimulan Dance Troupe’s exquisite performance was last Friday, March 17, 2023,
and was headed by the Project Proponent: Assoc. Prof. Renebel O. Labadisos with the active
cooperation of the Center for Culture and Arts, Office of the Chancellor, and Office of the Vice
Chancellor for Student Services. They come up to integrate into the community and understand
an indigenous culture, blending both Lumads and Meranaw’s Dances of this year’s activity of the
dance troupe.
The stunning performance revolves around two elements: culture and dances. The Troupe
is a storyteller who narrates the culture of different ethnic groups in Mindanao through dances. I
can still hear the statement from Prof. Aguado in one of his messages from past Kalimulan
performances that Lumads and Meranaws “are performing not for the audience, but for
themselves” in which he carefully retains the movements and the formations of the dances.

Culture has been the oldest element we have in

society which takes form in many ways. Steven
Fernandez in his book, Representation, Meaning,
and Identity defined culture as us, it is something
we think and do. To enlighten things, culture is
what defines us, and art is the language that
conveys meaning, understanding, and reality.
Simply, art conveys culture. The Kalimulan and its
artistic directors carefully shaped and performed
the culture of a true Mindanaoan through dances, a
pride in MSU-IIT! This is how important culture in
life, sadly, refers to culture as it is an “other” in our
reality. Fernandez (2018) posited that culture can
never be preserved because the survival of any
community depends on how culture adapts to
change. But in ways, as Aguado did, is a way of
preserving culture. I can remember one time in an
Art Appreciation class of mine, Prof. Zaldua Jr. shared that Eastern dances are different from the
western, for western dances focuses on order unlike eastern dances deals more than it is
performative to the community, in other words, it is communal. Aguado covered Mindanao
dances not only retained movements and formations but also storytelling that involved the
community. The story of Singkil and some other dances portrayed communal practices and the
everyday life of a community. In essence, the record of these dances is an extension of the past
and a representation of culture.
On the other hand, one of the themes presented in the dances of both Lumad and
Meranaws is the courting dances. With scrutinizing eyes anchored with a feminist lens, I can see
that culture is quite toxic to women, as supported by western feminists like Beauvoir and Butler.
The courting practices portrayed in dances showed that women were some sort of option to a
gallant gentleman. The expression of courting dances in Mindanao portrayed women as objects.
With this, culture is what makes us who we are, something we embraced without a sense
of “otherness” however, we cannot escape the reality that culture is the prison of minorities and a
killer of self-expression. But the important, we focus on the good thing we see in a culture like
the beauty of things we never experienced now. The beauty of these dances brought identity,
pride, and aesthetics to society.