Hinugyaw Street Dancing 2010
The Hinugyaw sa Kalsada Street dancing Competition is one of the highlights of the Hinugyaw Festival (Aug. 28- Sept. 1), coinciding with the 96th Foundation Anniversary of the Cotabato Province. Annually held in its capital city, Kidapawan, this grand showdown is the culmination of a week-long festivity that showcases activities like civic parade, ethnic performances, sports competition, concerts, battle of the bands, and agri-trade fair. Hinugyaw means “loud merrymaking”.
Giving the unique Cotabateño culture and rich heritage a boost, the participating groups came from the municipalities of Kabacan, Carmen, Makilala, Midsayap, Alamada, Aleosan, and Matalam, mostly secondary school students. All were equipped with inventive costumes and huge props (Matalam went as far as bringing a fire truck in to shower “rain” during the entrance of their performance) to provide spectacular performances to a huge crowd in the large Cotabato Province Sports Complex.
This year, the contingent from the small town of Alamada was the grand champion, receiving a cash prize of one hundred thousand pesos and a trophy. The contingent won the crowd and judges with its faultless choreography, consistently high energy, and very attractive costumes. The group from Matalam town won second place (P95,000), and Midsayap came in third (P70,000). The champion is set to represent the province in Cebu’s Sinulog Festival in January 2011.
Gracing the event and cheering their respective groups were mayors from different cities, VIPs, local officials, and new Cotabato Governor Emmylou “Lala” Taliño-Mendoza, who thanked her constituents and local executives for a successful celebration with the hope that the next year festival will bring in more participants to the festive foundation anniversary. It was her desire to bring the celebration closer to the barangays and not to limit the festivities within the capitol grounds by tapping different municipalities to co-sponsor the events and traditional games.
A wildly unique presentation was the Ki-at sa Kabaw ug Kabayo where they put on dresses, head gears, and makeup on their prized cows and horses and proudly paraded them around the grounds as they vied for the judges’ approval.
Kidapawan Mayor Rodolfo Gantuangco and Marie Fe “Ging” Geronga-Pame, head of the Kidapawan City Tourism and Investment Promotions Center and President of the Association of Cotabato Provincial Tourism Officers, as well as the Old Barracks Suites made this all possible. For more information of the province and its tourist destinations, visit http://www.cotabatoprov.gov.ph.
(Jojie Alcantara is a travel photojournalist and SunStar columnist based in Davao City. She has been writing and painting before she picked up a camera in 1996 and expanded her world through images published in magazines. Her recent travel to Cotabato Province is a documentation project for DOT Region XII. View her works and adventures in www.pbase.com/jojie_alcantara) – Article courtesy of Manila Bulletin
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