Damili Festival 2013

CEBU, Philippines - This year’s opening article is a past year-ender festival celebration of San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte, home to the Ilocanos and, of course, the Marcoses.

The Damili Festival Dance Pageantry, held last December 26, 2012 in front of Robinsons Mall Ilocos Norte, is a street dance showdown of the town’s main resource, clay-pot making. The festival is more like that of our very own Danao City, however, their manner of presentation is very scientific. The jingle is carefully arranged to suit what many might consider a modern-age folk dance and, take note, their basic figures are notated; meaning, the whole of the Damili jingle has its own laborious and sequential dance movements to follow. So, everybody has to perform the same figure in the streets albeit the three-minute display of their own versions for free interpretation. Two Damili jingles and one tune for the creative dance, comprise one cycle for the street dance competition.

Twenty-four barangays complied with the requirements.

In the streets, a Cebuano viewer cannot help but notice the major absence of very large props, floats, higantes and gimmickry of sorts, an influence bombarded by the many highlights our local festivals may have displayed. However, their somewhat “bare” street only made the viewers focus on their dance and even their detailed Maria Clara or rural inspired costumes (as costumes with an ethnic motif or design is strictly prohibited).

Their opening salvo ceremoniously began with the “Breaking of the San Nicolas Banga” at the municipal hall main entrance led by Honorable Mayor Alfredo P. Valdez, Jr., M.D.

The stationary showdown at Robinsons started late in the afternoon. The Damili jingle was also utilized for their presentations. Despite the redundancy of the tune, each presentation was unique, surprising the audience even to the last performing group. How did they do that? Not one had the same concept as the other. One thing this writer noticed was that there was more of dancing than concentrating themselves with choreographic patterns. This might have been a reflection of just an adequate dance floor offered for the performance.

For a municipality to create such amazing feats, many festival counterparts would pale. Take for example the discipline of the twenty-four contingents from street dance to finish, or their giving a great importance to import judges coming from different regions, including Rodel Fronda from Bulacan, Edwin Masangcay from Aklan and this writer. One might ask, what is the point of spending so much to get judges from other places? Well, aside from getting credible people with zero possibility of having local contact except for the organizers, these people also have the capacity to inform others during national conventions or in their locale about the tradition of other people and places. Take for example this writer who is informing the readers about this festival. Then do the math of how information dissemination spreads exponentially. And think of the possibilities of the long-term impact on local tourism.

The Damili festival has a very promising future because of the leadership of its organizers. It has a niche because it is done with authority, it is scientific and it clearly shows its denizen’s culture.  Well done, San Nicolas! Hats off every time you say “Taga San Nicolas kami”. (FREEMAN)