Watching the Dance Practice for the Upcoming Contest of Sanggi Festival in Tabogon

What’s up Hive! It is me @diamondinthesky. How are you today? I hope you are doing well. I would like to share to all of you my night and day during the dance practice for the upcoming Sanggi Festival in my hometown.

The Sanggi Festival will hold on May 20, 2024 which is the town fiesta of the Municipality of Tabogon. Please save the date and I invited you all to visit my hometown Tabogon and witness our Sanggi Festival.

The festival is a contest by barangay. The twenty five barangays in our hometown, Tabogon are grouped into five groups. In every group, there are five barangay. The barangay where our school belongs is barangay Daantabogon. It is group with barangay Muabog, Taba-ao, Alang-alang, and Maslog.

The participants of the said dance practice are the youth from barangay Muabog, barangay Taba-ao, barangay Daantabogon, barangay Alang-alang, and barangay Maslog. However, most of the participants are from our school. The barangay coordinated with our school about the upcoming contest of Sanggi Festival in our town.

The five barangays are the champion for last year’s entry of the Sanggi Festival and most of the participants that period are also students from our school. However, during that time, they have their dance practice after class hour from 5:00 o’clock in the afternoon until 10:00 o’clock in the evening.

This year’s dance practice will start at one o’clock in the afternoon and will end at nine o’clock in the evening. The five barangays coordinated with our school about the dance practice of Sanggi festival. I am not too sure, but I heard that the prize that the five barangays will receive from the said contest will be donated to our school for the additional expenses for the construction of our school covered court.

Before the day one of the dance practice, the parents were informed about the activity. Participants with a parents’ consent are the only allowed joining the dance practice. The participants are group according to their duty in the dance practice. The group one are the dancers and the group two are the props men.

I was assigned to watch and check the attendance of the participants of the dance practice for Sanggi Festival that day, May 09, 2024, Thursday. I just walked from our school going to the venue of the dance practice because I do not have motorcycle and I do not know how to drive, and during the time, no motorcycle available outside our school that can bring me to the venue. It is really too hot even though I am wearing a hat that might protect me from too much heat.

My View while Walking to the Covered Court

Due to the Heat Wave that we have right now, the classes was changed into Alternative Delivery Mode (ADM). The students receive modules once a week from their subject teachers and the teachers are advice to work from home. However, even the teachers are required to work from home, there are really time that we need to go to school for the paper works and checking the modules and outputs of our students. That is why I went to school first in the morning to check the outputs, then after eating lunch, I went to the dance practice for the Sanggi Festival at the covered court of barangay Daantabogon.

When I arrived on the area, I let the participants write their names on the attendance notebook in order for me to determine easily who is present or absent in the dance practice. I let them write their names in short hand so that it is easy for me to read their names. Then, a few minutes after, the trainers of the dance arrive and started to call the attentions of the dancers to be in their assigned area for warm-up activity. The trainers also required the dancers and the props men to wear a specific color of the t-shirt every dance practice. That day, the female dancers a are wearing blue, while the male dancers are wearing white and the props men can wear black or any color available as long as it is not the same color shirt with the dancers.

Warm-up activity before dancing is very important for the well-being of the dancers. It is to avoid body pain and overexertion.

After the exercise, they started the dance practice. I observed that it is stressful and not easy to become a dance trainer especially for big group like the festival dance. You need to plan it well in order to have a good and amusing choreography.

After the practice in the afternoon, the dancers and the props men have one hour break to eat their dinner and rest after eating. Usually, they finished at five o’clock in the afternoon or six o’clock in the evening, then that is their time to eat their food and the dance practice will resume at seven o’clock in the evening. They have free snacks and cold water is also provided.

Some of the dancers and props men went home for dinner those who live nearby, while some are just bringing their food, and others are just buying barbeque and hanging rice on the food cart near the area.

At exactly seven o’clock in the evening, they resume the dance practice and finished at exactly nine fifteen. I can see on the faces of the participants how dedicated and devoted they are on what they are doing. They really have perseverance and commitment on the dance practice. Before everybody went home, we have a closing prayer, asking favor from God to protect each one of us and keeping us safe while traveling home. There are also transportation provided by the barangay to those participants who live far away from the area specifically barangay Muabog and barangay Taba-ao.

I believe that if they follow the kind of discipline that they have in their dance practice, it will makes them win and become the champion again in the contest for Sanggi Festival 2024.

That would be all and thank you so much for reading my blog and for having my back.