By Rey Anthony Chiu
PIA - Bohol
Energies are high as students from Carlos P. Garcia High School and Holy Child Academy of Bien Unido would be attempting a tough feat: to be hailed as the 1998 Sinulog Festival street dancing Champion.
“Everybody is excitedâ€, admits Leony Boniel, the Bien Unido executive secretary.
Led by Mayor Rey Niño Boniel, the town is in the heat of preparations to launch their biggest event: fielding about 150 dancers who would be dancing, incidentally for the Santo Niño or the Rey Niño.
The team from the town is not only composed of first timers in the competition, but considering that they are the youngest to represent Bohol, the tension runs high as the burden of raising the financial logistics become magnanimous, sources from the town said.
Practically a first timer into organizing a dancing delegation for a competition as huge and as famous as the Sinulog, Mayor Rey Niño Boniel is pinning his hopes on pure preparation more than on beginner’s luck.
And for him, getting ready is about three months of preparations.
Out to represent Bohol in the Visayas most prestigious and pompous mardigras and ritual presentations seen across the country on television, Bien Unido had been practicing their choreography since last October, admits Leony Boniel, the private secretary to the mayor.
Sinulog, an annual mardigras for the Santo Niño is a unique street dancing event where the dance steps are the approximation of the currents that pass through the islands. The word sinulog literally means an imitation of the current.
“We would be faring against the country’s best festival dancers this year, and being first timers, we have on our side a known choreographer from Cebu who has been into helping Sinulog contingents from more than a decade,†she added during a phone interview.
Charlie Enolba would be in-charge of putting up the choreography for the delegation’s 90 dancers, she said.
Reports said Bien Unido has been into honing a presentation that would not just be retelling of a local folk story but casting the seaweeds as the main fabric into the competition, perhaps literally.
Bien Unido has been rowing towards getting the recognition as the seaweeds capital in the country. Seaweeds give the prime ingredient for carageenan, a known component for commercial plastic production and in cosmetics.
Considered a darkhorse in the competition, Bohol would be betting upon the town dancers as the official Bohol entry, this was as far as Mayor Boniel said when he appealed for support from town mayors at the recent League of Municipalities meeting.
Actively backing the team to come up with the production and costs are Bohol mayors, local officials and Bien Unido residents, sources said.
Years back, the dancing delegation from Panglao Bohol went home with an award from the festival organizers. It was not immediately known if Panglao make a new bid this year.
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