WOODEN beads dancing with tribesmen’s every move, feathers in
vivid colorstanding out against the gathered crowds,prisms of sinamay and
hablon fabrics paraded by smiling dancers, and body paint gleaming under the
sun.
Every Dinagyang, the streets
of Iloilo come alive with the vibrant colors of the Kasadyahan and Ati Dance
competitions, and the creative costumes our dancers wear, in all their
over-the-top glory, play a big role in the beauty of our city’s spectacle. With
10 tribes competing for top prize this year, we expect even richer hues in
Dinagyang’s kaleidoscopic spectacular.
Celso Guion, production
manager and creative director of TribuPaghidaet shares that they are very
excited to unveil this year’s performances.
Garnering the Best in
Costume award and finishing 1st runner-up for Dinagyang 2015, they have a lot to
prove this year. They dazzled last year’s audience with a performance that told
the epic battle of Tribu Paghidaet’s archers against a giant centipede. Now
they’re ready once more to amaze crowds with a new spectacle.
“Sa Tribu Paghidaet, we are
not aiming for the championship, we just want to put on a great performance
that the Ilonggos and tourists alike will enjoy,” said Guion.
With this year’s Paghidaet performance inspired by the classic
Filipino horror Halimaw sa Banga, and another epic battle in the works,
Tribu Paghidaet is excited to thrill for another year.
Guion shares that it literally takes a village to put
together performances each year, especially when it comes to the making of
costumes for the festival. With the tribe’s total of over 80 warriors and
dancers this year, several people had to be involved in the designing and
making of headdresses, attires, and props.
Twenty-two year-old Ron Matthews Espinosa is one of the new
additions to the tribe’s team. A recent graduate of the University of San
Agustin, he has designed costumes before for the USA Little Theater.
Espinosa will be crafting the costumes of three of the
tribe’s special characters – the Babaylan, Magbabatok and Halimaw.
He shares that this year’s performance will not be about the
height of risers and mobiles stages, but focus more on pure dance and the
creation of beautiful costumes. About the symbolism in the colors of this
year’s costumes, “Red that stands for Strength and Domination, blue for Peace
and yellow for Elegance,” said Espinosa.
A first-timer in the Dinagyang stage, Espinosa is proud of
the opportunity to be part of the annual celebration.
“I am humbled to work with
the Paghidaet artistic team who has a brilliant vision of innovation, pushing
the boundaries of Dinagyang for the last decades,” shares Espinosa.
“Dinagyang is a time for
coming together, working together, reawakening in the hearts of everyone the
virtues of cooperation, leadership and the willingness to commit to work.
Mabudlay pero masadya,” shares Guion.
