As we excitedly waited the 52nd foundation day of our beloved Mindanao State University (MSU) we witnessed different successful and great events as part of the latter’s annual celebration. One of the most highlighted events that gathered a great crowd was the Dance Extravaganza which was held last August 29, 2013. It was a whole day event because there are different dance categories to mention: Ethnic, Folk, and Line dances in the morning while in the afternoon are street dance, group dance, and many other modern dances.
Dance Extravaganza is an annual event in the university of which to be held days or a day before the university’s foundation day at the Dimaporo Gymnasium. The participants are from the different colleges of the university and each college must have at least one entry in each dance category.
During the event, a mass crowd hashed out, people are having difficulty in entering the gym because the policy was “No university ID, no entry”. The accommodation of the university’s students, faculties, staffs and the likes are of high priority for this event because at that time, the surrounding high schools in the MSU Marawi are having their Silent Drill Competition at the oval (few meters away from the gym), thus there’s a tendency that anybody can enter the gym and it might would be over shall I say “populated” and for reason os safety purposes as well. But as for me, unfortunately I left my ID at our cottage (boarding house) ^_^., so I cannot enter the gym. I just went to the grandstand to watch the Silent Drill but “ah-oh” there are also many people in there and it’s too hot and I don’t want to stay longer under the heat of the sun (and I don’t want to look uglier) thus I just stayed outside the gym all by myself (by Celine Dionne) *_*. The next thing happened? Well my “Aladdin” (just kidding), a friend of mine told me that there’s another entrance in the gym whereby I can enter freely without having to present my I.D. .
When I entered into the gym, well I’m blessed that my sister has reserved a space for me to sit and enjoy the show! We had a good time taking videos to the performances of the contestants and (“selfy”) pictures. The first dance category was the ethnic dance. It is dance that showcases the traditional and dramatic performance, displaying the different culture that we have. The dancers are having their lifting part in their dance, I mean a few dancers are lifted up by just stepping at the two bamboo splits while dancing and it makes the crowd stand in awe. The next was the folkdance, the dancers danced gracefully, which also showcased the courtship and traditions, cultures and livelihood of our country men. The Tinikling dance performed by the College of Hotel and Restaurant Management (CHARM) was the dance that I cannot forget most. It was executed well and they have their “pasabog” steps in which the steps or twists are not yet seen before by my eyes! Imagine that on the last part of their performance there were four pairs who at the same time leap, dance and turn at the same laid bamboo splits that were simultaneously stamped (pardon me for my grammar) at a tinikling beat (of course), and boom! Standing ovation. “Let’s GO CHARM!” Yelled by the latter’s supporters. Lastly, most awaited category was the Line dance. This is a contemporary dance, of which the steps are social dance steps and there is no shifting of places and the dancers must be in a straight line divided depending on their number. There were eleven entries in this category and the judges so with the audience find it hard to determine which the best is. My comment on this category would be the more the number of dancers are, the better, more solid and emphasized their costumes and steps would look.
The programme in the morning went well, the audience especially me really enjoyed the show.Unfortunately I wasn’t able to watch the dances in the afternoon because I can no longer enter the gym because there so many people in there, but anyways atleast I was able to watch the dance extravaganza before I will graduate in this university.
