A Comparison Between Singkil and Indarapatra Essay Example

princess as she avoided entangling her feet in the obstacles of the cursed forest until prince saves her.

Indarapatra’s Singkil was originally a play that was made into a dance by the Bayanihan Dance Company, a modern day Philippine Folk dance troupe. The dance depicts a prince fighting a mythical bird princess that brought destruction to his kingdom. The princess, unlike in the classical version, is depicted as a monster. This version of Singkil illustrates the prince and princess’s battle. As said, both the classical and Indarapatra version of Singkil contain the characters of a princess, prince, male bamboo tappers, and fan girls. The continuous tapping together of the bamboo poles represents the forest and dangerous obstacles.

Through physical similarity of the dances however, the separate princesses in each represent different qualities of power. The classical Singkil begins with the male bamboo tappers entering the stage. The “asik” (the umbrella slave girl) runs through them, acknowledges the audience, and introduces the princess and her royal court of fan girls. As she is unseated from her throne, she stomps her foot, a signal she uses throughout the dance to command the other dancers. The music switches from slow bells to vicious drumming as she dances through the up and down alternating bamboo sticks.

Her main object is her fans, which she gracefully waves around the entire dance. The male tappers then set into “X”-shaped formations with the bamboo sticks. The princess slowly starts moving into the tapping bamboo obstacle, maintaining her grace although the contraptions are constantly opening and closing. She summons her court of fan girls as they, too, go through the dangerous bamboo obstacles with her as

they wave their own fans around. The presence of her court in the dance expresses her high prestige and royalty. They are protecting her.

Her actions here reflect the awareness of her high class because she treats all the other dancers strictly as servants. The prince then enters the stage with his sword and shield and begins to walk into the bamboo sticks, signifying his search for the princess. The music slows down again and the court reveals the princess, and she begins to dazzle the prince with her beauty and grace. The princess and prince dance around each other through the sticks, resembling a chase. The dance ends with the two posing outside the bamboo obstacles, signifying that they are together and have successfully rescued themselves out from the forest.

Indarapatra’s Singkil begins with the prince alone on stage. The bird princess silently creeps up to him as he is meditating, and initially attacks him. Like in the classical Singkil, her movements still revolve around the waving of her fans. Indarapatra’s princess, however, is more open with her movements. She is not constrained and she jazz runs all over the stage. There is also no asik present to serve her. Her movements signify that she does not care about the prince, or any sense of role to honor him. The princess and prince viciously battle each other, as the prince tries to kill her.

The princess has a mind of her own and is not controlled by anyone. Her movements reflects her freedom. At one point of their battle, the princess, in success, takes away the prince’s sword. She leaves him as he screams in the middle

of the stage, defenseless. This is when the male tappers holding the bamboo sticks are summoned on stage. The princess comes back on stage, this time with her royal court of fan girls. She leads them on stage as they slowly dance the same choreography with their fans. The princess still uses the stomping of her foot to command the music and the rest of the dancers on stage.

Both Singkils depict several almost identical movement sequences. In both dances, both groups of fan girls walk through the bamboo sticks while performing the same choreography with their fans. The princess and prince still also interact and dance around each other within the tapping bamboo sticks. The dance finally ends with all the male tappers with their bamboo sticks in center stage encaging the princess, resembling that the prince has captured her. The dance of Singkil is definitely considered a dialogic performance, especially when one watches the two versions back to back.

According to Dwight Conquergood’s article, “Performing as a Moral Act: Ethical Dimensions of the Ethnography of Performance”, a dialogical performance is stated as a performance that “brings self and others together so that they can question, debate, and challenge one another” (Conquergood, 9). The classical and Indarapatra Singkil could be considered one frame to an audience member because they are both generally Singkil dances. The presence of the fan girls and the male bamboo tappers remain the same, and the boundaries of class are still identically distinct.

The main dialogical difference in the two dances are the two princesses. Although very similar choreographic and movement sequences, the two moving bodies resemble different sides of power. When we

compare the two princesses, we, as the audience, are experiencing two separate bodies in the same frame at the same time. The Indarapatra princess is wearing pants, compared to the classical princess who is wearing a dress. This plays around with the issue of gender and sexuality and its roles. She seems to promote more individualism, rather than dependency like the classical princess does.

Indarapatra’s princess is with unison most of the time with her court of fan girls. Compared what happens in the classical Singkil where the royal court is protecting the princess, the princess is now protecting them. The two Singkil dances challenge one another because they individually promote a different sense of power. Because of dialogic performance, these senses of power could be clearly defined. Indarapatra is a “reincarnation”, or a hybrid, morphed version of the original Singkil, both physically and analytically.

As said, Indarapatra, originally being a play, was translated into a dance by Bayanihan by using the original dance of Singkil. Although choreographically similar, the senses of power behind the classical and Indarapatra Singkil is completely morphed. The original movements of Singkil were altered in order to tell the story of Indarapatra. In the article, “Swaying to an Indian Beat... Dola Goes My Heart: Exploring Hindi Film Dance”, Sangitha Shresthova explains how most spectators of dance tend to be “used to a linear narrative style” (Shresthova, 93).

In the traditional world of Filipino dance, many dances tend to revolve around a male dancer saving or courting a female dancer. Following that, the traditional Singkil resembles a traditional reflection of gender, sexuality, and a hierarchy of power. The dance depicts a beautifully dressed princess

and a masculine prince sporting a shield and sword. The audience, from the get-go, expects the prince to court and save her. These are traditional gender expectations that have existed through universal time and cultures. As an interruption to this expectation, Indarapatra’s Singkil expresses the woman saving and looking out for herself.

Shresthova also mentions “why the dance happens, what motivates specific characters to dance, and what does the dance achieve in broader narrative context” (Shresthova, 94). The two Singkils in comparison represent a change of values. Though both equally in power, the motives of the two princesses are completely different-- the classical princess seems to value grace, beauty, and prestige while the Indarapatra princess values victory, strength, independence, and femininity. As how many other cultural dances originate, Filipino folk dance movements stem from everyday movements performed by ancient Filipinos.

In the dance of Singkil, the “relationship to oneself to oneself governs the internal alterations of the place or the [dancer] unfolding the stories accumulated in the place” (de Certeau, 110). The indirect relationship between the two princesses helped create the new performance of Indarapatra’s Singkil. Again, the princesses perform very similar choreography such as the waving of their fans, but the way that each princess chooses to initiate that certain movement reflects a completely different impression towards the audience.

Indarapatra’s Singkil is an example of modernism, as it is derived from another dance. With this, as the audience, Indarapatra’s modernism gives us the power to more freely interpret a certain gesture into more various meanings. Removing Indarapatra from a play and translating it into a dance creates much more meaning for the audience because there is now

only body movements and no words. The spectator mind is free to explore and more free to feel. A performer can witness the distinct difference between the two princesses as they experience the choreography themselves.

With my personal interpretive performance of this intersectional analysis, I had mended the movements of the two princesses together. I imitated the slow, graceful fan movements of the classical princess. I felt the prestige that she models within the dance. Suddenly in the performance, I switch personas to the Indarapatra princess. My moving body felt much more energy from the space, and I felt the independence the Indarapatra princess conveys within the real dance.

I wanted to exemplify to my audience exactly how different these princesses, and thus, these dances really are. The two versions of Singkil gives people and audiences proof that two dances could contain the same physical choreography, but dialogically be completely different when it comes to power. The classical and Indarapatra Singkil illustrates different ranges and issues between class, gender, and sexuality. Through this analysis, we conclude that Singkil is a dance of modernism for its dance forms is evolving, because power is always evolving.