NEARLY four decades of watching the Sinulog Grand Parade, the judges may have seen every costume, dance routines and concepts played out in the street and on stage.
And in yesterday’s conclusion of the Sinulog, this year’s judges and organizers advised choreographers and the contingents to return to basics.
“It’s just sad that out of the 18 entries in the free interpretation (FI) category, 50 percent were deducted points because they went overtime,” said Nestor Jardin, chairperson of the board of judges for the Free Interpretation category.
Contingents who went beyond the five-minute allowed time to perform were deducted three points.
Jardin said this was significant because the scores of the top contingents were close to each other.
As a result, some groups that were supposed to be ranked higher slid down in the final rankings.
The judges clarified though that all top prize winners — Tribu Kandaya of Daanbantayan town for the FI category; Carcar City Division for the Sinulog-Based (SB) category; and Tribu Buyoganon Festival of Abuyog, Leyte — were clearly the winners in their divisions. He said it is still better to be undertime than go overtime.
Sinulog Foundation Inc. (SFI) executive director Ricky Ballesteros said they will have to revisit their guidelines for contingents especially for props and floats.
During last Sunday’s grand parade, he said there were some props that were too big that it could not fit into the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC).
Ballesteros said while they placed a limit to the number of support staff, they didn’t impose a penalty if they went beyond the number.
Larry Gabao, chairman of the SB category board of judges said the contingents should also look for other inspirations for their costumes. Most dancers in the SB category used Spanish-inspired outfits.
He said there were SB entries that used the country life as a theme but the dancers later change into typical Spanish style costumes which made their presentation inconsistent.
Gabao said there were some contingents that didn’t rehearse enough and showed mistakes during their performance.
Lordinio Vergara, chairperson of the street dancing category, said he wants to see more variations in the performances of contingents in the coming years.
“We had a discussion (among judges) and we had an observation. We feel it’s redundant and we need to see more from them,” he said.
Vergara said the new linear approach used in the grand parade was better for the judges compared to the previous carousel type, where contingents converge in different points.