Mayaw-Mayaw takes center stage at Kamurayaw Festival in Pinabacdao, Samar

By NINFA B. QUIRANTE (PIA Samar)
May 10, 2008

CATBALOGAN CITY, Samar  –  Graceful and agile dancers of the Mayaw-mayaw dance native to this coastal farming and fishing village stirred the town to activity as they celebrated Kamurayaw Festival on Thursday, May 8, 2008.

In the jampacked covered court of Pinabacdao town, young and very young dancers gyrated to the sound of drums and improvised bamboo tubes for sounds furiously struck by the equally young swains of Pinabacdao.

The dance, said Pinabacdao Mayor Mario Quijano demonstrates how the early Pinabacdaoanons pray to the heavens to drive evil spirits from their farmlands and grant them bountiful harvest.

Interpretations from the barangays include a live chicken being beheaded as dancers are tossed, turned and flipped high up in the air if only to demonstrate the passion they felt for driving evils that may cause a dent in their expected harvest.

One foreigner, said to be a regular watcher for six years now, Clay Barcus from San Francisco, California, USA said he is still mesmerized each time he witnessed the spectacle.

“Although the story line is the same through the years, the stupendous movements and choreography always reveal something different each time,” the tourist told the local media when sought for comments.

DSWD Regional 08 Director Leticia Corillo and company who served as judges were visibly pleased with the local talents.

Kamurayaw on the other hand is a peace-building and social inclusion project being implemented in eleven barangays of Pinabacdao, by the Kalahi-CIDSS Project under the Japan Social Development Fund Social Inclusion Project (JSDF-SIP).

The World Bank assisted project aims to capacitate and help conflict-affected residents get more involved in the development activities of their respective communities and local government units.

As the town will be celebrating their fiesta, today, organizers of Kamurayaw deemed it fit to include the Mayaw-Mayaw dancing exhibitions in the activity to draw a big crowd of Pinabacdao patrons and direct their attention to the noble objectives of peace-building and social inclusion project being implemented in eleven barangays of Pinabacdao.