Descriptive Study of Badian Fishermen's Dayang-Dayang Form of Fishing for Folk Dancing

Folk dance is an epitome of expressing one's culture, livelihood, and beliefs. Dances that mirror the customs and traditions of people are as important as knowing the roots of one’s identity. With an archipelagic country such as the Philippines, fishing livelihoods as expressions of culture can be a reference for folk dancing. However, through the test of time and unavailability of resources with lesser numbers of people performing, dance enthusiasts become less interested in pursuing their passion. Preservation of culture through folk dance is one way, a key of being a responsible citizen in cultivating the country’s identity. Hence, the researchers with this study in Badian, Cebu, Philippines seek to document and uncover the rich culture of the municipality when it comes to indigenous fishing livelihood that present cultural abundance of artistry and ingenuity. It also aimed to show the Badianganons’ prevailing cultural values specifically in ways of unique fishing through delving into the nature, background, characteristics, and movement patterns of “dayang-dayang” fishing style. This results in an increased awareness of one’s identity through culture exploration. This paper also presents the basic dance steps, time signature, costume, and props that serves as dance literature for reference in future dance research. With that, this study suggests a creation of choreography and good musical accompaniment that will potentially expose the uniqueness of the fishing style through the art of dance in public performances and allow integration with teaching in physical education be possible.