The Philippines has many ethnic groups and each group as its own tradition. Dance is a part of a tradition and it represents many things about the ethnic group, their way of living, their beliefs and their customs.
In the Northern part of the Philippines, ingenious group of Filipinos was able to preserve their culture despite of the Spanish colonization. Those ethnic groups was able to create a dance that represent their way of living and one of those dances is the Idaw dance.
ALL ABOUT IDAW DANCE
Idaw dance is another dance from Luzon region specifically from the northern part of Luzon, the Cordillera region. Idaw dance is a Bontoc dance that represents a war ceremony. Idaw is a kind of bird that the tribal group wants to capture because it is believe to be a lucky charm during a war and having that kind of bird can lead them to victory against their opponents.
Idaw dance is basically a war dance. The Idaw dance steps are imitation of the warriors during the war. The first part of the Idaw dance steps show how the warriors look for the Idaw bird to be their lucky charm during the war then the dancers will dance portraying the warriors during a war. The dance is composed of male dancers and they are wearing a traditional clothing of the people from Cordillera which is commonly known as “bahag” and the dancers are holding spears and shields.
IDAW DANCE IN THE 21st CENTURY
Today, Idaw dance is being presented during cultural program and whenever there is a tourist visiting a local town in the Cordillera. It is also part of the Music, Arts, Physical Education and Health or MAPEH curriculum to make the new generations aware of the traditional dance.
Filipinos should know their tradition and learn to appreciate it because those traditions built the