Friday, January 09, 2009 Akrho to field dance contingent
ALPHA Kappa Rho (Akrho) members want to join the Sinulog 2009 grand parade as a dancing contingent for the first time, but it will have to pass screening before the Sinulog Foundation Inc. (SFI).
Acting Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama endorsed Ahkro Visayas Chapter president Richard Buscayno’s letter of intent to join the Sinulog to the SFI yesterday.
Rama said it would be up to SFI Executive Director Ricky Ballesteros whether he would allow the Akhro contingent to participate or not.
Dancers
The Akrho contingent is composed of 70 to 80 dancers that will perform an Apocalypto-themed number in the free interpretation category.
“We have to see their performance first and the whole contingent if they can pass the standards set by the foundation. We want to watch them practice their dance to
check if it has the Sinulog beat and we have to check their costumes and make sure it conforms with the standards, before we give a go signal,” Ballesteros told
Sun.Star Cebu.
Among the requirements for the street dancing competition is that there should be 100 dancers in the contingent and that their music has the Sinulog beat, he said.
Akhro will also have entries in the float and puppeteers category.
Screening
Rama told reporters yesterday that they will open the Sinulog competition to fraternities, provided they pass the screening.
He said he does not believe they will be security threats, and he trusts them to behave during the biggest festival in the country.
“We cannot keep on excluding certain groups. The best thing we can do is make them feel that they are part of the Sinulog and that they should not be a problem. This should also be a challenge for the police and our security personnel,” the mayor said.
Behave
In an interview at City Hall yesterday, Buscayno assured that their members will behave during the activity, and will not do anything to cause trouble.
He said they are serious about the Sinulog street dancing and have been preparing for it since last month.
“We will have our own Sinulog contingent with our members as dancers. For the past years we have been joining the Sinulog and have been able to avoid trouble. This time, we will not just sponsor a contingent, but the members themselves will dance to show our devotion to the Sto. Niño,” Buscayno said.
Sponsors
The contingent will be sponsored by Akhro chapters in the US, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, and Korea.
For his part, City Councilor Augustus Pe Jr. said they have long addressed the peace and order problem concerning fraternities, and he believes they will not be a problem during the parade on Jan. 18.
Pe, chairman of the City Council committee on public safety and order, said that each fraternity will have police escorts to make sure that no untoward incident will happen.
“With regards to fraternities and the Sinulog, we have solved that problem already. We will place them away from each other and we will put police escorts, and they can even choose their own escorts,” he said. (LCR)
