Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

When Seeing Is Believing: The Changing Role of Visuality in a Philippine Dance

1995; George Washington University; Volume: 68; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/3317460

1534-1518

Sally Ann Ness,

Asian Culture and Media Studies

This article explores the changing subjective and objective visual significance of the sinulog dance of Cebu City, Philippines-a pre-Hispanic healing ritual adapted to the folk Catholic worship of the Santo Niho, and recently transformed into a secular, cultural performance. In the new context, the objectifying visual aspects of the sinulog developed predominant and autonomous relationships to other sensory experiences of the dancing, in particular to kinesthetic experience. The development of this purified visuality reveals both the impact of changing historical conditions on the construction of the self-in-movement in the dancing, as well as the creative efforts of its practitioners to continue to find meaning in the practice in the midst of changing sociocultural circumstances. [dance, Philippines, visual, self, perception]