T'Boli Cultural Folk Dance | Ritual Dances of the TBoli People | Tiboli Tribe of Mindanao

T'boli dances of Lake Sebu South Cotabato Philippines. T'boli tribal folk dance (Ritual dances of the T'Boli): Madal Tahu (Kadal Tahu), Madal Tahaw and Madal Mit Mata. Madal Tahu: True dance of the Tboli imitating the movement of Knaban the elder sister of Tudbulul, the Tboli mythical hero. Kadal Tahaw or Madal Tahaw: this dance is performed by the T'boli during planting and harvesting which shows the flights and hops of the tahaw bird. Madal Mit Mata: This is a flirtation dance by a woman with courting gestures, it is usually danced for entertainment.
Three Featured Dances
0:00 Madal Tahu
1:20 Madal Tahaw
2:34 Madal Mit Mata
Tiboli (T’boli) Tribe of Mindanao: History, Culture and Arts, Customs and Traditions [Indigenous People | Philippines Ethnic Group]
www.yodisphere.com/2022/09/Ti...
The Tboli, also known as T’boli, Tiboli, and Tagabili, are an indigenous people living in the southern part of Mindanao, particularly in the municipalities of T’boli, Surallah, Lake Sebu, and Polomolok in the province of South Cotabato and in Maasim, Kiamba, and Maitum in Sarangani. They can also be found in the neighboring provinces of Sultan Kudarat, North Cotabato, and Davao del Sur.
Tboli dances, generally called kadal or madal, may act out relationships between suitor and beloved or between bride and groom. In the courtship dance, a boy pursues a girl, who taunts him with an unfurled kayab or turban, which she holds by the ends and sways side to side, following a musical beat. On the other hand, a woman may tell of her affections for a man through the kadal herayon. Through various “flirting gestures,” the woman expresses what she otherwise cannot say.
At wedding feasts, the dance called tao soyow is traditionally performed by two males engaging in mock combat, one dressed as a warrior, representing the party of the bride, and another dressed as a woman, representing the party of the groom. The warrior struts around and rattles his shield, while the “woman” sashays back and forth. The dancers go about provoking and taunting each other, getting near, but never really touching, then retreating. With steps meant to arouse hilarity, the dancers wriggle provocatively, yelping and screeching at each other. Another war dance performed in a man’s life cycle is the kadal temulong lobo. The dance is in narrative mode, with the performer’s movements telling how he has killed his adversary, who may have been his rival for a girl’s affection.
At rest or when nursing a bruised heart, a woman plays the hegelung and moves around almost aimlessly. This dance, called kadal hegelung, should be differentiated from the kadal be hegelung, which also involves the hegelung but includes the klutang as well. The latter is performed in the farm to celebrate a good harvest.
Other dances of the Tboli imitate animals. In the kadal iwas, any number of dancers, following a relentless beat, mimics a bunch of monkeys removing nits and lice from each other. A variation of this dance mimics a monkey who sits on an anthill by mistake and is attacked by angry ants all over his body. It may also feature boys or men attired in banana leaves as “monkeys,” romping around and performing simian antics to the delight of the audience. The kadal blelah (bird dance), represents the blelah, a mythical bird which, according to Tboli tradition, has the colors of all other birds. Here the female dancers make continuous hopping steps to the sound of gongs and drums, leaning to the left and to the right as they insert their hands into the ends of the malong hanging around their necks, and make undulating movements, simulating the wings of a bird in flight. Another bird dance is kadal tabaw, performed during planting and harvesting, and which simulates the flight and hops of the bird tabaw.
Two ritual dances are the kadal slung be tonok, done to exorcise evil spirits that harbor illness and bad luck; and the kadal tahu, described as the “true or first dance of the Tboli.” Kadal tahu narrates through its movements the creation by Tud Bulul of the Tboli’s land and their history. The hand movements reflect the making of the plains, and the jumping movements convey the creation of small and big islands. The dance narrates Tud Bulul asking the betoti bird to scoop dust from the dead body of Datu Tib. He then tells the bird to dance on the dust so as to flatten it, thus creating the plains. As the bird dances, Tud Bulul and his aunt join in to speed up the work. Consequently, they do not flatten the land evenly and instead create bulges, which are now the earth’s mountains. Kadal tahu is accompanied by a drum, which is believed to hold a spirit. To release the spirit, the female dancer touches the drum with her ankle or right foot as she sways to its rhythm. The dance continues until the performer signals her fatigue by throwing the lewek, a piece of cloth, to the drum. This ends the dance.