Singkil Dance: The Maranao Royal Epic Explained
Four bamboo poles, not two, cross on the floor when Maranao performers dance the Singkil. That detail alone separates it from most Philippine folk dances that searchers lump it with. The Singkil dance retells a single episode from the Darangen, the 72,000-line epic of the Maranao people of Lake Lanao in Mindanao.
It is a royal dance, built to project rank and composure, and it survives today in two distinct forms: the guarded court version still practiced within Maranao communities, and the theatrical stage version most Filipinos learn in school.
At a Glance
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Region | Lake Lanao, Mindanao |
| Ethnolinguistic group | Maranao |
| Props | Apir fans, royal umbrella, four crossed bamboo poles |
| Music | Kulintang ensemble: kulintang, agung, gandingan, babandil, dabakan |
| Dancers | Lead princess role (Putri Gandingan) and pole handlers; staged version adds a male prince |
| Occasion | Historically royal court ceremony; today weddings, cultural festivals and school programs |
The Darangen Epic and Prince Bantugan
The Darangen is a sung epic that predates the arrival of Islam in the Philippines in the fourteenth century. Maranao performers pass it down orally, in a poetic register that only trained singers fully understand today. The epic runs to seventeen cycles and roughly 72,000 lines, covering courtship, war, customary law and the conduct expected of Maranao nobility.
Note
Singkil retells only cycle six of the Darangen, called Paramata Gandingan. It is one episode inside a seventeen-cycle epic, not a dramatization of the whole story.
Each cycle stands as its own story while staying linked to the larger epic. A few examples show the range:
- Paganay Kiyandato (“The First Ruler”): the founding of the kingdom of Bembaran
- Kapmadali: the story of the warrior Madali
- Paramata Gandingan (cycle six): Bantugan’s courtship of Princess Gandingan, the source of Singkil
- So Kiyaprawaa ko Lawanen (cycle eight): an abduction narrative later in the saga
The epic is set largely around Bembaran, described as a great city near a river whose name means roughly “place of the sunrise.” According to the story, Bembaran later sank beneath the sea after falling under a curse, and its rival, a western city state, drives much of the conflict across the cycles.
Among its many heroes, Bantugan stands out. His name is usually translated as “renowned one,” or “one who makes history.” He appears across several cycles, and the sixth cycle follows his courtship of Princess Gandingan, a royal woman from a neighboring kingdom.
The Darangen survived almost entirely through memory until the twentieth century. American educator Frank Laubach transcribed the first fragments in 1930 after hearing Maranao elders chant it during a boat trip, publishing an excerpt that same year. Scholars at Mindanao State University later spent a decade gathering fuller versions from elders and handwritten songbooks, publishing the complete epic in eight volumes between 1986 and 1988.
Princess Gandingan and the Forest Earthquake
In the story, Gandingan walks through a forest when the ground begins to shake. Trees fall around her as unseen spirits stir the earth. She keeps walking, stepping between the falling trunks without losing her composure, until Bantugan arrives and leads her to safety.
Dancers translate that scene into the dance’s most recognizable feature. Two pairs of bamboo poles, laid in a crossed or grid pattern on the floor, get clapped together and against the floor in shifting rhythms by kneeling handlers. The poles stand in for the falling trees.
The lead dancer, performing the role of Putri Gandingan (putri means princess in Maranao), steps in and out of the closing gaps in time with the beat, without breaking stride even as the pattern speeds up. A misstep shows immediately, and that visibility is part of the point. The dance rewards precision under pressure the same way the story does.
The Apir Fans and the Royal Umbrella
Princess Gandingan’s hands are rarely empty. She carries a pair of apir, folding fans that appear in several Maranao dances beyond Singkil, including pagapir, a dance built entirely around fan work. In Singkil, the dancer opens and closes the apir as she moves, using them to frame each step and mark each change in rhythm.
| Prop | Worn or carried by | What it signals |
|---|---|---|
| Apir fans | Lead princess dancer | Formal rank marker for Maranao noblewomen, called bai |
| Royal umbrella | Attendant performer | Marks royalty; traditionally held only over high-ranking Maranao |
| Malong | Lead dancer | Woven okir patterns display weaving skill and status |
| Headdress | Lead dancer | Beadwork and metal ornaments beyond everyday head cloth |
| Anklets (singkil) | Lead dancer | Brass rings and bells that gave the dance its name |
A second performer, often a young attendant, carries the umbrella over the princess through much of the dance. In the fuller staged version, this opening segment is often labeled Asik. An open umbrella held over a person marks royalty in Maranao tradition, not shade for ordinary use.
Kulintang and Agung: The Sound of Singkil
Singkil moves to a kulintang ensemble, not a rondalla or brass band. Musicians tune every instrument in the set to each other, and the instruments are never swapped between ensembles or mixed with instruments tuned differently.
The ensemble is built from five instruments, each with its own role:
- Kulintang: eight small knobbed gongs laid in a row, struck in a running melodic line that carries the main tune
- Agung: a pair of large, deep gongs that mark the main beat
- Gandingan: four hanging gongs that add a secondary melody
- Babandil: a small gong that keeps steady time
- Dabakan: a single headed drum that drives the tempo
Key point
Pole handlers time each clash to the agung’s low strokes, not to the dancer’s feet. That is why the pattern stays locked to the music even as the steps speed up.
The music does not change meter across a performance, it changes texture. A stately kulintang pattern opens the dance for bows and fan gestures. The pole segment settles into a steady, medium tempo built for precise footwork, and the closing movement speeds up for a dramatic finish.
Some early accounts describe an older version of the dance performed with no gong accompaniment at all, just the sound of the poles and the dancer’s anklets. The kulintang ensemble became standard practice later, though it is now inseparable from how Singkil is staged.
A Royal Court Dance: Why Singkil Signals Nobility
Singkil began inside the royal courts of the Maranao sultanates around Lake Lanao, performed for and largely by women of noble birth. Maranao custom historically kept unmarried men and women from dancing together, and this rule held with particular strictness for royalty. That is one reason the earliest form of Singkil was danced by women alone, with men limited to clapping the poles.
Everything about the traditional performance reinforces status. The fans, the umbrella, the layered costume and the composed footwork read, to a Maranao audience, as markers of bai rank rather than stage decoration. A dancer who keeps her bearing while the poles close in demonstrates the self control expected of Maranao nobility, not just athletic skill.
Singkil belongs to a wider lineage of traditional Filipino dances built to mark rank, region or ritual rather than simple entertainment. It remains one of the clearest examples of a dance used to display social standing, not to celebrate a harvest or a saint’s day.
Costume: Malong, Headdress and Royal Ornaments
The lead dancer wears a malong, a wide tube of woven cloth wrapped and pleated into a skirt, paired with a fitted, long sleeved blouse, often in gold or jewel tones with hand embroidery. Maranao weaving uses geometric okir patterns specific to the region, and a dancer’s malong is judged on the richness of its weave as much as its color.
Over this sits an elaborate headdress, built up with beadwork and metal ornaments and sometimes finished with feathers, worn instead of the simple head cloth used in everyday Maranao dress. Bracelets and anklets complete the look, and some staged versions add a crown shaped ornament. The anklets matter beyond decoration: their sound marks each step the way the kulintang marks the beat.
Traditional Court Singkil vs. Competitive Stage Version
Two versions of Singkil circulate today, and they are not interchangeable. The older, community form stays close to its royal origins: a solo dancer or a small group of women, minimal narrative framing, and performance limited to Maranao gatherings and ceremonies. Accounts of the dance’s own origin differ: one researcher traces it to the Basak area near Lake Lanao in the 1930s, while another argues it reached Lanao from Cotabato, and the disagreement has never fully settled.
Early documentation came from Henrietta Hofer-Ele, who studied the dance’s execution in Marawi at the urging of her teacher, Francisca Reyes Aquino, later remembered as the mother of Philippine folk dance. Hofer-Ele’s fieldwork, prompted after she saw a bamboo pole dance at a regional inter-school athletic event, fed into how Singkil was later staged for wider audiences.
The version most Filipinos recognize took shape through the Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company, founded in 1957 out of the Philippine Women’s University’s Filipiniana Folk Arts Group. Choreographer Lucrecia Reyes Urtula, later a National Artist for Dance, restaged the Singkil dance for international touring, drawing on research from Maranao sources, including Princess Tarhata Alonto Lucman. Her staging changed several things about the dance:
- Added a male lead in the role of Prince Bantugan
- Expanded the retinue of fan dancers
- Added a second crossed pair of bamboo poles
- Introduced a three part structure: an opening umbrella bearer segment, the meeting of the princess and prince, and a slower closing movement
The company’s 1958 performance at the Brussels World’s Fair made the piece an international sensation, and it has stayed in Bayanihan’s repertoire since.
This theatrical version is what gets taught in schools and performed in folk dance competitions, and it has spread so widely that many students assume it is the only Singkil. Ethnomusicologist Usopay Cadar and other Maranao cultural advocates have noted that mixed male and female dancing on stage departs from the customs the story is based on.
Neither version is fake. They serve different purposes: one keeps a community ritual close to its original form, and the other adapted the dance for a national stage while keeping its central image, the princess and the closing poles.
Learning Singkil in Schools Today
Philippine schools that teach Singkil almost always teach the Bayanihan staged version, since it is the version documented in folk dance manuals and built for group choreography rather than solo court performance. Coaches usually introduce it through a set progression rather than teaching poles and footwork together from the start.
- Dancers first clap the pole rhythm by hand, without poles or footwork, until the pattern is memorized against the kulintang beat.
- Pole handlers practice opening and closing the crossed poles at a slow, steady tempo, kneeling in fixed positions.
- The lead dancer adds simple in and out steps once the pole rhythm feels automatic.
- Apir fan work and arm movements layer in last, since the fans need free hands during footwork.
- The full sequence runs at performance tempo only once handlers and dancer can hold the pattern without watching each other.
Tip
Coaches drill the bamboo pole rhythm on its own before adding footwork. Dancers who learn the beat first make fewer missteps once the poles begin closing around their feet.
Costume and staging are usually simplified for budget reasons. Many school productions skip the full headdress or use a lighter malong substitute, while keeping the two crossed pole pairs and the apir fans, the two elements audiences most associate with the dance.
Singkil vs. Tinikling: Why People Confuse Them
Search results and casual conversation often merge Singkil and Tinikling because both involve dancers stepping between clapping bamboo poles. The similarity ends there. The Singkil dance is a Maranao Muslim court dance, and it differs from Tinikling in region, music, costume and rhythm, as the table below shows.
Tinikling comes from the Visayas region and imitates the tikling bird dodging bamboo traps set in rice fields. It is a village dance performed in plain barrio dress by anyone, regardless of rank.
| Feature | Singkil | Tinikling |
|---|---|---|
| Region | Maranao homeland, Lake Lanao | Visayas |
| Poles | Two crossed pairs, multi directional rhythm | One pair, simple two count rhythm |
| Music | Kulintang and agung ensemble | Rondalla string music |
| Costume | Embroidered malong, headdress, fans, umbrella | Plain barrio dress |
| Traditionally performed by | Maranao women of noble birth | Anyone, regardless of rank |
| Character | Deliberate and aristocratic | Agile and playful |
Treating the two as versions of the same dance flattens two distinct traditions into one generic idea of “bamboo pole dance.” One is lowland and largely Christian in its later folk form. The other is rooted in Maranao Muslim royal custom.
Singkil in Maranao Life Today
Singkil has not stayed frozen in either the court or the classroom. Maranao cultural groups still perform the community version at weddings and civic events around Lake Lanao, and cultural programs such as Pagana Maranao showcase it alongside kulintang music for wider Filipino audiences. School and university dance troupes, meanwhile, keep the Bayanihan staged version in near constant rotation during Buwan ng Wika, the National Language Month, and at folk dance competitions nationwide.
UNESCO first proclaimed the Darangen epic behind Singkil a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity in 2005, three years before it received formal inscription on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Both versions of the Singkil dance point back to that same source: a princess who does not break stride while the ground moves under her.
The Maranao are one of dozens of Philippine ethnic and regional groups whose dances rarely get taught with much context, and Singkil is one of the more misunderstood among them. Read our guide to Philippine traditions for more dances, rituals and customs from across the archipelago, told with the history most classroom versions leave out.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the word Singkil mean?
Singkil refers to the brass rings and small bells traditionally worn around the ankles of the lead female dancer. The clinking sound they make as she steps between the bamboo poles gave the dance its name. The character she plays is separately called Putri Gandingan.
Who was traditionally allowed to perform Singkil?
In its original court form, Singkil was danced only by Maranao women of noble birth, called bai. Men were limited to clapping the bamboo poles, a boundary rooted in Maranao customs around unmarried men and women dancing together. The staged version that Bayanihan introduced in the 1950s added a male lead dancer.
What is the Sarimanok and why does it appear in Singkil costumes?
The Sarimanok is a mythical bird figure from Maranao art, usually shown holding a fish in its beak, and it stands for good fortune and abundance. Many staged Singkil productions place a Sarimanok ornament on top of the royal umbrella or the princess’s headdress, though it is a decorative addition rather than a detail from the Darangen story itself.
Is Singkil a Muslim or Christian tradition?
Singkil comes from the Maranao, one of the Philippines’ Muslim ethnolinguistic groups centered on Lake Lanao in Mindanao. It should not be confused with Christian lowland folk dances such as Tinikling or Carinosa, which developed in different regions under different colonial and religious influences.
Works Cited
“Darangen Epic of the Maranao People of Lake Lanao.” UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO, n.d., ich.unesco.org/en/RL/darangen-epic-of-the-maranao-people-of-lake-lanao-00159.
“Dancing Darangen: The Way to the Maranao Epic.” National Commission for Culture and the Arts, NCCA, n.d., ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/in-focus/dancing-darangen-the-way-to-the-maranao-epic/.
“Unesco Proclaims Maranao’s Darangan Epic ‘Masterpiece’ of Intangible Heritage.” Philippine Star, 13 Dec. 2005, www.philstar.com/nation/2005/12/13/311974/unesco-proclaims-maranao146s-darangan-epic-145masterpiece-intangible-heritage146.
“Sarimanok Rising: The Colorful Culture of Maranaos.” Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, BARMM, n.d., bangsamoro.gov.ph/news/latest-news/sarimanok-rising-the-colorful-culture-of-maranaos/.
“Singkil.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, n.d., en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singkil.
“Darangen.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, n.d., en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darangen.
“50 Illustrious Years of Bayanihan.” Philippine Star, 29 Oct. 2007, www.philstar.com/lifestyle/arts-and-culture/2007/10/29/24156/50-illustrious-years-bayanihan.
