Collection of Daling daling dances

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4M52ag2C4E

 

 

I just realised how poor Malaysian journalism is.

They just read articles from Filipinoes that assume everything comes from Spain.

If you just understand the words in the song and the dance movements, let alone the music, they are far from any spanish influence.

In fact they are so similar to other Borneo natives. I noticed this when I start watching Mengiluk. I just realised how my late aunty, who was a dancer in her time, had described the latest dances as too hindustan. Mengiluk looks like Sumazau and other local tribes like the Longbawang as well. And Daling daling has some elements of Mengiluk but have added varieties to the dance movements.

It is just more commercialised and most probably influenced by Hindustan movies than any european influence.

Furthermore, don't they realise Daling daling is an English word which means Darling, my loved one. It is a love story.

It was actually invented in Sandakan, the largest British outpost in Borneo in those days, being the capital of Chartered Company that ruled over North Borneo.

And to say that they are from Mindanao is also completely wrong. All the Filipino tribes in Sabah do not come from Mindanao, but from Tawi tawi, the closest, and Sulu islands.

I realised this when I discovered that the Marawi rebels are of different tribes that I have never met in Sabah. All the tribes in Sabah identify themselves from Islands in Tawi tawi and Sulu islands, not Mindanao.

Although many Filipinoes have settled in Mandanao because of the large city of Zamboanga, but they do not necessaril originate from there. In fact, many also settled in Manila, because it is the capital of the Philippines.

Many of the dance songs are also recent songs which were created in Sabah by these recent Filipino migrants. In fact these songs and dances are not danced in the Phiippines. They are widely danced in Sabah only.

But recently I noticed that the Filipinoes have started to follow their relatives in Sabah, but the way they dance are so awkward.

Collection of Mengiluk dances.

Mengiluk is deemed as a Suluk dance but many other tribes have similar dancing style, even similar sounding names. Mengiluk is actually a Suluk word, meaning, dance, just as mengalai also means dance in bajau.

You can say that Mengiluk is the actual traditional dance of the Tausugs, especially in Sabah, not Daling daling. Daling daling is an improvised Mengiluk.

I chose Tawau and Likas because these are the places with the most number of migrant Tausugs and Bajaus. Local Suluks stopped the dances because they led to fights due to jealousies.

The migrants set up dance teams for Wedding performances. Whereas locals tend to go for modern dances like Malay dances and western dances, the Filipinoes offered traditional dances.


It started in Likas and Semporna, a town near Tawau, but spread to other parts of Sabah. It is up to the inhabitants of Sabah to resurrect these cultures.

During my brother's wedding, my mother even performed the Suluk culture of putting money to the dances body. The bajaus also did it in Semporna.

At Kota Kinabalu, we called a troupe from the Sabah cultural dance to perform but they rely on a video of the dance to emulate. Not their natural dance so not so elegant. They can dance Sumazau and Joget very well though.

By going to youtube, I noticed that there are many other groups from the Likas area who are able to perform these traditional Tausug and Bajau dances.

At the east coast of Sabah, you can see them perform, the same group actually, from Sandakan to Tawau, but I do not see the culture of putting money except when my daughter in law danced in front of her husband, in Kunak. My wife put money on her body but not me. Only women did these, but I noticed that a few men did it in some other places.

However this practise of putting money on the body of the performer will not work with Mengiluk because it is too fast.

Tawau

 

Tawau Full HD

Likas

 

Cheonan Dance Festival, Korea

UMK, Kelantan, Full HD

 

Creative Mengiluk from UMS, Full HD

 

Perlis

 

Kuala Lumpur

Moscow

 

Tawau

 

Keningau

 

 Exercising

 

Official sound of Mengiluk