Sayawit Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A secondary-school team of 5 to 7 performers sings Visayan folk songs and dances at the same time, with live accompaniment and no props, in 3 to 6 minutes, marked out of 100 on theme, performance, musicality and choreography.

Sayawit is a team class in which the performers sing and dance at the same moment. The name joins two Filipino words, sayaw (dance) and awit (song), and that is exactly what the panel expects to see: not a choir standing beside a dance troupe, but one group of people carrying the song and the movement together, in line with the theme of the year.

On the printed rules of the school-division event behind our template, a Sayawit team has at least 5 and at most 7 performers, boys, girls or a mix, not counting the instrumentalists. The songs must be Visayan folk songs and must be sung continuously, so there are no long silent dance passages. The accompaniment must be live, and any instruments that suit the concept may be used. Props are not allowed.

The presentation lasts at least 3 and at most 6 minutes including entrance and exit. The clock starts when the performers enter the stage and stops after the last person has left it, and 5 points come off the total for every excess minute. On the eTalenter template the class is a team entry open to boys and girls together, with no language set, a 6-minute ceiling and a maximum of 100 marks, entered in the secondary-learners group. The template ages for that group (13 to 18) are placeholders because the source only says secondary school learners, so a coordinator should set the real ages for their own event.

A round runs in call order. The team and its instrumentalists take their places, perform their folk-song medley or single extended song with its choreography, and leave the stage inside the limit. Organisers run it because it keeps regional folk songs alive in the repertoire of young people, asks for singing, dancing and musicianship in one performance, and gives a school a way to enter a small, tightly rehearsed team rather than a large troupe.

Where Sayawit is run

In eTalenter’s data this class is carried by one template: the culture and arts competitions of a school division in Bohol, in the central Philippines, where it is the secondary-learners song-and-dance event beside a guitar ensemble for the same learners. Competitions run from district level up to the division, and the winners represent the division at higher levels. That is the only template carrying this exact item, so the page makes no wider claim; song-and-dance classes exist at festivals elsewhere, but under other names and rules.

• Philippines (Bohol)

Key facts

• Team entry, open to boys and girls together; no language is set on the template, but the printed rules require Visayan folk songs
• 5 to 7 performers (male, female or a mix), not counting the instrumentalists
• Performance of 3 to 6 minutes including entrance and exit; 5 points are deducted for every excess minute
• Marked out of 100: Theme Relevance 15, Performance 35, Musicality 25, Choreography and Originality 25
• Songs sung continuously, singing and dancing at the same time, with live accompaniment; no props
• Idea starters, not rules: a work-song medley that dances out planting and harvest gestures, a fishing-village song whose formations ripple like waves, a lullaby that turns into a lively festival chorus, a courtship song danced in pairs and then in lines

On eTalenter, Sayawit is filed under On Stage and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Sayawit is most often entered as an Team competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 6 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Sayawit

What a Sayawit panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Theme Relevance (15): the choice of songs, the costumes and the overall concept; every element should visibly belong to the theme of the year rather than being a generic folk number
• Performance (35): the biggest block, covering staging, spacing, formations, execution, showmanship, projection, entertainment value and crowd appeal; clean formations and confident faces earn more than busy steps done nervously
• Musicality (25): clear, well-balanced pitch, rhythm, harmony and voice quality while moving; the singing must stay in tune and in time when the dance gets lively
• Choreography and Originality (25): dance arrangements and a concept with unique, original and creative moves, so a fresh treatment of a known folk song scores above a copy of a familiar routine
• Time discipline: 3 to 6 minutes including entrance and exit, with 5 points off for every excess minute; a slow walk-on or exit uses the same clock as the song
• Where marks are won or lost: singing continuously while dancing is the hard part of this class, so teams that rehearse breath control with the steps usually beat teams that polish the dance and let the voices fade

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Sayawit under Scoring Setup, or start from the full folk dance competition judging criteria guide.

How to prepare for Sayawit

How entrants and their teachers usually get Sayawit right on the day:

• Start from the theme: read it, then choose Visayan folk songs whose words and mood fit it, and write one sentence that states the concept before any steps are made
• Keep to 5 to 7 performers and decide early which singers also do the most demanding moves, so no one is asked to do the hardest steps at the loudest moment
• Build the choreography around the singing: place the big moves where breath is available and keep the steps simple where the vocal line is long
• Rehearse the song alone with the marking movements, then the dance alone, then both together at half speed before reaching full tempo
• Settle the live accompaniment: how many instrumentalists, which instruments, and where they sit so they do not block the formations; remember props are not allowed
• Plan costumes that carry the theme and still allow free movement and clear breathing
• Time a full run from the first entrance to the last exit, keep it inside six minutes, and cut a repeat rather than rush the tempo
• After a district loss, ask for the criterion marks and rework the weakest block first; low Musicality means more sung rehearsals while moving, low Choreography and Originality means a fresher arrangement of the same songs

Frequently asked questions

Is Sayawit judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Team entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

What does Sayawit mean?

The name joins the Filipino words for dance (sayaw) and song (awit). In this class it means a performance in which the same people sing and dance at the same time.

Which songs can we sing?

On the printed rules the songs must only be Visayan folk songs and must be sung continuously. If your own event prints different language or song rules, follow those.

Can we use a backing track or props?

No on both counts under the printed rules: the accompaniment must be live, and props are not allowed.

How many performers are allowed?

At least 5 and at most 7, boys, girls or a mix, not counting the instrumentalists.

How long can the performance be?

At least 3 and at most 6 minutes, including entrance and exit. Every excess minute costs 5 points, and the eTalenter template sets 6 minutes as the maximum.

Want the full judging picture? Read the full folk dance competition judging criteria guide, or browse every on stage competition item.