📄 Abstract
This study aimed to document and analyze the cultural origins of the Gi-ok dance of Cortes, Bohol as a basis for cultural preservation and scholarly documentation. Specifically, it examined how Gi-ok emerged from the agricultural, devotional, and communal life of the Cortesanon people. A descriptive-qualitative research design was employed through interviews, field observations, movement demonstrations, video-assisted clarification, and documentary analysis. Eight purposively selected participants, composed of one key informant, three cultural bearers and elders, and four practitioners, served as sources of community-based knowledge. Findings revealed that Gi-ok originated from the traditional agricultural act of feet-threshing, locally associated with pressing, twisting, grinding, and scraping the soles of the feet to separate harvested rice grains from their stalks. Participant responses connected the practice to farming, planting, harvesting, harvest thanksgiving, and communal labor. The findings also connected Gi-ok to rice-producing communities of old Cortes, particularly Camayaan, where harvest thanksgiving was remembered as part of communal life after a good yield. Over time, the agricultural thanksgiving practice became associated with devotion to the Niño and was integrated into the religious life of Cortes. Its movement identity is preserved through the Gi-ok step, which imitates the action of threshing rice, while its devotional function is expressed through thanksgiving, offering, prayer, and communal participation. The study concludes that Gi-ok is a distinct Cortesanon devotional-agricultural dance that preserves the community’s memory of farming, faith, thanksgiving, and cultural identity.
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📚 How to Cite:
Chrystel Mariz R. Gementiza, LPT, Dr. Rafunzel Y. Bulilawa , PRESERVING HERITAGE: CULTURAL ORIGINS OF THE GI-OK DANCE OF CORTES, BOHOL , Volume 12 , Issue 6, June 2026, EPRA International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (IJMR) , Pages: 557 - 562 , DOI: https://doi.org/10.36713/epra30646