Ismayling (also called Amoracion or Amoral during the Spanish era) is a courtship dance popular among almost every town in Samar. The word ismayling is from the English word "smiling". The Ismayling is the balitaw form for Samar and Leyte. The balitaw, though popular as a folk dance of many versions, is primarily (or importantly) known in a song form according to the Visayans. The balitaw is an impromptu joust of poetic lines done by daring mag-irismaylingon that usually revolve around funny topics about the contenders' personal shortcomings. Certainly, no offense is meant; it is all for sheer fun. The delighted audience would usually shout, "Balitaw?" or "really?" when one contender running out of lines purposely use fabricated lines attacking the opponent. One funny line from an Ismayling line by a woman to a male opponent recorded in Villareal, Samar stated:
...bisan ka pa Intoy, mag-uro-ismayling kay dinidiri ka hit ak kasing-kasing. An dinidiria-an han ak' kasing-kasing kay di ka maaram , magtanum hin saging!
(Smile as you may, Intoy. I will never love you still. You don't even know how to plant a banana!)
The pressure to think of clever and funny lines is relieved by interspersing the singing with the dancing. Sure enough, the dance is also love play, where the male mag-ismaylingon expresses his interest (or even love outright) to the surprise of the female mag-ismaylingon. As expected, the latter would spurn his advances.
It is popularly believed, though, that many of the mag-ismaylingon couples paired by the bastonero (the person who appoints the couple who will perform the ismayling) eventually ended up married.
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