Teacher Guide to "The Wedding

Dance" by Amador Daguio

By Rebecca Ray
"The Wedding Dance" is a power house of raw emotion contained in such a short story.
As the reader is drawn into the story of love versus cultural reality with Awiyao leaving
Lumnay for another woman to "give him a child", it jars with our contemporary view of
the world. Use this teacher guide to get the most out of the story and explore the deep
symbolism and themes contained within.

A Quick Plot Spoiler of "The Wedding

Dance"
The Wedding Dance by Amador Daguio is a short story about a husband and wife,
Awiyao and Lumnay, who had been married for seven years. In spite of being in love
with his wife, Lumnay, Awiyao feels the need to marry another in order to have a son. At
his second marriage celebration Awiyao went to check on Lumnay knowing she was
upset. Awiyao thought the answer to Lumnay's sorrow would be to have her join the
other women during the wedding dance. Lumnay was in fact at his wedding, but left
because she could not stand the idea of her husband marrying another woman because
she could not give him children.
Part of the storys theme is Awiyaos lack of regard for Lumnays feelings and his
willingness to abandon her.

Essential Questions for The Wedding

Dance :
1. What is your legacy?
2. How important is having children to you? How important is it in your family? What
about in your culture?
3. When is love not enough to conquer all?

Activities for "The Wedding Dance"

Create a Plot diagram for The Wedding Dance!
A common used case for students is to create a plot diagram of the events from a story.
Not only is this a great way to teach the parts of plot, but to reinforce major events and
help students develop greater understanding for literary structures.
Students can create and show a storyboard that captures the concept of the narrative
arc in a story by creating a six cell storyboard that contains the major parts of the plot
diagram. For each cell, have students create a scene that follows the story in sequence
using; Exposition, Conflict, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution.

Plot Diagram Example "The Wedding Dance":

Exposition
The setting is in a mountain village of the Philippines where Awiyao has just been
remarried.

Conflict
Awiyao has left his wife Lumnay, who he loved very much. However, she couldnt
give him a child. He has now married Madulimay in hopes to have a son, who will
continue on his legacy. This is something Awiyao expresses as important in his
culture. However, Lumnay is upset because she loves Awiyao and doesnt want
this separation.

Rising Action
Outside of their house the women of the village are dancing in celebration of the
wedding. Awiyao leaves to try and comfort Lumnay. He offers her the house,
fields, and his mothers beads, all of which are items of the life that they built
together. This however, is not what Lumnay wants. Despite her repeated attempts
to sway him, Awiyao stands steadfast that they cannot be together because he
needs a child.

Climax
Awiyao finally leaves to re-join the wedding and Lumnay runs to the hills.

Falling Action

Lumnay sits on the side of the mountain overlooking the blazing fire and dancing
women, thinking about how her life has changed. She has a sense of
desperation, isolation, and worthlessness.

Resolution
The reader is left not knowing what will become of Lumnay.

reate a Character Map to Track Important Traits!

While students are reading it is often helpful to use a storyboard that creates a character
reference log. A character map allows students to recall important information about the
characters. When reading a story it is often little attributes that later return and become
an important detail in the plot. Through the use of character mapping students will not
miss this information and will be able to better follow along and catch subtle fine points
which makes reading more enjoyable.

Major Characters

Lumnay
Awiyaos former wife who is still in love with him despite the fact he married
another.

Awiyao
The lead male in the story who loves Lumnay, but left her because she didnt
produce children for him. The story takes place the night of his new wedding to
Madulimay.

Madulimay
Awiyaos new wife, who is younger and he hopes to have children with

Show Your Understanding of Symbolism with this

Storyboard!
A valuable aspect of any work of literature is the concept of symbolism. Part of the
common core ELA strands is to introduce and explain this complex concept. Much like
themes these ideas are abstract and are often difficult to get students grasp on their
own. This is why using a storyboard is so helpful. They allow students to visually
demonstrate their understanding of a concept likesymbolism.

An example of this in the classroom could be to track the six symbols that this story uses
to send a strong lesson to its readers.

6 Elements of Symbolism

Gangsas
The gangsas are significant because they are culturally important to the story.
The sound of the gangsas represents the man in the wedding ceremony. Like the
gangsas, they are strong and provide beat to the dance, or beat to life.

Dancing
Culturally the dancing is a celebration of happiness. However, it is a show of
sexuality for women. Because Lumnay has not produced a child she feels
ashamed to dance and show herself to the other men as she believes no one will
look at her.

The Fire
The fire or flames signify the burning intensity of both love and hate that Lumnay
has for the situation.

The beads
The beads in the story symbolize the promise that Awiyao made to Lumnay. They
are also very precious and are worth 20 fields. The fact that Awiyao gives them to
Lumnay signifies that he cherishes her and that he still believes she has worth.

The Floor
A number of times the narrator draws the readers attention to the rattan floor as
Lumnay pulls it apart. This is symbolic of their marriage unweaving.

The Night
The setting is at night which aids symbolically to the darkness and isolation that
Lumnay feels as she runs away from the village.

Talk About The Theme of Letting Love Go!

Valuable aspects of any work of literature is the concept of theme. Part of the common
core ELA strands is to introduce and explain this complex concept. However, abstract

ideas are often difficult to get students to anatomize without much assistance. Howbeit,
using a storyboard students can visually demonstrate their understanding of a concepts
like theme.
An example of this in the classroom could be to track the theme of this story uses to
send a strong lesson to its readers.

Theme for Discussion

If you truly love a person, you must let them be happy: Have you ever heard
the saying if you love someone let them go? Well, the story of Lumnay and
Awiyao is very similar to this. Despite how upsetting it is to Lumnay, she must let
Awiyao go. Not only because it is a cultural issue, but it is also because he has
made it clear to her that he will not be happy without a child.

For this assignment you can have students come up with times that they had to let
something they love go. This is a great discussion starter for this theme!
Plot of the story wedding dance by Amador Daguio?

The character's goal in the story was to have a child because in their tribe they
need to have a child . the main problem was lumnay and awiyao can't have a
child so awiyao needs to marry another woman , madulimay. If I were confronted
with the same problem , I would get really hurt if my husband were to marry
another woman because we cannot have a child and it will hurt because I know
that he loves me but yet he needs to find another for he's own good and for his
responsibilities. The type of conflict was man vs. man or man vs. itself because in
man vs. man the people in his tribe is telling him to marry another in man vs.
itself he loves lumnay but he needs to marry another so he is making a hard
decision. They solved the problem by thinking it over. They talked to each other.
The best part of the story was the ending because I think when lumnay went to
the wedding dance and its like she wanted to go there but she couldn't its like
she already moved on even though it hurts. No , because I thought that it will be
lumnay and awiyao because they love each other but yet awiyao married
another. If I could end the story I would end it by lumnay and awiyao would be
together even though they cannot have a child because if they love each other

they should be together because I believe that if you love someone you should
fight for him/her and no matter how much people criticize you for that.

The wedding dance by amador daguio?

Leovin Colibao
Answered Last

The Wedding Dance by Amador T. Daguio is about Awiyao and Lumnay, a long
married couple from the Mountain tribes. Awiyao is going to marry another
woman, Madulimay, because Lumnay was not able to give him a child.
Awiyao went back home to see Lumnay because he didn't find her among the
dancers at his wedding. He wanted Lumnay to dance at his wedding for the last
time but she cannot. On their moment, there are many flashbacks about how
Lumnay did her best to have a child, through offering to the god, Kabunyan; and
how Awiyao and Lumnay's love was as strong as the river; but "it is just that a
man must have a child", and he had to leave her. He promised her that if he fails
to have a child, he will come back to her.
She wanted to protest against the written rule that a man can marry another
woman, so Lumnay went to the wedding dance. But while seeing her husband
married to another woman, she could not take it anymore and just went to the
mountain to clear away the beans she had thought about.
And so Lumnay, waiting for Awiyao a long time, thought of Awiyao's promise as
she cleared away the growing bean plants.