One of the groups that performed in the elimination round of the
Fifth Interpretative Dance Competition Festival at SM Fairview.
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MANILA, Philippines - The past Sunday was a big
day for my friend, dance teacher Gigi Felix Velarde. It was the day her
Fifth Interpretative Dance Competition Festival was being launched with its
first elimination round at SM Fairview. Gigi had been working on this
project for about a year already and when SM agreed to sponsor the event by
providing free venue, stage and sound system for the four elimination rounds
plus the finals, I came on board with the desire to help her find
sponsors. It sounded like a very noble project: to teach values through
dance!
The festival is open to youth from age 15 and up,
and the only rules are that the entries must be interpretative, and must have a
theme. Gigi, idealist that she is, believes that if we develop “better people,
we can have a better world.” And being a dance teacher, what other instrument
would she use then? Gigi, being the daughter of renowned ballet teacher Joji
Felix Velarde, and wanting to continue her mother’s legacy, chose to teach
values through dance.
When I found out about Gigi’s dance festival, I
offered to help. But everyone I wrote to either turned me down or did not
respond at all. So much so that I started to wonder if nobody believes anymore
in molding the youth through teaching them the right values. Or perhaps simply
nobody is willing to fork out money for the arts — most specifically
dance. What is dance after all, but merely a means of
entertainment?
I was terribly disappointed and Gigi was
alternately angry and disillusioned. She was not making money out of this
project, she was in fact only charging P1,000 per group that registered. If
there was any support at all it came from San Juan where Gigi hails from, and
Quezon City where both the first-round eliminations and the grand finals would
be held. Gigi went into this despite having no funds, and should we fail to
find sponsors, even the operating expenses would come from her own
pocket. I also started to question whether I was knocking on the wrong
doors, and why I had not found the people who would actively support the arts.
So many groups wanted to audition, none of them
from La Salle or Ateneo, mind you, and it was heartening to feel the enthusiasm
of the youth to use their energies in such a positive venue. Isn’t it, after
all, so much better that the youth occupy themselves with this rather than
waste their time experimenting with drugs, pre-marital sex and alcohol?
Last Sunday I sat in the audience watching 15
groups made up of youth from various organizations and schools: PULP or People
Understanding Life Positively who performed about AIDS; Likhang Galaw of P.U.P.
who performed to Anak about maternal love; Next to Inocence, a popular hip-hop
group from Bulacan that performed the winning number about the EDSA Revolution;
the Norzagaray Dance Troupe’s “Calamity”; FCPC Balik Tanaw High School
Dance Troupe on social injustice, just to name a few.
I stared at the huge backdrop and felt so sad
that I was unable to put a single logo of a company there. It is just dance after all.
But how powerful these dances were! Several
times during the program I found myself in tears, and getting goosebumps,
because interpretative dance is a very powerful medium. The themes chosen
were very poignant and close to home: an OFW’s life, love for nature, teen rebellion,
the EDSA revolution, AIDS. Most of the songs used were created by Filipino
musicians, therefore the performances were even nationalistic, and very moving,
very touching. There were no fancy costumes, no special effects, just dancers
that evoked so much meaning and emotion.
Three more eliminations will be held over the
next few months and the finals will be held on June 24 at SM Fairview. I
reassure Gigi that we still have time to knock on doors...that we can still
hope and pray that some philanthropist out there will take heed and help us
finance this project. Every peso counts, every effort matters. We can still
hope that somebody with a social conscience will come forward.
Or so we hope, or so we pray.
