Dance, dance

On my first year in the Philippines, they wrapped me up in some decorative cloth, thrust me into dance practices, and had me join the class in a folkdance competition. I barely understood what was happening. I remember snippets of the whole thing— teachers trying to get me into clothes with sequins and lace and layers of cloth and classmates trying to teach me dance moves on weekends. The class was supposed to dance for the Buwan ng Wika 3rd grade folkdance competition.

Because I was new, it apparently was a must for me to join the dance competition of a dance I barely understood. I did horribly. We lost. That was my first close encounter with the art of Filipino dances. Since then, school had me join annual folk dance contests and these were pretty fun. I love the idea how dance, or art, expresses your culture so beautifully. And the lengths we as students went through to express these things were mind-blowing. We did a Pintados dance once, and yes, we painted our bodies with black paint (which I’m pretty sure was not safe for the skin. But, yey! No injuries!).

I have since stopped my dancing career (LOL! NOT TRUE! There never was one to begin with) because high school dancing was years ago and we don’t do much dancing at work.

Recently, though, I got my fill of the beautiful art of festival dances.

A couple of weeks ago, we helped out in organizing the Mega Cebu Youth Convention, a huge gathering of young people from all of the member local government units (LGUs) of the MCDCB. The LGUs brought their dancing contingents and it became an afternoon of inspiration and dancing.

It was amazing to see the passion and dedication of all the young dancers from the different LGUs. They were driven by their dances and each of them told a story of their history and heritage through fluid movements, dazzling props, and an energy that showed nothing but pure passion for dance.

The room was practically buzzing with excitement and pride, as each contingent took center stage and told their stories through their festival dance. As I watched them perform, I got that warm, fuzzy feeling radiating from my stomach, feeling nothing but pride to have a country filled with so much history, culture and art. I was in awe. It fills the heart to see so many young people taking pride in our own dances. We should all continue loving our history and culture. We should all take pride in being Filipino.

Let’s all dance to this country’s rhythm.