23rd Dance Celebration

It is new in my learning that a Dance Celebration is held annually. Based on what I watched, it is an inter-school dance competition with street dance and contemporary dance as some of its categories. This year has a theme about the involvement of youth, basically we, as students to the upcoming elections. Each dance group performer is not introduced by school, so the audience usually guess the alma mater of the performers. It’s just that UPans were so proud to cheer the representatives of the university, and with their cheers, we were able to recognize who among the performers are our schoolmates. Dance groups of different schools showcased the theme. Some had added patriotism in their craft while some used nationalistic icons, historical happenings and people in ornamenting their dance. But, some aren’t much anchored with the theme, rather tackled the social realism as seen at a present day situation. What I like about the dance competition is that, it reinforced the dance groups to conceptualize a theme for their presentation. Based on what I watched, it is evident that most of the groups had prepared for their piece. The objective of the organizers of the event to have the given theme stimulated not only the performers but also the viewers to think of the happenings in our society. The De La Salle University is this year’s host of the event and I personally didn’t like the way they handled the event. Maybe my point of view is biased because I didn’t like their intermission performances. The choral (as what they had introduced) surprisingly is a solo singer and pianist and the very long Contemporary Jazz performance choreographed by the school’s resident choreographer/teacher vividly marked in my head. The jazz performance has the narrative of nationalism and patriotism which in the end appeared to be trying hard because of their inappropriate approach on the performance’s elements. At the end of the night, UP bagged the champion and first runner-up awards. The two group performances of UP is great but based on what I watched, I can’t agree with the result of the dance competition in street dance category. Of course, I would want UP to win, but as what I call it, for UP to place the top two awards, is not just. There were still a couple of groups which are, objectively speaking very well made and worthy to be part of the top three. But, since I am not a part of the panel of judges, their decision of having UP at the top two slots and placing the dance group which portrayed street begging must be recognized with respect.

STREET FUZION X: Decade, Vision, and Dance

March 12, 2010 is the day. A decade of effluent celebration of the campus-renowned group which draws its name out of the Academic world, the UP Street Dance Club. Great dance is what the club offers and with that, the club came up to a Dance Concert to the viewing folks. As I arrive at the UP Theater last Friday, I am overwhelmed by the crowd of audience to the supposed concert. Long lines for different ticket amounts, same arguments of the people outside talking about the Street Dance Club member they know and how great in dancing is he/she, and the sort. Based on the numerous people outside the theater, I started to expect a great show. As the dance concert started to show some clips, people became very enthusiastic of what they were watching. Shouts of cheers were heard, thriving around the theater. And as some of my classmates joined the cheering, I started to unravel the semiotics of the dance concert production. The stage design is not that grandiose. There were three projectors throwing slides of pictures and video clips at the screen. Two square screens at both ends and one circular screen (which projects unity and equality) behind the performers is present at the center upper stage. The stage design is simply conventional with the kind of show it has to serve. It is actually new to know that a dance group like the UP Street Dance Club is not only a group of dancers/choreographers/teachers. Their advocacy of helping a student to continue his/her studies with their scholarship program is very admirable and inspiring. Usually, what people see is superficial, that the group is a bunch of people who perform and choreograph a dance. People must recognize how these people see education and for that UP SDC is such a commendable group. The proscenium held the unified greatness and power the performers offered and at times, reached out to the audience. They had showcased dance performances which hit the expectations of the viewers. It can be called as spectacle, but a spectacle with very much spirit. The club is now ten years old. With the characteristics each member has, and with its composition as a whole, I am sure it’ll last for more years, an additional decade, a century, or so.