I managed to tug along dad and my sister. Mom could have filed leave from work only if the announcement came earlier. When we came to the school, there were just few people; those who joined the motorcade hadn’t arrived yet. The wait wasn’t long though. Breakfast was served before the program started and while everybody was busy roaming about, I caught some of the faculty members passing by and made a quick introduction with my family. “This is Miss…, my former instructor in… and Miss…, head of the so department…; my dad and my sister” They welcomed them warmly especially our department Coordinator (acting Dean) who, once in a while, would ask me whether my companions were done eating or had found convenient seats.
My co-emcee didn’t make it on time so Sir Bert had to fill-in. The night before, he told me to make it casual and relaxed – as much as possible, do not speak English. Guess what, it was harder for both of us to think of appropriate Filipino words! Luckily, our verbal blunders consequently contributed to the fun. We shared a good chat in between the messages and intermission numbers and the school officials commended the witty ad-libs.
The Hotel Restaurant Management (HRM) students did most of the preparations for the activity. They skirted the tables, cooked and served the meals, and prepared cocktails. Two of their students rendered interesting numbers. They were the champion and the second placer for the recent City competition for bartending (which, if I’m not mistaken, is what they also call “flaring”). Echo, who was my classmate in a minor subject, really did great with his exhibition. Widel and Genevie, who were our champions for vocal duet (featured in my post "Where Speaking Brought Me" ), did a repeat of their performance.
All in all, the activity was a success although only few parents attended. I guess the school should disseminate the information earlier so more could attend next time.
The next day, I wasn’t able to attend Sunday worship. There was an invitation by the Freeport Recreation Committee to dance sport lessons and I went with 2 workmates. The training was held in my high school and facilitated by Mr. Stanley Alexander, CEO of the Philippine Professional Dance Sport Association. That training I guess was secondary to his actual purpose of training the students of the Olongapo Special Program for the Arts who are also the Philippine delegation to an International Dance Sport Tournament to be held in Australia. The dancers came home victorious from another competition held last year in Taiwan I think and they are really good! Read: their ages are between 12 and 14 and there are two imports who are just about 4th graders!
Stanley was a patient instructor and really gave the participants significant pointers on dos and don’ts when performing. It’s been both a good privilege and a little embarrassing that he had to dance with me twice because I had a hard time executing 4 consecutive spot turns and he also noticed that I wasn’t able to make a strong lead for my partner. He said I would eventually learn the spot turns by watching the videos he gave our group.
That day, we learned the basics of waltz, foxtrot, rumba and cha-cha; the most amusing for me are foxtrot and cha-cha. When I had my PE2 during my first year in college, I was among the good dancers. This time, I learned that the waltz has prescribed facings to the walls as you glide across the floor and being conscious of that makes footwork confusing. It’s harder than I thought!
Before the training ended, we were taught a little of jive which is a very energetic dance and the competitors performed by pair, their beautiful and stunning routines dressed in their striking costumes as well.
A tiring day that was but fun and exciting nonetheless. Well, I wish I would be able to dance better soon! I’ll let you know.
"To the beat of the rhythm of the night
dance until the morning light
Forget about the worries on your mind
we can leave them all behind"
Valeria, The Rhythm of the Night
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