ROOTS

 .marikina city.philippines.

photo credit: Mac Dimanlig & Alex Gutierrez

 

My Roots Battle experience:

Waacking, House or Bgirlin’? My gawd I am a confused little girl.

Thing is I don’t want to be so much like a purist. I believe that dance evolves and it fuses all styles. But yes I believe in learning all foundations before breaking them… Maybe I was just so impatient.

* * *

Because I sucked at hitting the beat, Brooklyn Terry came up to me and said, “Hey Tiny! (This was his nickname for me hahaha!) You think too much! You gotta just listen to the music & feel!!! Like… do you ever listen to music even when you’re not dancing?”

I said no.

There you go. “You have to make music your boyfriend.”

But yeah, this was just one snippet of lesson that this whole experience taught me. They have all this philosophies about dance & life that they spread, that I believe we already know. But I guess it had to take them to say it in our faces to really absorb it… And it has to take us to watch them live to really comprehend what they believe about music. Shoot, they were like making love to it!!! The energy just flowed through them, through the crowd, enveloping us with positivity. I was with Rycher Christian Alfonso & Maya Carandang that time, and I could see undeniable fire sparked in their eyes. Heck, it was the same fire I saw in Maya when we were competing at Worlds! I guess, for Allstars, it sparked something that got extinguished because of everything that has happened.

As for me, I still burn with so much passion & craving to learn everything in spite of lack of time & well, my age. I might have sucked during the battle, but at least I was in the cypher.

BILOOOOOOOOG!!!

CONGRATULATIONS & THANK YOU to Lema, Madelle, Prince & Vince for pushing this, making this all happen. I feel so sorry for those who missed this, big time. I have been to a lot of events/competitions/workshops where OG’s were present, but none of them were as special as this one. For it happened right here at our homeland. Nothing were out of place, not even the electrical breakout could kill it last night. Grabeee, sarap lahat from Pre-Selection to the Workshops, to hanging out with them, to the Finals.

CONGRATS to all the Champions, you all deserved it! Ian (grabe, kahelera ka na nina Prince & Vince!), Phil, Chris, Gadz, Haslah & partner, go out and inspire everyone!

Thank you to the Elite Force Crew, Bboy Ynot & Bboy Chen Chen, and our very own Eauj Corpuz (thanks for giving me a point btw, hehehe!).

Lastly, THANK YOU LORD for the gift of dance.

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BOBBY MILEAGE’s reply to my photo blog: 

WHAT UP TINY?? IT IS OK TO WANT TO DO MORE STYLES! YOU DO NOT HAVE TO FEEL LIKE A PURIST! PEOPLE GET CONFUSED WHEN WE TALK ABOUT FOUNDATION AND LEARNING!! WE SAY THIS SO THAT PEOPLE CAN GET MORE VOCABULARY AND THEN BECOME MORE CREATIVE!! … HOUSE ALSO HAS MANY OTHER STYLES OF DANCED INFUSED IN IT! AS WELL AS ALL OUR DANCES!! BUT LIKE I TELL PEOPLE BECOME GREAT IN ONE DANCE AND THEN MOVE ON TO THE NEXT!! I CAME FROM HIP HOP AND THEN LEARNED HOUSE FOR 7 YRS BEFORE I EVEN EVER CONSIDERED TEACHING IT!! LOVE IT, LIVE IT, LEARN IT, THEN SPREAD IT!! THIS IS THE PURIST IT GETS BEING FREE INSIDE OF THE MUSIC DOING WHATEVER YOU FEEL!! IF YOU CAME TO THE CLUBS BACK IN MY DAY YOU COULD SEE MANY STYLES ROCKIN IN ONE CLUB NO MATTER THE MUSIC!! SO KEEP IT AND DO NOT THINK ABOUT SO MUCH! DANCE FOR YOUR LIFE AND FOR YOUR FREEDOM AND MIND!!
YOU ARE NEVER TOO OLD!! I ALWAYS DANCED BUT DID NOT PURSUE THIS CAREER UNTIL I WAS 27 ALMOST 28YRS OLD!! SO JUST KEEP THE FIRE AND KEEP ON IMPROVING! DANCE IS LIFE!! MUCH LOVE TO THE PHILLIPINES!! THANK YOU FOR HAVING EF AND HOPE TO COME BACK AGAIN!!

THE SHORTEST DISTANCE BETWEEN POINT A & POINT B

.los angeles.california.usa.

 

Happy 2 Years of Bboyin’ to ME!

i actually don’t wanna go home to bboyin’ in the PI. it sucks. after all i’ve experienced, read, watched, after meeting a lot of ‘em bboys greater than PI bboys will ever be, after consuming a lifetime worth of bits & nuggets about what every bboy’s framework should be, i DREAD going home to them. THEM condescending & overbearing ones who look up to no one but themselves. i DREAD to look in their eyes & see not fervour to upgrade themselves for bboyin’s sake but the feverish attempt to better themselves for, uh, their OWN’s sake.

i worry about the other seemingly lesser but much much more superior bboys. but, i dunno, as far as i know, if guided, they won’t be as sama & as evil (hehe pareho lang yun ah!) as them. i bet they would just say (aboout bboyin’ in the PI), “IT SUCKS.”

* * * * * * *

had lots of compliments about my LJing (or blogging/web blogging). sometimes it flatters me, other times it makes me uncomfortable. i initially wanted to write incognito. but then there had been this group that i wanted to update my life about so i put it in existence, y’know labelled or marked existence. it was fun at times. but sometimes, just like what i am in person, i just want to be invisible. i just wanna be just that person sitting in the corner that sees everything from the most trivial to the most noteworthy & extraordinary. the looker, the observer… the one that was ignored. the one that was not attended to, the one that was free. but as this got into its full existence, had friends & became famous, the hand that weaves its words changed too… the thoughts were edited, the words were controlled, emotions were drafted with caution.

it was not anymore to please myself.
it doesn’t live up to its own purpose.
it isn’t free no more.
the life of it has ceased to exist.

maybe it’s really the time & the vastness of it that i have that i’m able to spend here. back home, the lack of access to the ‘net has always just given me a sounding board for things that matters more…. or maybe it’s the thought that i know that they know that i know, err, that i’m read. back then, under disguise i had the gigil to pour out anything without looking over my shoulder, & spew undiluted thoughts…

is it really its existence that is questioned? is it having a life-crisis?… or it it merely a reflection of its owner’s own existence?

* * * * * * *

what are you talking about?

* * * * * * *

walang pakialamanan.

* * * * * * *

there are doors that are closed as new ones are opened.

there are doors that are closed but are not locked.

there are doors that wait fot the right person to open it.

there are doors that are unused but its beauty deems much much more essential than its function.

and there are doors that are kept ajar forever.

coz some people are just plain doltish to notice that a door is not a wall.

6TH IN THE WORLD, 1ST IN THEIR HEARTS

.los angeles.california.usa.

 

i posted this in friendster:

“sup, we’re still here in LA… so happy to tell you that filipinos are now respected & admired by a lot of dancers, the best in the hiphop world. tis swell. no words to describe it. sarap lang… when all these people come up to us & say “i’m half,” and they say it with so much pride. even black people from UK & trinidad&tobago telling us, “we’re filipinos,” when clearly they aren’t, just showing us how we earned their respect…

we really represented. so damn proud to be part of ALLSTARS.

btw, we could’ve bagged the bronze medal, but a lot has happened like competing without eating the whole day… well, that’s another story. kitakits nlang dyan sa pinas.

pinoy ako. peace!”

a lot of stories to tell, so little space, so little time, plus i’m tinatamad na. just wanna say that the whole hiphop world now has mad respect to filipinos. i’m so proud of us, and of THE CREW as well.

* * * * * * *

though we didn’t get the title, twas like we’ve won coz we were still treated like champions by all these people who kept on popping out of nowhere to accomodate & feed us for the rest of our stay here. after the competition, we were hauled out of LA to San Diego by a limo (yeh, baybeeh, like hollywood stars!) & were nested in the crib of mr. Floyd Evangelista of E Real Records. loads of grats to him & his wife… they’re still taking care of the rest of ALLSTARS, while i am having a blissful time at my ‘rents house back in LA. =)

* * * * * * *

we went to a bboyin’ event called the Topdog… wow. that’s all i can say. from 12nn to 9pm, we were surrounded with bboys & bgirls from all over the US (yes, including Alaska) & my head just ached & i got so much dizzy watching a lot of ‘em good bboys. imagine watching a big roomful of battlekrew & zerogravity bboys times 10. dang. there were like 5 open circles at a time you just wanna sit down & just watch the one in front of you & you still wouldn’t miss a kick ass move.

though this was not as big as freestyle session or mighty4, twas still an exhilirating experience seeing these dope bboys in person. there were sightings of kujo, tough rock, ruen, primate, LA breakers, freakazoids, etc. the only downside was the absence of mah best bgirls like asia1, abgirl, beta…

this experience has kinda mellowed me a bit as a bgirl. i mean, i’m real hotblooded when it comes to the bboyin’ scene in the PI, especially with the ish between this ugh-god-forgive-him bboy & us. i think it doesn’t matter anymore if you become the best, or if your crew remains 1 out there. f*ck it. f*ck all that shit. magsawa sila kakahamon, wala naman silang mapapala. all that matters is that there is passion in what we do, & in that passion should be an attitude to inspire & to share. that’s all that matters… as what did ever since, in the beginning, when we were all just discovering…

I BREAK, THEREFORE I AM

.marikina city.philippines.

 

Life’s Dope Especially When You Live To Battle

(through the eyes of the eldest bgirl, who can afford the life, and who aims of getting it on… in heels!)

20 months ago, i officially lurched myself into bgirlin’. what initially started as a try out session in hopes of reuniting myself with my little friends (Rowan & Alekko Batoctoy) turned into a full-blown commitment of living my days with bruises physically & emotionally… i dove head-on into the world of breakdancing.

it’s like going to school, or having a boyfriend. it’s ALL FUN in the beginning. a basic kick-ballchange 6-steps then a wobbly babyfreeze would seem to bring the house down. you’d even smile at yourself if you put in a little L-kick.

i remember my first day of  breakdance class at Airdance. having just retired from jazz, i had came in wearing spag top & a fit jazz pants. hwehwe! i remember doing footworks in the circle with my feet pointed. heehee, really awkward.

i was one of the lucky ones who started breakdancing under the tutelage of Jayson Cambay, otherwise known as Jmasta, the founder of the premier underground crew in the PI, Battlekrew. it is one of the unwritten or unspoken rules around that if you’ve never jammed with him & his crew, you should forget even calling yourself a bgirl/bboy (well, that works only here in manila).

then i started to be exposed in the bboying world, met a lot of young, really good bboys…  i learned more difficult skills & more complicated footworks, went to jam with bboys in different parts of Luzon, joined & witnessed battles, did some shows, commercials & videos that required breakin’…

as i plunged myself deeper, i began to shut out the world outside. addiction got the better of me, and so there was no life but training, no other thought but how to do swipes, or flares, no reason to be beautiful but for a breakdance show or a battle… then it became frustrating.

it’s not so much because of the physical demand or the vast amount of time required to be really good at it. yun nga nagpapasarap. yun yung masakit na masarap na parte.

as we all know, dancing has been an exposed but very underrated, least venerated & most misunderstood form of art here. you can very well form a group & do a synchronized footworks in tap shoes or perform an adaggio piece with a cat, but you can never own the latest BMW out of that (unless of course you join a group of girls & dance spaghetti). yeh, people can appreciate & give you a round of applause, but they’ll never give you the dough… what more with breakdancing which has been around (albeit underground) for decades? you can be a female who can do barrel turns in full circle with your hands (airtracks) or an 11-year-old kid who can do 17 pirouettes on one hand (90s), but that will never be enough for a noontime or a primetime show (though it’s refreshing to see a lone bboy [David] open Wowowee everyday now)… what’s painful is have this burning passion to spend the rest of your mobile life breakin’ and accepting that you will never get rich doing it. you’ll never even know if you’ll have something to eat the morrow.

for someone who has graduated with high marks, who spent 3 years of rigid training at powerdance, & who wanted to be a NY dancer-writer, you can just imagine the frustrations, the pains… but i don’t wanna complain… masarap naman eh. and i don’t lose hope, especially when i jam with bboys from different parts of the country (& world) & i see this in them: “f*ck it. i just wanna break. watch me do threading airtracks someday“… and in them, you see that there are only 3 basic necessities in life: 1) food & water, 2) bboyin’ gear, 3) a sturdy floor. everything else are icing on a bling bling cake.

ms Nadine, my clairvoyant & spiritual mentor, once told me that i was bound for something grand. i used to imagine myself as a successful Asian dancer in the Big A… and now, i’m thinking, maybe i’m looking too far, or too soon… maybe that something grand is to happen here, in the breakdance scene, in the Philippines… yeah maybe… but i still have a long way to go. a looong way. i’m not even near people like jay, kyxz, ayi & dos who are now already sharing their knowledge to those eager learners. i’m still in the stage where i wanna be one of the dopest, not just here but in the world. (hey nothing’s wrong with dreamin, ya’?)

dreamin’ aside, it’s not so easy to be a bgirl. naku, especially here… if one has lived the life, one would surely encounter a lot of heartaches, rejections, aside from frustrations & injuries. but then again, those things come with the whole package. bgirl/boyin’ wouldn’t be that great without those pains… besides, nothing beats the feeling of sticking a real kick-ass invert for 5 seconds or fluidly threading a chairfreeze…

tis really FUN. amidst the difficulties, bboys & bgirls are almost always laughing. we’re a physical lot, so we’re not afraid to look schoofid & laugh at ourselves. there are even classic inside jokes like “the 4 elements of hiphop”, jologs’ horseplays on & off the floor, dj’s “aero class”, the ninjas in action, the biters who hate biters… there are also little bboys who don’t fail to amuse us like moki/mokong of sampaloc & “the atomic” benok of taguig.

it’s really not bad, y’know. someday, when breakdance becomes mainstream (like duh?), i’d be glad to say that i’ve lived IT. i can say that bboys & bgirls are among the unregarded olympians & soldiers of this time, in the underground world. mad props to y’all: the beginners in airdance, bboys from every part of the country (taguig, pasay, pasig, laguna, sampaloc, marikina, marinduque, etc.), battlekrew, zerogravity-taguig; my fellow bgirls una, eyevee, grind, shaker, bea, alekko, j9, jhayem; my mentors & “idolz” jay, kyxz, maya, art, stretch, ayi; the amboys peter, matt, diego, christian, rich, sal, mark, and mouse.

***something i wrote in my notebook while waiting for the choreographer to call me… been rehearsing for a show; i was reunited with my 1st lab, jazz. wehehe… this is one of those times when i go into deep ruminations (err redundant) & kinda go over how my life has been treating me lately (or should it be the other way around, how i’ve been treating my life?)… being in breakdance for more than a year, & now going back to jazz–it’s like you’re this most sought after most successful teen star, then some nosy gossip columnist whose soul is already sold to the devil found out that you were a battered child or that you already had two kids before you graduated high school or that you spent your formative years in a rehab, then you’d have to face your past, deciding that you can’t deny it coz you wouldn’t be where you are in the first place and… uh yah, napalayo yata ako…***