I would like to extend my utmost gratitude to the founder of dancepinoy.com, Mr. Nash Anggahan from letting me write mostly about aerobics in Dance Research to letting me cover dance events until giving me Dance Fitness, my own section as Lady Fitness Dancer in the online magazine. Beyond the magazine, I got opportunities to judge in dance competitions and meet notable personalities. As with events, I got to be the secretariat in last year's Hip Hop National. I was able to experience how to look for a venue, coordinate with participants and account finances. In Dance Bottle, the after-party in Greenbelt, I was able to dance and host, something that I've always dreamed of. By December, I was  offered to be a Stage Manager of the group he gathered to perform in a contemporary category of a national dance contest.

This group then turned out to be Dance Pinoy Team, which I managed for five and a half months. Being with the group, made me realize a lot of my untapped potentials as I was the one mostly dealing with clients, updating everyone with the activities, purchasing and safekeeping costumes and props and maintaining my place as venue for classes and rehearsals. Seeing my former group grow and having a place of their own with sustainable classes is an overwhelming achievement for me. It was a painstaking decision for me to leave my then beloved group but given the circumstances that occurred, I have to move on to the next level. I will certainly miss the whole day one-on-one trainings with Nash, the one-two-three punch with Nel and the group that I co-founded with Nash but I have to push my capabilities to greater heights as I know head my first pet project under Dance Pinoy Events Management: Step Off 2010: The Michael Jackson Challenge.

Surely, everything that I have learned, mostly from Nash will be applied in the undertaking of this event, Truly dancepinoy.com is a portal for real opportunities of self-advancement. To Nash, whatever happens, your trust in me has earned my unwavering loyalty to you and your endeavors.

*Dance Pinoy Events Management is a separate entity from dancepinoy.com, Dance Pinoy Team, Dance Philippines and Dance Pinoy Academy.

Hi everyone! It's been a while ever since I have wrote articles regularly for Dance Pinoy Magazine. As some of you might have not  known, I took on a different DP career turn as the webmaster founded a dance group and assigned me to be its Production Manager. Ever since, my world suddenly had a complete turn around. I come to look at different people's eyes and shake their hands, instead of me just looking at the screen of my laptop and sweeping my fingers through the keyboard. It has been a wonderful experience working together with a group that I needed to look out for and cater to its needs on the business side.

However, as time went on I realized that the kind of work I'm into can very much be emotionally hazardous as it is demanding of one's time, effort and even money just to find out that no one in the group actually appreciates what I do for them. The dancers just think of my job as cleaning up their asses and that I should do it because it is my obligation being in that position. Considering all the stress I get from rigid schedules, hard-to-deal with clients, hard-headed dancers and an inattentive choreographer, I really felt that I have been taken for granted. Dancers don't see the true picture in every transaction I and the choreographer make. They just complain based on what they see and when I explain to them, they just brand me as an incompetent manager in front of everyone else including company scholars. When I have little of my mood swings out of too much stress, the dancers complain that I frown most of the time, set up a  membership meeting and tell all my personality flaws out in the open. Recently, a core member is disproving my capabilities of holding the position as she has more experience than I do in handling events and dance groups. Currently, she is "acting" as the group's production manager, as she said that I am only a production manager in name. The choreographer isn't aware of the de-postioning of authority happening within the group.

Since the only person who has all the time to listen and understand me doesn't want to, let me share to everyone who gets to read this the story of the the "Nightmare Client".

She contacted my boss late December last year for a poi and fire performance this coming March. A day before I met her, I called her to confirm our meeting. She told me that she will be meeting us tomorrow. She asked me if I also dance, during that time I wasn't and so I honestly admitted that. She said it was "okay" and that she will see me tomorrow.

The whole dance group I'm managing right now seems to be very supportive with me taking a dance class. They just don't know the boost of confidence they give me to continue on. Going to a dance class sure dates back to a ling history.

I've always been artist since I was little. I was always drawn and fascinated by the performing arts. However, I have been suffering seizures since I was born until I was seven years old. This severely damaged my motor skills. My lola was trying  to imporve it through enrolling me in piano lessons but somehow I never really excelled in playing the piano.

I attended all sorts of workshops, acting and singing, but I never dared to attend a dancing workshop.I was always ridiculed when I dance, as if I'm too tall and too big (as I was fat then) to dance. The problem in singing is that my voice softens when it reaches the high notes towards the end of vocalization. It's like I lack air that my diagphram cannot expand much. In acting, I was just always d oing the ad libs and I never really get to memorize a line word perword from the script. My acting coach then even persuaded me to just forget about the performing arts and concentrate on writing. I was the one who did the script for our culmination then. He said that my ideas are based exemplified in writing, not through any of the three performing arts.

I was invited by Nash to come and watch SIKAT perform a Korean Dance at the Showroom of Hyundai Quezon Avenue last January 25 at 6 pm. He told me to come two hours before and so I cancelled my personal training session that day and just attended my favorite aerobics class. It was my first time to head North as I rode the MRT and so the stations weren't familiar to me (though I live in the North! hahaah)

Anyway, I even searched for the address of Hyundai Quezon Ave in the internet the night before since I've never been there. Little did I know that the moment I step out of the Quezon Avenue station, I was about to start my foot trip going to the venue.  First off, there was this long and winding overpass that had a lot of stairs on the sides. i didn't know which one to take, all I know was that I should be taking a jeepney heading to Quiapo. I walked under the heat of the sun up and down that overpass, until I got to ask a man in the street where jeepneys going to Quiapo stop and take commuters. And so I walked towards that area until there's a jeepney that came rushing in with the word Quiapo as one of its route. I definitely ran into it and I got a ride. By then, I was confident that I'll be able to get to the venue on time. But I think I was wrong.

I have started to manage a group late last year. I am the one doing the paper work and meeting up and coordinating with the clients.  It's not like I have not experienced having someone being rude to me. All my life, I always felt inferior of myself because of what other people did or said to me. It was a struggle to get up and build the confidence I have now.

Still, I wonder why I experience being treated so rudely by clients, that rudeness that is so grade school, high school, or even college. The school is breeding ground for competitiveness. Sometimes, you have to forget the friendships that you have built in order to survive, thrive and get to the top. Even if one has to play dirty he or she will take it even if it causes someone else's dignity, pride or even hard work.  Same goes with the corporate world.

I don't understand why that kind or rudeness has to take place in a dancer-client relationship. I mean, dancers and clients aren't competing with each other. In fact they are in a relationship that will mutually benefit one another as the dancer will be paid for and the client will get some entertainment. I am often asked or commented the following:

The question "Would you like to dance?" asked by a man is like music to my ears. These are magical words for a woman. The man extends his hand and I reach out to graciously accept his offer. He whisks me off to the dance floor. I place my left hand on his right shoulder; he reaches out with his right arm and places his hand on the small of my back while my right hand rests in his left with arms slightly outstretched. Two opposites in every respect are now facing each other. For the next four minutes, there’s nothing else but the music and the dance. Two people moving as one, in tune and in harmony.

I told myself a long time ago that I would never turn a man down when asked to dance. I’ve kept that promise to this day, with surprising results. I have ended up with wonderful dancers who helped me improve my steps and style. Not only that, but I’d rather dance with a man. I kind of roll my eyes when women turn down a man just because he does not look according to their ideals. They have no idea what they are missing out on. I consider it just plain courtesy to reciprocate the offer to dance by accepting at least one dance. As long as the offer is made courteously, and in good taste, I see every reason for going out on the dance floor with this man. He deserves a medal for asking a woman to dance.

I once went out with my friends to a lakeside restaurant/bar. Its customers are diverse. One can find golfers next to Harley-Davidson bikers. The band started playing the blues. It was pretty crowded, and I began moving to the music. Suddenly an older gentleman, whose teeth happened to be missing (and not through dental decay I assumed), was reaching out with an inviting gesture to dance. I accepted. There we were in the middle of an aisle swing dancing to Stevie Ray Vaughn. The crowd was clapping along and my friends just stood there with mouths hanging open. He was a great dancer, and not once did I have the feeling that I would fall. I felt secure and trusted my footing. He was a good leader. My friends, of course, have not let me live this moment down. What can I say? It was one of those rare moments in life where a "toothless wonder" became a gallant dancer.