Dance Manila

I just saw this article in the newspaper and man I never thought they’d write something (or I mean anything) about dance (which is not related to ballet or folk dance). Just thought of sharing the article with you guys. This is from Manila Bulletin under the Entertainment section: (Just found this online article here)

The Skechers Streetdance Battle, now on its 4th year, continues to live up to its billing as the country’s biggest, toughest, and hottest streetdance competition. From over 100 schools that registered for the much-awaited streetdance event, the finalists have been narrowed down for the final battle at the Big Dome this November.

High school teams drew first blood as they took the stage last Sept. 27 at SM San Lazaro, battling for coveted slots to the Final Battle. When the smoke finally settled, the first 4 crews bound for Araneta Coliseum were announced: Ateneo High School’s “Indak,” Xavier School’s “Dance X,” Miriam High chool’s “Sayawatha,” and Claret School QC’s “Hataw.”

College teams were up next in SM San Lazaro last Sept. 28—with crews engaging in a fierce exchange of electrifying performances for the right to compete at The Big Dome. Amidst cheers and joyful tears, the finalists stormed the stage: University of the East’s “Extreme Squad,” DLSU Manila’s “La Salle Dance Company – Street”, and UP Los Banos’ “Street Jazz Dance Company”.

Another batch of College crews went to battle last Oct. 5—this time in SM North Edsa. Not to be outdone by teams from previous legs, crew after crew gave the awestruck crowd a heavy dose of dance fever. Joining the list of finalists: Ateneo de Manila University’s “Company of Ateneo Dancers,” AMA – QC’s “AMA Dance Troupe,” Our Lady of Fatima College’s “Fatima Agalayaw Dance Company,” La Consolacion College’s “Synckupado,” and Letran’s “Street Beat.”

SM Megamall was next for two days of back-to-back eliminations this last Oct.11 and 12—and the action got even more heated up as crews battled under the watchful gaze of thousands of spectators and the deafening cheers of their fans. Headed to Araneta Coliseum for the High School category: La Salle Green Hills’ “Airforce”, Hope Christian High School’s “Hope Dance Troupe”, School of St. Anthony’s “DanSSA”, and the defending High School champs—St.Mark’s Institute’s “Campus Image.”

Completing the cast of Finalists for the College division: “Danz Edge” of St. Scholastica’s College, “Spartans Dance Varsity” of Lyceum of the Phils.-Laguna, “Teatro Marino” of Philippine Maritime Institute, “TIP Talents Guild” of the Technological Institute of the Phils.-QC, and “Mapua Makati DanceCom” of Mapua Institute of Technology-Makati.

Rounding up the list for the High School category: “Aglaia” of School of the Holy Spirit, “Phat Gurlz Crew” from Colegio de Sta. Rosa – Makati, “BM Crew” of Neptali Gonzales High School, and last but certainly not the least—”Terpsichore” of St.Paul Pasig.

For the difficult task of judging in a competition of this magnitude, Skechers has gathered some of the biggest and most distinguished names from the dance community to compose its panel of judges: Wilson Ong (renowned choreographer of Whiplash Dance Company), Jungee Marcelo (President of the Philippine Hiphop Federation), and Meynard Marcellano and Jhong Hilario (pioneer members of the highly-regarded crew Streetboys).

With the list of Finalists from the elimination legs now complete, it’s off to “the big night” on Nov. 23 at the Araneta Coliseum. Twenty-five high school and college dance crews remain to battle it out for ultimate streetdance supremancy and a P100,000 cash prize.

The Skechers Streetdance Battle 4 is brought to you by Skechers, co-presented by ETC and Skechers Time, supported by Friendster, in cooperation with SM Supermalls, with media partners Candy and Seventeen Magazine, Fudge Magazine, Manila Bulletin, and is conceptualized and organized by Brainbox Inc.

This post is due. Yes. I’ve been slacking again. Ladies and Gents. Let me present Tacloban’s finest – Zero Gravity.

The Crew was formed in June of 2004 when Eastern Visayas State University conducted an audition to form the school’s first official hiphop dance group. Out of all those who have auditioned, 16 were hand picked to compose the new crew.

What’s interesting with them boys is their name.  According to them, the Zero Gravity name for the crew came from combining two shirts. It was in their first inter-school competition that they were asked for the name of their group and at that time one member is wearing a shirt with “Zero” and another with “Gravity” and so the name was made.

Then came the current leader and choreographer of Zero Gravity, Jayson Labaclado. Seeking favor from his former instructor (and the adviser of the crew) to be part of a group, he was allowed in and the group then had a series of performances in school events.

It was in January of 2007  that there came another challenge. There was a conflict in the Performing Arts on where to put the newly created dance group. This caused the school to have two dance troupes. The hiphop crew was turned over to SamLeYaw of the Performing arts. And that was the time when the Zero Gravity crew decided to part ways. This is when they decided to test themselves.

They tried joining dance competitions and as most would have experienced, they ended up with nothing. They literally started with ZERO but that didn’t stop them from striving for excellence. With God’s grace and blessing accomplishments started to line up. The name slowly gets the recognition and they grew hungry to test themselves. They even reached Leyte to compete. This is when they decided to go and try the nationals and ended up as on of Visayas’ representatives in WSB Groove Finals in Manila.

Gotta give it up to this crew! Stay humble you guys!