Those were some of the words from PDTA (Philippine Dance Teachers Association) chairman Ma. Cecilia Katigbak during her welcome remarks at yesterday's 1st PDTA Syllabus Competition.
As I recently just started taking a syllabus class, I was pretty curious as to what a syllabus competition was like. Julius had once explained to me that the choreo that you had to dance was what you had learned in your syllabus class, but that was the only extent of what I know.
Because Ian's workshop hasn't pushed through yet, my Sunday yesterday was free. So off I went to the Meralco multi-purpose hall to watch the competition. It was pretty much a five-minute walk from the theater, where Atlantis Productions' Aladdin is currently showing.
It felt different from the 2 major dancesport competitions that I've watched. First, it was basically a smaller venue, with fewer participants. And second, there was the appearance of the participants' costumes. Simple dresses, no adornments whatsoever, unlike the glamorous sparkly and feathery costumes at the the DSCPI competitions.
For a change, it was comforting to see more familiar faces to say hello to, as they were the same people I see in Dancing Queen studios. I got to watch Karen, Myrone, Joemari and Alvin practice their routines while waiting for the competition to start.
After 4 years since the first time I saw the PDTA people at the Pasinaya festival in CCP, I saw them in person again. Ednah Ledesma, PDTA's vice president, was the one who taught us the chachacha for one half hour segment. Then there's Ariel Llanillo, PDTA's president. He was the one who approached me that fateful day at the Pasinaya, asking me if I wanted to dance competitively. I sort of blew him off that day because I was in a rush to meet my other friends and see all the other events of the festival, even though I was really interested already that time. Plus I didn't have the time or the budget to go for it. So to Sir Ariel, even if you don't remember me, if you chance upon this post, my apologies. I really wanted to dance ballroom all this time, and I only made the opportunity for myself this year.
So anyway, watching the syllabus competition was quite interesting. It was much simpler than the competitions I've watched, as the participants just seem to really basically just dance the choreography or routine that was part of their syllabus classes. Thanks to Ian, despite the fact that I'm still in the bronze level, I already somewhat knew half the syllabus of the gold. Myrone had casually asked me at one point why I wasn't competing, and i just gave a nervous laugh and told him that I don't think I'm ready to compete yet. What I couldn't believe was that for some of them, that syllabus competition was their first time ever to compete, including him. Seriously? I didn't look that way while I was watching them dance. Anyway, considering my previous (open) training, I don't really mind not competing yet. I guess I just want to finish all the medal programs first from bronze to gold.
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| Joemari and his partner during the (youth) standard competition. |
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| Myrone and Karen during the (adult) Latin competition. |
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| Dancing the rumba. |
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| Alvin and Myrone dancing the samba for the 1-dance individual category. |
Like I had said in my post on Instagram yesterday, every dancesport competition that I watch is quite the learning experience. And I'm also glad that I'm also making new friends in the process.
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