Runthru 5 Coming Soon (but Later) and other Excitements

No apologies, just announcing that the next print issue of Runthru is coming later than expected. Was supposed to launch it last January, but there was just too much going on and now it's March. As I have to reconfigure the editorial line up, as well as reset the printing schedule, best for us to say it won't be coming out any time soon.

In the meantime, check our Online magazine for news and reviews. I promise I have loads to put up this coming week. There's a review of Gaelle Piton's documentary on Philippine dance, some thoughts after seeing Jerome Robbins' Dances at a Gathering at the Hong Kong Arts Festival early this month, and I may talk about a couple of local shows as well.

In between, I plan to start publishing the mini-reviews I received for the Best of 2010 feature that's meant for a January issue of Runthru Print. The rest of the magazine can wait, but this part of it cannot. If you still want to contribute your own nominations for the Best of 2010, do email me at joelle.jacinto@gmail.com.

I'm currently reading Jennifer Homan's Apollo's Angels, which is a very thick, very exciting history of ballet. Not dance, but specifically ballet. I am ecstatic over this because I've been planning to publish my master's thesis as a book on Philippine ballet history, so I have an instant affinity for it as we share the same goals and aspirations in dance writing. Also, when I was supposed to be writing my dissertation on cultural identity in Philippine dance, my mentor at the time advised me to differentiate what makes American ballet American, and Russian ballet Russian and how is it different from French ballet, and so on, until I can find what makes Philippine ballet Filipino. That was such a difficult task! This book makes the task more exciting, though.

Hope there's lots of excitement in your life and dance as well.

TEAM Dance Studio at CCP's Pasinaya 2011

So, the year got off to a good start, with my family successfully launching a new project. We performed at CCP's Pasinaya Open House Festival as TEAM Dance Studio's Company of Dance Artists. So TEAM is the school, and CODA is the performing arm. We're planning, among other things, for a concert in August to celebrate TEAM Dance Studio's 30th anniversary.

We performed new works by Eli Jacinto: a work in progress called Kailaliman, the relatively new In the Sisterhood (see photo) and an extended Metropolis, which is Dad's tribute to the city where he started to develop his choreographic style.

The festival itself was quite chaotic but I loved how there were more and more dance groups at the Rehearsal Hall this year, and how people had difficulty lining up for the groups they wanted to see because there were too many people already lined up before them. That's not usually a good thing, I know, but having a big audience for dance, under any circumstance, is always really awesome.

If you were there, thanks so much for watching :) And I hope you see get to see more of us this year.

Happy new year!

2010 was an awesome year. Here's to more dance and more dance writing for 2011!

Cheers,

Joelle Jacinto

the Christmas rush

I just wrote my last email for the day (by day, I meant yesterday, as it is now 1am and it is a new day, after all) and I set up my very efficient Out of Office Assistant so that I can concentrate on my school's recital tomorrow. My school is the near-30-year old TEAM Dance Studio, and we'll be doing the full-length Nutcracker and some new works by my dad, Eli Jacinto. This is why I haven't blogged much, or updated Runthru much -- at this point, let me apologize to those who have features upcoming, I'll get to them very soon. For the rest of you, do check http://www.runthru.com.ph for new stuff by next week (at the latest).

Admittedly, I'm always busy when there's a show; the work-life balance (wherein "life" translates to "dance," as it does to all who dance) is very challenging when you need to take time out of your 9-to-5 to rehearse and perform. But with our school's recitals, performing and rehearsing is the last on my mind. And then, we always have the annual recital three days before Christmas. You can see how things can get quite crazy.

At this point, I think I'll take the liberty of not promising that this, the inability to update Runthru Online, won't happen next year. This is so going to happen again next year. No apologies. Many people have Christmas family traditions, like completing Simbang Gabi together, or decorating the Christmas tree, or going up to Baguio to roast marshmallows in a fireplace. My family's is putting up a recital every year.

I used to feel bad that I couldn't watch others' shows during this season - either I'm too busy, or I got sick I'm so busy - but when I think of it, I owe a lot to TEAM Dance Studio, and there shouldn't be anything to feel bad for at all. This is where I started dancing, but at the same time, my dad started TEAM Dance Studio because of me. As it approaches its 30th anniversary as a school, I realize that I myself have been dancing for 30 years (well, I'm counting from my first ballet class at the age of 6). In a way, TEAM Dance Studio's history is my history, and of the many kids who've studied dance under me, the many kids I've restaged recitals for. It survives because I chose it as my priority. This makes me proud and, sincerely, quite moved.

If you're around the Alabang area, TEAM Dance Studio will be presenting The Nutcracker at the Insular Life Theater tomorrow evening (December 22, 2010) at 7:30 pm. You'll find me onstage with this big, proud grin on my face.

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Would also like to mark the milestone that is The Nutcracker becoming a part of Filipino culture, what with the manic number of Nutcrackers put on this month (which has always been an American phenomenon, never a Filipino one), the use of the Overture and the Waltz of the Flowers as pipe-in music at coffee shops and restaurants and the army of Nutcracker Soldiers strewn all across the Ayala malls. Thank you Ayala, for the free advertising.

Earlier today, on our way to the theatre and worrying about breaking our Nutcracker -- the doll is supposed to break in the first act, and neither of us were keen on breaking a particularly good Nutcracker even for a show -- my brother stopped the car in front of his neighbor's house and said to me, "Quick, go get the Nutcracker on his gate! We'll return it naman..." Some of the other neighbors had the Santa lights with the racing reindeer up front of their house. This family had two Nutcrackers guarding the entrance. It just fills me up with glee.

Of course, there will be those who just looove to say that even if it's becoming a "Filipino" tradition, isn't that still an elitist tradition? Well, gee, isn't Christmas at its capitalist best? Don't rain on my parade, Ebenezer.

Okay, gotta get my old, decrepit body ready for tomorrow's craziness. Good night, everyone! Happy holidays!

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Photo from our last Nutcracker back in 2005, taken by either Francis Reyes or Nina Sandejas. That's me as King Rat, one of my favorite roles, ever.

shift in priorities

This is sort of an update to this blog entry, where I discuss how I have to prioritize my dancing over dance writing and how I was planning to blog more to make sure my writing doesn't get rusty. I realized that if my time was dedicated to only dancing, I was effectively not seeing the dancing of other people, and therefore I'm limited to quite narcissistic topics, aren't I? Hence, the almost non-existence of blog entries posted up after. I mean, there's only one entry and it's about my niece/godchild.

Also, I am in the process of reconfiguring my life to move my priorities around a bit. I believe this is more exciting than it has been in the last few months. Hopefully, it will continue to be exciting and I'll have more blog posts up here soon.

Thanks for reading, and staying. Cheers!