Filipino performance

To tell the story of our Filipino performance at the Cultural Montage @ Infusion 2009 One US, we need to start from the day I met four of the exchange students from Ateneo. During lunch, I asked them what talents they have. I mentioned we sort of have this problem about not having a presentation for the International Students Night (ISN) and that it would be great if they could help us with it. That was January 7.

I scheduled a rehearsal the next Wednesday to which almost all the exchange students came. I decided to call Wing Sheng up, which I later found out was not even in-charge of the ISN, to confirm that we are auditioning in the coming Saturday as Myriel has informed me. Much to my horror, he told me that the audition is in video form and the deadline is that night.

And so within two hours, we needed to come up with an audition video within two hours. Muriel, Roman and Paul C helped out a lot in the choreography and song-choosing. They only promised to help that time which I was more than happy to oblige to. We were able to make it.

I received an immediate reply informing me that the decision was in the hands of the Office of Student Affairs. I called on the Friday at around 5pm because I knew that they will not be at work in the weekend. After back and forth calling, they told me to wait for Monday. They emailed me on Sunday and he told me "I am regret to inform you that Filipino performance is not selected for the ISN". And so we performed for the Cultural Montage instead, the non-ticketed venue.

Thinking that the rehearsal was still on February 4, I scheduled just an hour of practice for February 2 and another hour on February 3. But February 3 was already the rehearsal. But it was a good thing as we had time to change the presentation to make it longer and to record our voices because it was just almost impossible to capture our voices on stage as we kept om moving. I decided to drop Mariel last minute as we couldn't find a partner for her and we've changed so much from last time we practiced with her.

February 5, the day of the performance, was great. I had class from 10am to 6pm with 1pm to 2pm was my only break which was thankfully where our presentation was scheduled. It went great.

But even though we had to go through all those lies, I enjoyed it. This post does not do justice to all the effort the exchange students gave to make the dance as great as it is.