i love to DANCE

hi tumblr! i remember the good old days that i used this as my journal, but i would soon find useless because i wasn’t really getting anywhere venting to nobody. for some reason, i have this sudden urge to kinda just pour out what’s been up with my life lately.

over the passed months, i have finally been getting paid for the work i do at jesse bethel high school. 3rd gen of DM has been okay for a while. but now at the moment, WE ARE COMING UP!!! things have been looking pretty good for us. working hard and all :D

UGM (Urban groove in motion) is definitely one of the best things that happened from the start of late april til this point now in may. thanks niko :)

i’ve learned about texture when it comes to dance, and i love digging my movement if you know what i mean.

took a class from bam martin, beau fournier for free, took a class from seth swartz and gigi torres.

theater and math classes are alright. chill i guess…

kuya came back, and that was definitely blessing. siloged to craig mack’s what i need, but forgot it. we ate tomi’s with dad. saw gracious. got surprised on my birthday party, and had great company with UGM and DM

niko and i kinda fell off, but slowly are comin back… new friends are great to have too. omari, diane, and tony on the regular?! man… things are cool. um… yeah, i’m still being slept on.

COOKIES NEW SHOW IS SO BOMB!!! inspiration all over the place. Paul Ross is my new favorite sleeper.

ok i’m done venting, finna eat some lunch w/ fam bam

can’t wait for LA training. siloging with the sniffs, and more to come. watch out for the DM showcase!

sadly my last year at diversity movement jbhs, gonna do it big, so come out!

so i mentioned a little bit about it in my last blog, but to get into a little more detail, it was definitely a different experience. its not my first time not seeing all hip hop performances. you would see modern dances, color guard, jazz, and individual styles. my base was different though, i brought house, hip hop, and urban dance. any who…. my house performance was the introduction to the show! and it was a pretty good turnout! :D i debuted my newest housing piece with the same people who performed with me at city college san francisco. niko, maria, tanya, and jordan urbano. really fun experience, but we definitely could’ve been cleaner. two performances after my opening piece, we had the modern piece “Mad World” choreographed by Susan Parks. the basis of the choreography was simple, but the concept has a very good build up towards the end. here’s my interpretation of it: basically many ordinary people step out on to the stage, and altogether we are expressionless because of how the world can be crazy to us sometimes. we all walk in this world everyday in hopes of something good, but it won’t come for us. but from what i’ve learned from susan’s perspective, the dance was more towards something about budget cuts and that the dance program might not continue. in the end… we all scream, then stare straight into the audience. the next piece i did was my miseducation to lauryn hill! for that performance i brought back, two old pieces. doo wop (That thing) and lost ones by lauryn hill. doo wop was a solo, and for lost ones, niko, tanya, and maria relived the experience with me. and i had newer people who learned it and experienced a different hip hop piece. Jordan Urbano, Tanya Castro, Diane Cababaro, Michelle Du Bois, Monica Hurtado, and Gianna Swisher. i love the turnout, it was definitely great for that piece. during both performances, i just love the energy, making facial expressions to the audience, having a couple of laughs on some of the parts where i touch my booty… and after both performances, i just remember sweating and catching my breath as much as i could and just grasping the moments that i wanted to take in while i was on stage.

the other dances were cool. but i definitely loved Christian’s piece, i know he kept saying it was a mess, but when i saw it at tech rehearsal, that was some dope stuff. i’m not used to seeing guard on stage, but what i saw, it was beautiful. good stuff bro. my interpretation, hash was christian’s close friend, and some beef happened. in the end, he cares for him and he doesn’t want to let him go, but he had to. christian said to me that he wants people to have their own perspective of it, and that was mine. the other dancers were cool. christine made a dance to doo wa ditty by zapp and roger!!! thats the poppin’ song! but she wasn’t poppin, just jazz. there was another dude, sean, who made something to lil john. people made fun of him i bet, but give him props for putting something together niko told me that he could be mental too. give him props! jessica’s solo was bomb improv! she be workin the musicality and that flow! candace be workin’ that solo too! jilli, christine, and enora, shoot… jilli be hittin those counts that’s all i’ma say. christine was gettin it, and nora, good job putting it together :D omg… michelle du bois, her solo was amazing good. she got musicality for days! i was feelin’ the hallelujah piece so much. ok… anyway….

the last two i did was Niko Haber’s piece and Susan Park’s Circle of Life. Niko surprisingly had a good concept. From my observation and what i remember, he cheated on Magaly by being with Gaby. And after that moment, Niko observes his conscience and tries to get everything together… in the end, he gets back with Magaly. sorry niko :P thats the concept right? haha. but anyway, it was dope. niko totally had a different side to him with that show. he’s not full on hip hop anymore, but more diverse with modern and jazz. btw Maya choreographed the jazz dub step part. niko can point his toes for days! haha… circle of life was basically the closer for the entire showcase. and is basically respect to the other styles. jazz, modern, hip hop, and ballet. in the end we all do one big bow in a huge circle with all the dancers together.

all the hard work everyone put together, i’m not really much of a critic, but definitely, it was a good show overall. everything was fun. i wish i could’ve seen everything from the audience perspective. the turnout was just the best… thank you kelly for the opportunity. definitely something i wanna do for next semester with something crazier!!! just gotta keep dancing.

the reign of performances in October are finally over… now i gotta get back caught up with my job at Diversity Movement in Jesse Bethel. 

so over the course of this whole year 2012, of course I’ve always constantly been dancing, but one thing that I’ve noticed, my perspective of everything has definitely changed. before i talk about what i’ve learned, i recently had a student choreography showcase here at the college NVC (where i’m currently typing since i have nothing better to do :P). the experience was absolutely fun and a great turnout, i haven’t seen the dvd yet, but i’m sure that from the audience perspective it was amazing. i worked with dancers who aren’t really trained hip hop dancers and people who haven’t been dancing under my belt, so the preparation was a different experience too. i worked with a cheerleader, and a load of jazz dancers. i had a few people who’ve been under my belt as well, but in the end, it was definitely a turnout to behold. i watched my doo wop solo, i could’ve done better :P but anywho….

kuya, if you’re reading this, i just wanna say i miss you kuya… and i’m not trying to offend you or anything, just things that i’ve noticed when you were here…

so i wanna focus not on my inspirations while my kuya was here, but a person who i didn’t like at first because of my kuya, but would soon become part of a “list” of our favorite/inspiring dancers…. ever since my brother left, i’ve been looking at dancers so differently now. i always felt what my kuya felt. when he wasn’t feelin something, i’d agree with him too that i wasn’t feelin’ it. from what i’ve observed and what i’ve seen, my kuya grew up as a hungry dancer and an aggressive battler. and as a result, there’s a kind of mentality that as dancers, our dances can out dance anyone, meaning that when we dance, we have that battle mentality of “mine is better” i truly respect, admire, and love that from my kuya a lot for his creativity and who he was. thing is, when my kuya made a piece, it would have one of the best quality in the world to me. but lets get to the point here… back in 2008, 2009 while he was here in vallejo, i remember specifically that my kuya would really tell me stuff about keone madrid, and i mean stuff that wasn’t appreciative of him. he would tell me he was all talk about basics and the roots, but he wasn’t doing any of that in the stuff that he posted up. and to his eyes, my kuya thought keone wasn’t tight at all. my kuya and keone actually ranted on each other on one of keone’s videos in the comment thread. idk which one, but my kuya told me about it. i was just kinda outta the picture and wanted to stay away from all of that though…. but when 2010 and 2011 came along, keone’s style definitely evolved into something totally new and innovative. i actually liked the stuff he was doing too like daydreamer, girl is mine, crank it up, no worries, new shalom, smooth operator and he won’t go with mari, don’t stop the music… all of the stuff was amazing! and surprisingly, my kuya admired keone’s evolved style during those years. one thing i remember my kuya telling me straight up… “joe, i wanna apologize to keone about our argument on youtube. his stuff is dope now” from that moment on from years 2010-now in 2012, i really admire keone and his work in choreo cookies. 

just because of those years in 2008 and 2009 that my kuya didn’t really like keone madrid’s style back in the day, i kept my eyes off of the SoCal dancers, specifically Choreo Cookies, and always had my eyes out for Shaun Evaristo, Mariel Martin, Lando Wilkins, and Lyle Beniga and S**t kingz. its funny because mariel martin madrid eventually moved from funkanometry sf to choreo cookies in sd. thing is… i owe it all to again… haha, if you’re reading this bro, you already know… niko, i owe u a lot man. i used to feel so one sided on dancers. i know at this time now, me and my kuya have a lot of respect for dancers out there. maybe not the same respect, but no matter what it maybe, for me i respect any dancer for their effort and work they put into anything. another big pointer i want to get to right now, i honestly really admire not just keone madrid of choreo cookies, but almost everyone who is part of that! carlo daring, bianca vallar, emmett agapay, nicole aguas, niko’s cousin sy bartolome, dom byrd, tracy seiler, CHRIS MARTIN. i love all of them! they’re such a clean crisp team, and i want to be like them one day. i remember the days i was always so focused on something different like how shaun evaristo was, but in reality, there was more roots i needed to learn. this is going back to the title of my blog. one thing that niko told me from his cousin sy…. LESS IS MORE. what i learned to love about choreo cookies is that they do a lot of simple movement with the body, but they make it fit with the musicality, rhythm, instrumentals… EVERYTHING. intricate simplicity… sigh… just so good. and i think its crazy too how i think FORMALITY eventually would branch into choreo cookies because i knew formality because of philip geniza. super sick choreographers from back in the day. i love dancers from SoCal, and idk why my perspectives were what they were… but i know for sure thats all in the past. 

like what my friend @christianwuzlyk said “stay hungry and stay humble” and like what my good friend @fayze-kt-aov said… “Make peace with your past so it does not disturb the present.”

thats all that keeps ringing in my head… those two quotes… and LESS IS MORE. and if you really think about it, that doesn’t go just for dance, but life as well. *wonder if my kuya already apologized to keone already.

hope you’re doing good out there kuya. and i’m sure now we know wsup. 

without a doubt, i’m really thankful and blessed for everything i have and what’s coming up for me. but lately… idk why i’ve been feeling so empty at the moment. right now, a lot has changed and it’s really taking me some time to adjust to everything. i honestly can’t remember a time when i felt really really secure about everything. i know i’ve said this before, but things are different without certain people in my house. Ira, Kuya, and my Lola. things have different and have always been without them in my home. but it’s not just them, but my inspirations. not gonna say exactly who, but when i always saw his videos from back in the days of 2009, 2008, 2010… i always say that as a standard of creativity that i wanted to meet with my dancing and myself. he changed too. and as of right now, i’m not really feeling what i see on the dance scene on youtube. yes, i’m a youtuber, but only because i dont have the time, nor the money to get myself out there to experience other dancers in the community. not yet… but when i get my job, i really want to get myself out somewhere and train or something. anyway… my point being, it’s hard to be inspired for some reason. self-motivation is tough. idk what sparked in me my first two years with Diversity Movement. i was super inspired, super motivated at the time, and i really wanted to make that standard of creativity and that feeling i brought in my choreography. as of right now, i’m just in a state of struggle with two pieces i want to get done. i remember my creative juices were on fire the first days i choreographed. something just isn’t giving me the motivation. idk what it is. i always feel down on things for some reason :/ i just need to pull myself together. find my way of staying inspired even though it is hard. maybe i’m just not seeing everything that surrounds me clearly enough. gotta want it. i really need to keep setting that standard for myself and stop lagging myself on this. i know i’ll get there and finish those pieces. it’s tough. gotta start somewhere like i’ve always been.

i have the set songs again, the turn out will get somewhere some how

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myriadscareows:

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(Source: koushinryou)

i find it hard to believe that most people in the community i’ve been part of that they don’t know so much about the hip hop scene thats been around for the longest time. the only folk i know who know about it is basically people from chapkis dance because they compete. but when i’ve approached people from jesse bethel and even most people who i see in napa valley college, i’m surprised they dont know the biggest choreographers like shaun evaristo, lyle beniga, keone madrid, s**t kingz, mariel martin madrid, bam martin, chris martin, patrick cruz, jillian meyers, galen hooks, gigi torres, april rodriguez, rino nakasone, lando wilkins, and quick crew. people here in these communities only know hip hop dance mainly through america’s best dance crew and some crews who perform on dancing with the stars and such and a few good ppl on so you think you can dance. thats where dance is highlighted, but i can’t believe people don’t know about body rock, fusion, vibe, and even world of dance. its weird to me. i feel that people should know about this community. but since people dont really know, i feel so underground. i love that feeling, but sometimes, people gotta know the art, know the foundation, the people, the community, and how we all innovate from each other as dancers. idk… i’m not the one who always watches TV. thats why i think Mr. Henley’s proud of me, i’m not brainwashed by stupid TV shows, commercials, and ads that can manipulate ppl sometimes. nor do i listen to the radio. not about that life.

anyway… my big pointer, i just hope to get these people known. some of these people have worked overseas, on tours with artists… its true, a lot of these ppl can be underrated and overlooked upon. and its true that most of these people are known internationally in other countries rather than the states. thats so funny because they from the USA and yet they’re more known all over the world than in america. that’s weird to me. i got a message from someone on youtube who is from  the Netherlands and a lot of the community of Holland know Shaun Evaristo and some of the names i mentioned earlier. that’s crazy! man… i hope america one day can just appreciate these dancers and not the commercial hip hop that we see everyday.