Dance Reload: Davao del Norte’s ultimate summer performing experience (2010)

A charming Hawaiian dancer.

Just when everyone thought summer is fast-fading, the banana capital of the south splurges a colorful and artistic flair to end kids, youngsters and parents’ 2010 summer experience.

As hot as the feverish summer temperature, performances of Curay Dance and Arts Workshop (CDAW), Panabo City ’s premiere dance and arts studio, elevate a notch higher.

 

The jam-packed Panabo gymnasium and the excited crowd were a witness to the grace, style and creative choreography as the workshop graduates pay tribute to classic Disney themes, modern beats and Broadway musicals in various dance acts.

 

Unlike others, this was not just another summer workshop. CDAW dance and art classes have become a recognized dance institution in the area with 22 years of training and workshop experience under its belt.

 

The Dances

This year’s recital is themed Dance Reload. The center stage is once again loaded with fresh talents, new discoveries and developing potentials among the 180 workshop graduates who grabbed the spot light.

 

Chicago Remake. A scene from the musical "Chicago." 

Each dance category shining one from another as performers as young as two and as old as 42 years old gracefully strut their stuff.

 

The audience wowed to the ballet skills of the kids enrolled in baby and advance ballet classes to the interpretation and tribute to Disney’s princesses Snowhite, Ariel of Little Mermaid, Jasmine of Aladdin, and Belle of Beauty and the Beast.

 

The fluid hip sway exaggerated by the smooth ripple of the colorful grass skirts accentuating the bewitching Hawaiian dancers charmed the crowd.

 

And then there was jazz. Their remake of some of the most memorable parts of the Catherine Zeta-Jones’ hit musical Chicago was as passionate and as artistic as the original.

 

Never to be outshined was the energy of the modern genre of hip-hop dancing.  What with futuristic costume and heart stumping arrangement of today’s hottest beats the hip-hop dancers exploded like real bombs.

 

While the sensuous and energetic belly dancing and Dancesport were equally enthralling performances.

 

Teakwondo and Dancexercize

The night also highlighted taekwondo and introduced this year “Dancercise.” 

 

As a sport for all sexes and ages, taekwondo has its own string following. The martial art was featured as defensive rather than an offensive skill. While dancexercise showed a body-toning activity from the combined impacts of the dancing and exercise.

 

 

Darling: Panaobo’s mother of performing arts

“It’s the same excitement and enthusiasm year after year,” enthused Darling Curay, CDAW owner and over-all aesthetic director.

 

Her management degree from Ateneo de Davao University might have been put aside in awhile when she opened the studio in March 1988 to give way to her heart’s desire for performing arts.

 

Darling, as she is popularly known, said because there were no performing schools before, her various dance trainings with well-known performers, exposures in stage and theater and additional degree in Physical Education beefed up her credential as performing artist.

 

“As with my experience in CDS, this is not as profitable as the other well-known dance schools (in nearby Davao City ),” Nanay Darling, as she is fondly called, told this writer.

 

“It’s all for the love of performing arts  and my vocation to share my talents together with my other dance instructors which makes the blood-life of this studio,” Darling added.

 

An advance ballet student shows how penche is done.

CDS’ students are aplenty during summer classes. That’s why she focused classes during this period. Although trainings are conducted in some other time of the year, but mostly the studio is lent to her dance scholars for their practices especially during seasons of competition.

 

“Our main objective is to nurture, develop and enhance the ability and talent of every individual and inculcate in our students appreciation and valuing of art and the artist,” she said.

 

She said every year they are faced with the perennial problem of finding sponsors, one reason why in some years they did not have grand recital. It was only in the recent past people started noticing and eventually appreciated their efforts in performing arts.

 

“I think we have the most affordable dance lessons. But I always make sure that the studio hires the best dance instructors to provide quality training each year,” she proudly said.

 

“I am just thankful that my family is supportive of me as well as to all my dance instructors who share in my passion (for performing),” Darling said.   

 

Surely as Dance Reload has shown, this banana capital in the south, a potassium rich-city has worked up its muscle to have an overload of dancers and performers.

 

And without doubt, the 2010 summer dance and arts workshop of Curay Dance Studio will be poignantly etched to memory even for a lifetime.

Scholars pay tablecloths for their diploma

Bro. Davide Del Barba (center) is flanked by the lady scholars of the Gabriel Taborin College of Davao with the intricately designed tablecloths as their backdrop. These tablecloths are the token of the ladies to their schoalrship sponsors.

Education is not cheap but some lady scholars pay only tablecloth for their diploma. 

In exchange for the generosity of their virtually unknown sponsors, some graduating lady scholars of Gabriel Taborin College of Davao (GTCD), in Lasang, Davao City ingeniously did the laborious needlework of intricate designs on tablecloths as a memento of their enormous gratitude.

“This is a fruit of our labor and passion in the spirit of thanksgiving to our benevolent sponsors,” says Cyrene Molina a scholar, graduating from two-year hotel and restaurant management course.

GTCD named after the French founder Gabriel Taborin was established in 2001 as the only Catholic technical/vocational  school in the region aimed to help indigent but deserving students, has now blossomed to a tertiary institution offering Hotel and Restaurant Management as its flagship  four-year degree course. 

The school’s Executive Director Bro. Davide Del Barba said that the students’ sponsors are private institutions and individual donors mostly from abroad.

“This is our special way of saying thank you to their respective sponsors whom our lady scholars will not probably see personally,” said del Barba.  

Among the sponsors of the students include the American Women’s Club of the Philippines, the Assisi Foundation, Cuore Amico (Friendly Heart) an organization from Italy,  and private individuals mostly from Europe “who generously help the least privileged  students in our mission here,” del Barba added.

Del Barba himself is an Italian missionary of the Brothers of the Holy Family who arrived to the Philippines in 2000 and in the following year established, then a technical/vocational school, with the strong support of Archbishop of Davao Fernando R. Capalla.

These lady scholars are also called “dormitory ladies” because they avail of the dormitory service that that the school provides since 2004 solely to ladies coming from far-flung areas. Since then at least 150 students have benefited from the service.

In the dormitory, ladies have to pay minimal amount which covers for their lodging, food, security personnel, and dorm in-charge. And part of their tasks is to learn the skill of embroidery.

 “The embroidery activity of the ladies is part of their tasks as scholars of the school and as ‘dormitory ladies’ to learn new skill and earn extra income since they are paid for their labor,” said del Barba. 

To improve the quality of their work, the school tapped the voluntary services of needlework hobbyist Ms. Theresa Valdevieso from Colombia , Mariela Chacon and Gladys Miranda both from Panama who said that there are at least 16,000 kinds of stitches to learn.

Charisse Diaz of Sindaton, Panabo City said she did not just learned embroidery skill but also patience and time management.

“Time management is very important,” Diaz said. “We need time to study our lessons, make our school requirements and finish our tablecloths for one semester (five months),” she added.

According to Diaz, embroidery is no way easy job, “our back aches, eyes sore and to come up with the best and most unique design we research in the internet and books.”

 “Even if we were repeatedly punctured by the needle, we continue to work because this (work) inspires us,” added another graduating ‘dormitory lady’ Venus Amor Agad.  

Cyrene Molina stands by the tablecloth she made for five months.

  

Recently, the school put up and exhibit showcasing the ladies final work.

“We have already sent some of these to their respective sponsors and I am really happy for the positive feedback,” del Barba uttered.

Further he said that there had been request from private individuals (commonly foreigner) to buy the products but “this is particularly made for our sponsors, should they want one they must sponsor one of our scholars too,” said del Barba.

 

“With what has become of our scholars and of the school I can say that we have lived up to our motto: in prayer, work and love, you will find peace,” del Barba said.

Learning life's skill on Sundays

GRADUATED. Assumption College of Davao - Sunday College Program has helped a number of working individuals get tech-voc diploma, a ticket for gainful employment. Kristine Neniza here is among the 170 graduates 2009 graduates of the Sunday college program.

Kristine Neñiza receives her diploma, marches up the center stage, and takes a bow.  However that simple bow didn’t quite reflect whatsoever the story behind that piece of paper in her hand, for a diploma on a Sunday College is in fact not a walk in the park. 

“Naglisod jud ko oi, dili lalim (I really had a hard time, it’s not easy),” Kristine said.    

And not only Krisitine can attest to that, but there are at least 170 graduates of the Assumption College of Davao (ACD) - Sunday College Program. Each has a dream to fulfill, a determination to succeed and heart-warming stories to tell.

Brave Kristine 

After a semester as working student, Kristine got sick and decided to go back to their town in Kapalong, Davao del Norte. Determined to finish her two-year computer programming course, she did not abandon her Sunday college with her parents supporting her financial needs. 

Kapalong town is about three-hour ride from Davao City where jeepneys and buses are particularly scarce in early morning. To promptly attend to Sunday’s school time which commence at seven in the morning, Kristine has to face the ordeal of her travel. 

She has to wake up 1:00 am (on Sunday) while every one else is sound asleep, prepares herself for school to catch the first trip of jeepney at around 2:30 am bound for Tagum City . In this trip, she rides a long with the baskets of farm produce and the bunch of empty fish buckets. Kristine is left with no choice but to take this trip since the next trip is scheduled at 5:00 am., which surely make her tardy in school. 

By 4:00 a.m. she’s in already in Tagum and usually arrives at school by six in the morning. Come 9:00 in the evening, the class ends and by then hopes to catch a bus going back to Tagum. Since there is no jeepney plying the route to Kapalong on late night, she has to wait up until 4:30 am (by this time its Monday already) for the first trip back to her town. 

Kristine has braved through this ordeal for almost two years.

“I did that for more than a year,” Kristine said. 

“What made it more difficult was the fact that I have to bring everything that I need, books, P.E. uniform, rubber shoes, school requirement, some extra clothes,” showing her two packs of paper bags. 

“Mura ko’g moilayas, (I seem to stow away)” she quipped. 

The Sunday College Program

“Indeed the Sunday College Program has helped a lot of students to finish at least two-year college tech-voc education,” says ACD President Sr. Marieta Banayo of the Missionaries of the Assumption (ma).  

Banayo said that when they opened for the Sunday school for college, her sisters in the congregation were not as optimistic as she was. But her confidence with her faculty along with Dr. Rinante Genuba the tech-voc program director, she took the risk. 

“It was one of the risks I took as President of the school. We did not know what will happen, my sisters where a little skeptic. But I had faith,” Banayo added.

“We had the idea of opening the Sunday college when some employers of our Sunday high school graduates,  approached us and asked whether there won’t be a Sunday college for their “kasambahay” to enroll and continue their education,” she said. 

“As president I know it will entail big financial responsibility but it also made me think  bitaw no, after they graduate in high school,  unsa naman sunod? (what’s next for them?). So I decided to heed the call,” giving a nod as she said.

She disclosed that they had been outlining their plans since 2004 but it was only in 2006 when ACD opened the Sunday College Program for two-year courses of Hotel and Restaurant Management, Computer technology, programming and secretarial. 

The Sunday college program had around 200 students for their first batch, “not bad for a start,” Banayo said.

“But the following school year was a big shock for us. A wave of enrollees we did not expect came to the school, even if we did not really campaign for the program,” Banayo blurt out. 

“At certain point, we even closed enrolment since our classrooms and laboratories cannot accommodate yet the number of students,” she said. 

Option for the poor

“Through this Sunday college program, we continue our preferential option for the poor,” Banayo said stressing that the congregation (Missionaries of the Assumption) stamp their mark to favor the deprived sectors in the community.

She said that the program is intended to help poor but persevering students get a college diploma with the best quality education and training they can use for gainful employment. 

“Around 80 per cent of our students are full time working individuals like “kasambahay” (house help), food crew, and others and Sunday is there only time to go to school,” she said . 

A number of them are graduates from the school’s Sunday high school program who wanted and are determined to continue their studies.

 

Transformative education

“We continue to provide the same quality and brand of transformative education for our youth which is to create socially aware individuals in a just and humane society,” she stressed. 

With the aim to provide topnotch training, ACD availed of a loan through the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) provided by Asian Development Bank (ADM) and Department of Budget and Management (DBM). They used the fund to establish air-conditioned classrooms and state-of-the-art laboratories. 

“Part of providing life transforming education is to provide, affordable and superior skills training through modern facilities and competent instructors,” she said. 

“Our instructors, who are both TESDA and CHED certified, share our vision of providing transformative education that the Assumption ( College of Davao ) is known for,” said Banayo. 

On the issue of affordability, Banayo said that even if today’s prices of energy, water and other services are hitting high, the school maintains very affordable fees “and we will not have tuition fee increase next school year.” 

Hopes and Dreams

For Kristine “life commences a new beginning and the world has opened up for more opportunities.” And she hopes to tread life much better now with the skills she learned from the school.   

Meanwhile, Sister Banayo eyes ACD’s expansion as it will open a day and night program for regular college students and the more slots for Sunday Program to help realize more dreams and continue to provide gainful life skills on Sundays.

circa@2009

In the eyes of Jhana

Eyes of Hope. For years, Jhana’s eye was blinded by cataract. Thanks to some helping hands and generous hearts, her clear vision has given her new hope.

 

Curious as every child her age, Jhana Aiza B. Tubo at eight is starting to see the world whole and seeing it in a wider horizon, a clearer perspective and brighter hope for the future.

 

Her mother Juana never thought this day would ever come. For years, it had constantly pained her to see Jhana, then her three-month old daughter developed a whitish spot in her left eye causing it to be partially blind.

 

But thanks to some helping hands, in the eyes of Jhana now is a spark of hope.

 

Perplexed Juana, Jolly Jhana

Estranged from her first husband and a widow from the second, Juana at 44 is left with three kids ages four, five and eight years old Jhana. She is the sole provider for the growing needs of the family. Her meager income of P80.00 a day from vending cigarettes and candies in front of a food chain in Bajada, Davao City would hardly make both ends meet.

 

“Sa akong kita lisod kaayo nga mapatambalan ang mata sa akong anak (with what I earn, it’s impossible to find treatment for the condition of my child),” Juana said with a sense of pity for their circumstance.

 

Juana has no means to save her child from the developing cataract in the left eye of the bubbly Jhana.

 

A cataract is opacity of the eyes lens of its capsule. It causes blindness by obstructing passage of light, but the patient can distinguish light from darkness.

 

“She was three months old when her late father noticed the white spot in her eyes,” Juana recounted.

 

“We observed that the child’s eye was in constant rapid movement, since we didn’t have money, we consulted a “hilot”  who told us to just slowly massage the eyeballs of the child which we did,” she added.

 

“Although we observed that the movement was reduced, the whitish spot was still there… until it has gotten wider,” she said.

 

At five Jhana went to a kindergarten in the community by then her left eye blot out with cataract.

 

“I could only see lights and blur of colors like red…yellow…” Jhana said.

 

Despite her condition, Jhana pursued her schooling until Grade 1 when some of her classmates picked on her eye condition.

 

“Pasagdan lang man nako sila. Bahala sila (I don’t really mind them teasing me. I didn’t care what they say about me.)” Jhana said.

 

Jhana said she had difficulty at looking at the teacher and whatever is presented in front of the class. She had to turn to her right side so that she could see everything.

 

“Every time I need to focus on the lessons of the teacher, I turn to my right before I could clearly see. It was difficult but I endured it,” she said in the dialect smiling as if cherishing how she sustained the situation.

 

Juana said that it was during the kindergarten years of Jhana when she started to find help to treat the worsening condition of the left eye of the child.

 

“But I couldn’t keep it up. I cannot support even my fare and I don’t know where to turn to,” the exhausted mother said.

 

Juana said that she really desired to find treatment for her daughter’s condition but their survival was her priority. The measly income is way far to support them.

 

Teacher’s concern

Concerned about Jhana’s rapidly deteriorating eyes, Mrs. Kathy I. Suarez and Mrs. Ruby Ann G. Ledesma, her Grade 1 teachers at Osmeña Elementary School in Sasa, suggested to her mother to let an eye specialist check the child’s condition.

 

The teachers brought both mother and daughter to Davao Doctors Hospital for initial check-up for free. According to the result, the child had a cataract with some complications or trauma.

 

Meanwhile, the teachers suggested some names whom Juana could contact for help.

 

Further eye examination at DMC, the child’s was noted to have barring complications that it needed an cataract extraction operation which will cost them P49,000.00.

 

“Asa man ko mangita ana nga kwarta! (Where will I find such amount?!),” she blurted out after learning that the treatment she was looking for was that costly.  

 

Helping hands, generous hearts

To source out funding for the operation, Juana sought help from the local government’s program’s Lingap para sa Mahirap which gave P3,000.00. While the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) gave an additional P10,000.  She also approached the Office of the Second District Congressman Vince Garcia which gave P2000.00. Barely P15,000, still a long way.

 

Determined, she spoke to one of the office staff of Congressman Garcia who referred the case to Atty. Mylene J. Garcia, the office’s Chief of Staff.

 

The poignant story of Jhana made her pull some strings. She endorsed the case the Maharlika Charity Foundation, Inc. through its Vice President and sustaining board member Dr. Benedict Valdez.

 

Maharlika Foundation took the case with the required minimum cash counterpart. The foundation took the grant of the Second District Congressman as the Tubo family’s counterpart, the P3000.00 of Lingap for medicine and the P10,000 for the purchase of a special eye lens, and the rest of the P49,000 was shouldered by the foundation. 

 

From then on, everything was arranged. Battery of tests and examinations were conducted and the eye operation was set. Thorugh the expert hands of Dr. Elvir Embalzado the operation procedure was successfully carried out on May 7, 2009 at Maharlike Center .

 

An Eye Opener

“Ka klaro nako karon, klaro ta gani ka, imong notebook og imong camera (I can see clearly now. I can see you, your notebook and your camera),” gaily said Jhana to the writer.

 

“Kung mangita lang jud ta og tabang, naa man gyud di ay motabang (If we really seek help, there will always be people who are willing to help), says the relieved mother.

 

Nagpasalamat gyud ko sa Ginoo, alang sa tanang mga tawo nga mitabang sa amoa kay kung wala ni sila, hangtud karon buta pa gihapon ang wa nga mata sa akong anak (I really thank the Lord for all the people who helped us. Without them the left eye of my daughter would still be blind),” said the teary eyed mother.

 

Continuing Treatment

Today, Jhana still maintains an eye drop medicine which cost P250.00 per bottle and has to under go monthly check up at the Maharlika Foundation Center . As this require financial expenses too, the office of Congressman Garcia shouldered the amount of medication as well as their fare for the check up until the eye of Jhana will be completely healed. 

circa@2009