Whatever happened to the Aldeguer Sisters?

Yeah, whatever happened to Aldeguer Sisters Lally and Terry who, through the late ’60s and the ’70s, danced through our lives, popularizing the "head throw" that has become a classic movement imitated (but never equalled) by all the other dance groups (duo or half a dozen) that came after them?

You and I have been asking that question, haven’t we? Last week when I was in L.A. for the press junket of Dreamworks’ The Tuxedo (starring Jackie Chan and Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Buena Vista International’s Sweet Home Alabama (topbilling Reese Witherspoon), I finally got the answer.

Friday (Sept. 20) before lunch after the round of TV interviews for The Tuxedo stars, Bulletin’s Cris Belen (with me in the junket, plus GMA 7’s Paolo Bediones for the Alabama junket) told me that she got in touch with Lally and Terry through a phone number she saw in a Filipino newspaper advertising the sisters’ school.

"They’re coming to treat us to lunch," Cris said.

The last time I saw Lally and Terry was ages ago, so I was excited to find out how they’re doing.

They picked us up at the Century Plaza (venue of The Tuxedo interviews) and, together with Teresa David, their PRO, brought us to a cozy (and, may I add, expensive) specialty restaurant a few blocks away. For two hours over our platefuls, Lally and Terry kept us posted on what they’ve been up to since they left the Philippines a few years ago to settle in L.A. with their mom, now into her 80s but hale and healthy, fully recovered from a recent major surgery.

I swore that Lally and Terry didn’t look a year older than they did two or so decades ago when I last saw them. I could still visualize them at the back of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, tossing their heads in rhythm, swinging their arms and smiling from here to eternity, their lacey gowns dancing in the wind. It was for a cover pictorial of the Expressweek magazine, a copy of which (circa 1973) I still keep in my collection.

Have the Aldeguer Sisters stopped dancing?

Guess again.

In L.A., they have put up The Aldeguer Sisters Performing Arts Center ("To inspire artistic creativity"), located in Glendale Avenue, West Covina (near their home), two months ago, with a branch soon to open in Panorama City. So popular is the Center that, so far, Lally and Terry already have more than 50 students – with more waiting for slots.

Classes offered (for both children and adults) include jazz, ballet, Hawaiian, Tahitian and folk dance (by Celia Diaz de Fato), plus voice lessons handled by Dianne Serrano-Pons (formerly of D’Nailclippers, whose own children are enrolled in the Center) and Rhea Libang-Banzon. Lally and Terry also handle "event planning and management," one of which was to organize the entertainment aspect of the activities in honor of a Philippine dignitary.

"For as long as we can," smiled Lally and Terry, "we’ll keep on dancing. It’s our life."

On the side, the sisters are also engaged in care-giving, the same activity they pursued while they were in the Philippines.

Terry also told Cris and me that her grandson, Jose Ramon Ripoll, son of Terry’s son Juan Miguel Aldeguer and his girlfriend Yvette Ripoll (they have separated), has fully recovered after an open-heart surgery three years ago, courtesy of the Larry King Cardiac Foundation (King himself is a survivor of an open-heart surgery). The surgery could have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars but Terry and family didn’t have to shell out a single cent, thanks to the big-hearted Larry King who has helped hundreds of heart patients around the world.

Jose, known as the "Heart Baby," was born with an inverted heart (found at the right side). He was then more than a year old and the surgery (performed by a team led by Dr. Burns Star) took 10 hours. The boy now lives as normally as any healthy boy, with a pacemaker in his chest.

When we bade each other goodbye, with Terry on the wheel, I recalled the Aldequer Sisters doing their famous "head throw," as if to say, "We’re dancing through the years and proud of it."

(Note: You may get in touch with Lally and Terry through phone numbers 626-918-0950, 626-589-9094 or 323-683-2598.)

Standing ovation for Lea at Flower Drum Song preview

FLASH: Lea Salonga was given a standing ovation by a mixed audience Tuesday night at the Virginia Theater on Broadway during the preview of Flower Drum Song where she reprises the role of Mei-Li which she did to rave reviews early last year in Los Angeles.

The musical will have its gala night on Oct. 15, with delegations from the Philippines in attendance, including that of Ferdie Agustin, head of Bayo of which Lea is an image model.

Lea started rehearsing last August for the musical which runs until end of the year before it embarks on a US tour. Engaged to boyfriend Robert Chien, a Japanese-American businessman based in L.A., Lea told Funfare during an exclusive interview in L.A. last week of July that they had to schedule their wedding sometime late next year due to her commitments with Flower Drum Song.

In some parts of Broadway, giant billboards of the musical are prominently displayed.

"I cried for Joy," said model Bessie Badilla who went to New York from Connecticut just to watch the preview. "During the standing ovation, I felt proud being a Filipino."