Dance to health

It is so heart-warming to receive texts from dance classmates asking why I have not been to flamenco class lately. I miss my dance mates whenever I skip weeks of dance lessons at the Centro Flamenco. Not only do I miss the camaraderie; most of all, I miss the energy of every dancer.

I close my eyes and visualize my classmates trying to perfect a dance choreography. To the tempo of the alegrias, they start with a resounding golpe (a big stomp of right foot usually) then proceed with some intricate sapateados, fingers twirling delicately, bodies writhing in a full vuelta quebrada, and spirits soaring to another plane, lost in their passion. There is something about dance that propels the person into a spiritual realm, where body and mind are connected in dance. Entrenched in the artistry of the dance, the dancer is in her/his own space, soaring out of the physical self. If you have been passionately involved in any dance class, you will know what I mean. Most flamenco students end up obsessed with the dance. They get so passionately involved and strive to dance as well as their teacher, if not better. There is something so untamed, so uninhibited about this dance that it unleashes the fire within. During our last dance recital, (the only one I had the guts to join), I had a dance number with Dante Silverio, who we tease as the only rose among the thorns as he is the only male in our class most of the time. During our practices, we perfected our dance steps to a T. I could have danced that number in my sleep. The night of the performance came. Dante was in his own world, me in mine and we both wondered how we got to the last "Ole!" on the same beat. I would always watch my teachers Emma Estrada, Clara Ramona and Cecile de Joya, doing their own translation of the same dance – the way their artistic souls deem fit.

Flamenco aficionado Tereret Liboro, who I can say was one of the early patrons of flamenco, put up a little dance studio in her house so she could have private lessons whenever she wanted to dance. Because of her generosity and love for the dance, she opened her home studio to classes for teachers who did not have a studio during the ’90s. Now, flamenco aficionados can go to the Centro Flamenco, founded by Emma Estrada, on Kalayaan St.

Dance has taken the Philippines by storm. It started during the time of my mother and her contemporaries during the late ‘70s. They called themselves the Sparklers and the Smiles. Both groups have branched out to other groups. Every major city in the Philippines has ballroom dance groups. This fad paved the way for a whole new industry and saved a lot of unemployed males. They found a new career as dance instructors – or DIs – and are in demand today because every female ballroom dancer wants to have her own personal DI. And some males who want to be good dancers hire their female DI.

When my mom first started to dance with her friends, my sisters and I gave her our full-hearted support. We attended all her big affairs where she would do a dance exhibition, usually a tango number, which she does so well. In the early ‘90s, my sisters and I joined some close friends to learn ballroom dancing once a week, and we did this for three years. We would sometimes surprise Mom and her friends by performing a dance number during her birthday. Up to this day, Mom is still dancing with the same dance instructor she had the day her dance career started. I see so much joy in her when she talks about her classmates whose names I have heard from her over the past 30 years.

This somehow reiterates the theory of one doctor, whose name escapes me, that dancing during one’s middle and old age can save a person from a lot of debilitating diseases. For the most part, a person who dances often will not be overweight or obese. Dancing cures hypertension, releases stress, controls diabetes, improves the memory, strengthens the immune system, and gets rid of chronic illnesses.

My friends and I compare notes about our mothers. They wake up in the morning complaining of aches and pains. In the case of my mom, she complains about her aching knees all the time. But in the evening, when it’s time to go to her ballroom dance sessions, her pain disappears. The same holds true for my friends’ mothers. They are in pain when they are not dancing! Dancing is wonderful in that sense. It makes you forget your chronic illnesses.

Some groups of women go ballroom dancing in the afternoon so they are at home when their husbands get there. Some of them hire instructors to give them private lessons during the day and at night join their friends for more dancing. Ballroom dancing has become a way of life for a lot of women. I was talking to a neighbor who has been a widow for the last 10 years. She told me that ballroom dancing saved her life. She was depressed after her husband died. Her children were all grown up and had their own lives. She felt that she was a burden to them. A friend took her to one dance session and she enjoyed it so much. One dance session led to another and soon she snapped out of her depression, thanks to ballroom dancing. Her children are so happy and supportive of her obsession with dance. Today, they have to make an appointment with her if they want to see her, as she is in her dance sessions almost daily. She also lost all the unwanted pounds that she had been trying to lose, pre-ballroom dance. Now she looks younger and better than ever. Most dancers are youthful looking, if you notice. There is something radiant about them.

For most people who never indulged in sports in their life, dancing is a good sport. It is a kind of gymnastics. It is better than going to the gym and going through the rigors of a boring physical training regimen. When I am in the gym, I keep looking at my watch and can’t wait until my training is over. But when I am in dance class, I forget the time. Ballroom dancing is now a sport in the Olympics.

In the Philippines, dance queen Becky Garcia, who is president of Dance Sport, makes it a point to send her dancers to all the dance competitions all over the world. Some of them actually win. And there is also the SEA games on Nov. 27 at the ULTRA where the Philippines will play host to ballroom dancers. Becky has come a long way from her "lambada queen" (as we teasingly called her as she was the expert in the dance) days. She worked hard to put the dance at the level where it is today. It is not just a hobby for many young dance enthusiasts today but a skill to learn in order to win those medals in international competitions. Becky believes in starting them young so she has students as young as 10 years old.

Where there is dance, there is life!