To be a star dancer
For lack of space in a previous column, I wrote little about Michaela “Pinky” Puno, who is helping the Council of United Professional Dance Teachers of the Philippines (CUPDTP) organize an international dance competition in the country. Pinky wants to expose Filipinos to be aware of world-class standards in ballroom dancing. She will introduce the American Smooth and invited experts Nick and Lena Kosovich to exhibit the American Smooth prowess as well as competitors and judges from all over the world to take part in the 1st Philippine StarBall Championship next year — the first in the Philippines.
Pinky started taking ballet lessons at age 5, when ballet was discouraged by nuns in her school who found the costumes and movements rather provocative. When she was a high school senior, her school principal surprisingly requested her to teach ballet to students, but she had to wear leotards beneath her skirt.
Pinky’s father, Felipe Mendoza, one of the country’s foremost architects, built her a ballet studio which became the New Manila Ballet Studio; here she taught ballet for 21 years, from 1966 to 1987. In 1968 she married Ronaldo V. Puno, currently Secretary of Interior and Local Government, by whom she has seven children. In 1987, the family moved to the
In 2000, she entered the world of ballroom competitions — not social ballroom dancing — and became recognized in Pro-Am competitions. This year, she joined seven competitions ‑ in
Next month, Pinky will be the Pro-American representative of her region to compete in her age bracket in American smooth at the Dance Series of the Ohio Star Ball, a six-day competition and the biggest, most reputable one in the
At a presscon, Pinky said she and her husband dance — the simple boogie. I asked her if she would like to dance with Richard Gere, the movie actor starring in the movie, “Shall We Dance?” Pinky smiled and said, “Doesn’t every girl want to dance with Richard Gere?”
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Re my column of October 7, [email protected] wrote that the first teams to reach the Glorietta 2 after the infamous blast were the San Lorenzo Rescue team of Baraga,
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Erahville Cabillas of the Iglesia Filipinas Independiente (IFI) writes in response to my column of October 16, that out of the 630 ordained priests of the nationalist church, only 20 are women priests and two are women deacons in this church founded by Gregorio Aglipay. The number of women priests and deacons, according to Erahville, “is indicative of how IFI as a church has tried hard to live out the Gospel message of Good News: change, transformation, equality, justice and liberation amidst the deeply rooted patriarchal system in almost all aspects of our lives, affecting our humanity and individuality.”
Erahville writes: “Serious discussion on women ordination within the IFI Supreme Council of Bishops (SCB) was not that simple because it took progressive priests to lobby and gain support from a few bishops to put the matter onto the table. Contributory to this was the awareness that outside the
“Personally, I believe the limiting factor affecting IFI male clergy’s readiness for ordination, was cultural rather than theological or biblical. Reactions (have varied), like, ‘I am not comfortable to see a woman in the altar elevating the ‘host’, or, worst, ‘What business does a pregnant woman have being in the altar?’ The cultural/gender bias has resulted in the rejection of the congregation to newly assigned women priests. ‘We want a Father, not a woman. . .’ That is why educating IFI constituents — both the laity and the clergy — required more efforts, more patience and above all, total support first from the clergy and the church leadership. It would be superficial to (carry) the notion that IFI constituents support women 100 percent. That is why, the need to advocate ordination of women”.
The IFI’s commemoration of the Decade of Women Clergy, which ends tomorrow, writes Erahville, is “a challenge to actively advocate, recruit. . . and support women seminarian and women clergy, (and this issue) remains a real task for the IFI. Our ardent hope is that this will not just be a celebration but a new beginning of a renewed understanding of the ministry in the whole church.”
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My e-mail:[email protected]
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