The big Dance Company in the Philippines

 Whilst we were in LA at dance excellence we were invited with two other directors from other Countries, to teach out in the Philippines, which was a great honor. It was to be the first International dance workshop and festival in the Philippines with connectivity through dance run by the NCCA, national commission for the culture and the arts.

We only had a week to get organised! and i was in LA for another week,  argh! We needed to take a show and some workshops, so Charlie Lodey, Charlotte Gilling, Clare Brighton and I, had 3 hours to create a show for them by the time we all got back to the UK from Los Angeles. We decided that we would dance the piece that I choreographed for the body shop, as it was relevant to what we were going over for, which was world peace and bringing together different cultures through dance. We dashed around getting jabs, changing money and preparing another case for a 20 hour trip to the Philippines! We left on the Thursday night to arrive in Manilla on the Friday, exhausted but so excited!! we booked our travel through Steve Crook our Travel Councilor, who ensured we had a great Flight with Etihad airlines and nice hotel to stay in until we were met my our LO's in Manilla.

The first day our amazing LO Makkie, took us for lunch and showed us the area. We experienced our first lunch served on banana leaves!  we were lucky enough to catch the street dance festival in Manilla which celebrated national dance day, it was breathtaking, and a real great welcome to the philippines. It was so funny how everyone wanted to take our picture, as we seemed to be the only western people there.   Makki then took us to Miss Shirley's Ballet school in Manilla where we would teach our first workshop. It was so much fun and working with top class ballerinas urged me to give them a taste of some freestyle and they were amazing at it!!!! Then we taught some hip hop, and had them back spinning by the end of it!  It was lovely to see the dancers again that we met in Los Angeles!

The next day we headed to the airport to fly to Dumaguete where the festival would be taking place, we were greeted at the airport by beautiful dancers and locals cheering and waving which was lovely. Our hotel was by the sea and we were so looked after by our LO's Maxine and Makki. It was a huge Culture shock for us at first as none of us had travelled to such areas without tourism, but we very quickly fell in love with the place.

Over the next few days we took part in workshops by the other countries and learnt about different cultures and learnt some new languages. We had lunch daily with new friends from all over the world trying new dishes and drinks. We were sent out on outreach performances with the other dance groups from other countries where we performed to areas in the Philippines where they do not had access to dance or the arts, and i have to say they were my most special moments of performing in my life! They appreciated every movement and to see the smiles on the faces of the children during our performance was breathtaking!! And to be able to dance with people from other countries was incredible.

On the Wednesday we taught a workshop to over 400 people and it was so much fun, we had them crumping, freestyling, and whooping! We loved every second, and it was great to spend time chatting to the locals to learn how much they appreciated us coming. The Philippines is such a beautiful country and all the people that we met were very warm, thoughtful and sooo HAPPY!!

The festival was the first exchange in the Philippines and it was a huge success, the organisation and attention to detail was incredible. The locals were very welcoming and anyone that we met could not do enough for us to make our stay comfortable. We struggled alot with the heat and was sad to see the way that some people have to survive, but never once did we hear anyone complaining! 

On the Friday we performed at a stadium which felt like thousands, where we all performed together and Clare represented the Uk by dancing the fan dance where each country dances with it and it is passed around by way of unity. It was a very proud moment.

We love the Philippines and all the beautiful people we met there, and we have been invited back next year, so we are going to be busy preparing a special show for them. Also while we were there we were invited to teach in Malaysia with our new friends in August this year, which we are very excited about, so watch this space for further details.

We met some amazing new friends that i am sure we will have for life and to sum up our experience. LIVING THE DREAM! thank you Shirley and all your beautiful dancers, Maxine, Dennis, Makki, powerdance, and all the groups who made this an experience of a lifetime and to my beautiful students who represented our school in the most amazing way! Counting the days till next year x

more photos on our facebook x