The great part about being young is that when it comes to dancing, it’s not about the choreography. Seriously, as long as you are below the age of ten and are completely devoid of self-consciousness, you can do pretty much do whatever you want. As long as you don't hit anyone, stays away from doing anything lewd and stay within the rhythm of the music, you can bank on people going , " Awww, how cute!" Actually I lied, music can be optional.
Being Filipino, you had to be on hand for the ritual embarrassment your parents will subject you to when they put you on display in front of friends and family. Usually, this means the whole song and dance routine. I sometimes wonder what goes through the parents heads when they do this. Since me and my brother have no talent with musical instruments and have a gagging order preventing us form singing, I guess that left us with dancing. And my brother ALWAYS pulled rank.
But hey, to be fair, he had done his time in the purgatory that was "parent's embarrassing their kids night." A five year age gap between brothers meant that he had to take center stage for quite a bit. Not that he needed much prompting. If you know him or ever get to meet him, just mention Grease. My parents once went with a couple of their friends and kids to the movie theatre. It just so happened to be a re screening of the film. At one point during the film, my brother along with the other kids promptly got up and decided to dance along.
"Aw, how cute."
To be fair, the audience did give them a rousing applause. Not that I remember the incident. I was still en route to being born.
As you get older, you realise how silly you look while attempting to dance and failing completely. But, for some reason or another it always came into my life for some reason. I would try to avoid it. Nobody wants to look like an idiot in public. But, it was a losing battle. There were two things I pretty much ended up doing in elementary that would have me putting on my dancing shoes.
First of all, I was always being asked to be an escort in whatever pageant or event our school would have. I guess it was because I was tall by Filipino standards, even at a young age. That and I could pull off wearing a suit and tie without a problem. In the third grade, however, I was partnered with my friend and classmate Farida in this Valentine's pageant of sorts. She was competing for the Princess of Hearts crown. This would not be the usually usher from one area to another role, oh no.
The organisers decided to add some pizazz and we were to have a dance number. So for nearly eight weeks, after class, we would meet on the flat roof of our main school building. Sweating out move after move, step after step, and trying to memorize each movement. It was the first time I really had a routine to follow. I wasn't doing things on the fly. Also, I had to dance to a song written and released a years before I was born, Paul Anka's "Diana." Not exactly cool points. I wonder if it would be sad to admit that I knew the song from listening at home.
The show went off without a hitch. The dance number was a surprise to the crowd. It was the casual wear portion of the pageant. Casual meant well-pressed denim jacket and trousers. After the girls strutted on stage, the struck a pose and out of nowhere the song began to play. Us, guys were hiding in the wings and then slowly, shuffled on to the stage to the beat of the music. The crowd roared in approval. It was was well received to say the least. More importantly, no mistakes. And my partner, Farida won pretty much hands down.
A couple of years ago I had coffee with Farida and we chuckled over the whole event. I think we still remember the routine as well. But you won't find me breaking into that routine any time soon. Plus I had a good dance partner.
Second of all, I was a Boy Scout. Yes, really. I wore the Scouting Green and kerchief with pride. I guess I thought it was cool as a kid. I always wanted to do the whole outdoors thing. Unfortunately, fears of health and safety limited whatever activities we could do. That and the school was pretty wussy when it came to letting us out. So we ended up doing most of our camping on school grounds.
Which meant we had to have entertainment. And what is more entertaining that having a variety show and what is this... a dance contest? So here we go again. But wait, we need to have a dance routine that will outshine everybody else.
We need to dance to THE hit song of the time.
It was 1989.
There was only one song and one song alone.
"Ice, Ice Baby," by Vanilla Ice.
I am so ashamed.
Now, we did have a great routine. And my brother, yes, my brother did the choreography. He does the better Running Man. We also only had an hour to get a routine together. But we went on stage first and pulled it off. That was probably a good thing. Not that we were worried about our dance routine. It's just that out of the six competing groups, all six decide to dance to the same song. Completely by accident.
Oh, we did win the contest by the way. Though it might have to do less with the quality than the fact that by the third act, everyone was bored of the song, us included. That and my Aunt Priam was in the audience and was screaming at the judges to vote for me. Nothing like intimidation to get the vote to swing your way.
As you get older, you get more conscious about how you dance. You feel like you have to look good and have to look cool. I miss the innocence of childhood where all you had to do was swing your hands in the air and bounce around the dance floor. Unfortunately, you just can't pull it off by looking cute. No matter how much you try. So maybe I 'll dance around the room when I'm alone in my house, just for the heck of it.
But never again to " Ice, Ice Baby. "
Never again.
Being Filipino, you had to be on hand for the ritual embarrassment your parents will subject you to when they put you on display in front of friends and family. Usually, this means the whole song and dance routine. I sometimes wonder what goes through the parents heads when they do this. Since me and my brother have no talent with musical instruments and have a gagging order preventing us form singing, I guess that left us with dancing. And my brother ALWAYS pulled rank.
But hey, to be fair, he had done his time in the purgatory that was "parent's embarrassing their kids night." A five year age gap between brothers meant that he had to take center stage for quite a bit. Not that he needed much prompting. If you know him or ever get to meet him, just mention Grease. My parents once went with a couple of their friends and kids to the movie theatre. It just so happened to be a re screening of the film. At one point during the film, my brother along with the other kids promptly got up and decided to dance along.
"Aw, how cute."
To be fair, the audience did give them a rousing applause. Not that I remember the incident. I was still en route to being born.
As you get older, you realise how silly you look while attempting to dance and failing completely. But, for some reason or another it always came into my life for some reason. I would try to avoid it. Nobody wants to look like an idiot in public. But, it was a losing battle. There were two things I pretty much ended up doing in elementary that would have me putting on my dancing shoes.
First of all, I was always being asked to be an escort in whatever pageant or event our school would have. I guess it was because I was tall by Filipino standards, even at a young age. That and I could pull off wearing a suit and tie without a problem. In the third grade, however, I was partnered with my friend and classmate Farida in this Valentine's pageant of sorts. She was competing for the Princess of Hearts crown. This would not be the usually usher from one area to another role, oh no.
The organisers decided to add some pizazz and we were to have a dance number. So for nearly eight weeks, after class, we would meet on the flat roof of our main school building. Sweating out move after move, step after step, and trying to memorize each movement. It was the first time I really had a routine to follow. I wasn't doing things on the fly. Also, I had to dance to a song written and released a years before I was born, Paul Anka's "Diana." Not exactly cool points. I wonder if it would be sad to admit that I knew the song from listening at home.
The show went off without a hitch. The dance number was a surprise to the crowd. It was the casual wear portion of the pageant. Casual meant well-pressed denim jacket and trousers. After the girls strutted on stage, the struck a pose and out of nowhere the song began to play. Us, guys were hiding in the wings and then slowly, shuffled on to the stage to the beat of the music. The crowd roared in approval. It was was well received to say the least. More importantly, no mistakes. And my partner, Farida won pretty much hands down.
A couple of years ago I had coffee with Farida and we chuckled over the whole event. I think we still remember the routine as well. But you won't find me breaking into that routine any time soon. Plus I had a good dance partner.
Second of all, I was a Boy Scout. Yes, really. I wore the Scouting Green and kerchief with pride. I guess I thought it was cool as a kid. I always wanted to do the whole outdoors thing. Unfortunately, fears of health and safety limited whatever activities we could do. That and the school was pretty wussy when it came to letting us out. So we ended up doing most of our camping on school grounds.
Which meant we had to have entertainment. And what is more entertaining that having a variety show and what is this... a dance contest? So here we go again. But wait, we need to have a dance routine that will outshine everybody else.
We need to dance to THE hit song of the time.
It was 1989.
There was only one song and one song alone.
"Ice, Ice Baby," by Vanilla Ice.
I am so ashamed.
Now, we did have a great routine. And my brother, yes, my brother did the choreography. He does the better Running Man. We also only had an hour to get a routine together. But we went on stage first and pulled it off. That was probably a good thing. Not that we were worried about our dance routine. It's just that out of the six competing groups, all six decide to dance to the same song. Completely by accident.
Oh, we did win the contest by the way. Though it might have to do less with the quality than the fact that by the third act, everyone was bored of the song, us included. That and my Aunt Priam was in the audience and was screaming at the judges to vote for me. Nothing like intimidation to get the vote to swing your way.
As you get older, you get more conscious about how you dance. You feel like you have to look good and have to look cool. I miss the innocence of childhood where all you had to do was swing your hands in the air and bounce around the dance floor. Unfortunately, you just can't pull it off by looking cute. No matter how much you try. So maybe I 'll dance around the room when I'm alone in my house, just for the heck of it.
But never again to " Ice, Ice Baby. "
Never again.
