Rhythm in Blue

      I think I should start this post by backtracking to about a month ago, to the exact moment when Rap revealed that he was joining a certain dance contest called Rhythm in Blue. He said it rather nonchalantly. "I joined RIB." I reacted exclamatorily. "YOU DID WHAT!?!?!?!"

      To explain my reaction, I must step back and tell you a little about RIB. It's a pretty huge hip hop dance contest organized by the Company of Ateneo Dancers, or CADS. About twenty Ateneo orgs compete in it every year. They spend weeks practicing their routine, and they hire professional choreographers and all. Only ten teams make it to the finals. The place where they hold the finals (Irwin Theater, usually)  is jam-packed with people. It's not just an Ateneo event, people from other schools come to watch too. And celebrities usually stop by. It is THE dance competition of the cench ("cench" = short for "century." I just had to). This year, the theme is X-Factor.

      So, yeah. RIB is a big deal. And when I had gotten over the initial shock of Rap saying he was joining it, I thought him really naive for signing up.

      You see, he is an amateur dancer. When I say this, I mean that he doesn't have a lot of experience with dancing, more so with hip hop. He took a semester in Dance Sports, joined a Hairspray-themed flash mob for our friend Micha, and did a Badjao dance of love for a Socio-Anthro project.

Check out our sick moves.
(c) Albert Song

      To the best of my knowledge, he is a good dancer, but he is not an outstanding, amazing, stupendous, RIB-level dancer. (Just keeping it real, bro.) Secretly, I gave it a week before he quit.

      He was surprisingly dedicated to the competition. About a week after sign-ups, dancers were given the option to back out before the final list of dancers was submitted. I thought that he would quit for sure, fresh from all the stresses of our Epidemiology exam. He would quit and I would inwardly give myself a smug high-five. A smug inward high-five.

      But he didn't quit. A few days into the start of practice season, he'd complain about how hard the moves were, and about how he was the worst one of the bunch. And I'd tell him "Yeah, of course. You're a dancing n00b." (So sue me for wanting to tell the truth!)

      Still, onwards he pressed. As more practice sessions went by, he'd tell me that he was getting better and  better. I purposefully abstained from watching any of their practices (I didn't want any spoilers). And so I remained skeptical, thinking that "better" meant that he was now able to coordinate his left foot with his right. (Kidding!)

      His practices were really weird. Often they were held in places outside school, like a studio in Ortigas, or  a place in Commonwealth. They ran late into the night, too. He'd get home around 11pm, still having homework to do and class the next morning. He'd be really tired, but he'd still say that it was fun.

. . . 

     Finally, it was time for the actual competition. I have to say though, the scheduling of the event was pretty horrible. It started around 5 PM and ended around 7 PM on a Monday night, which would have been okay if we didn't have an Accounting quiz at 6:00. I know that a lot of other dancers had long tests in Accounting around that time too. To remedy this, the organizers scheduled the performances so that the first performers would be the teams with members unavailable after 6.

      After my last class at 4:30, Cheryl, Deo, Jani, Pat, Von (or is it Van?) and I headed off towards the Grade School auditorium to go see the show. Rap was probably already in costume by this time, and I hadn't seen him since lunch (which was at the ISO caf, which was cheap and yummy).

      When we got to Singson Hall, there was already an immensely long line for tickets. Deo and Jani had to go all the way to the back, behind more than fifty people, just to get tickets. I was lucky to have bought one earlier that day from Mico. The rest of my friends also had tickets as well.

      As expected, the place was PACKED. Pat and Cheryl found two vacant chairs and took them. I found another seat all the way over at the back. It was really far from the stage (and far from my friends), but any seat is better than no seat.

      Then Cheryl called me over and suddenly said she was appointing me as PMSA's official videographer. (PMSA = Pre-Medical Society of the Ateneo, the org she and I were supporting. Cheryl's one of the big shots there.) It was quite scary for me because I don't have any experience officially documenting any event. But she told me that I would get to sit up front, in the special space reserved for the photographers. So I accepted.

      The documentations area was a wide space right in front of the stage, separated from the rest of the audience by yellow DO NOT CROSS tape. I hesitated before stepping over the tape, thinking that I had to present some kind of special ID. But nobody seemed to care, and I simply crossed over to the official photographer's area, just like that. I felt so official! I also had a great view of the stage. It was prime seating, even if we had to sit on the floor.
   
      The first performance began, and it was MACA. My friend Neric was there and he was really good. Two more performances after that, and it was PMSA's turn.

      It is at this point that I must stop and tell you that I suck at describing dances. I don't know how to write about them, much like I don't know how to write about sports. All I know to say is "It was great!" or "It was okay."

      But in this case, PMSA was great. Here's the video to prove it.

      My friend Mico is the guy in the doctor's coat. I thought he really was the best of the bunch.

      Four more great performances later (AMA's dance is noteworthy) and it was time for ASEC to go on stage.

      In the end, Rap turned out to be a spectacular, amazing, RIB-level dancer. He proved me completely wrong. If you didn't know him personally, you wouldn't guess it was his first dance contest ever.

      The Ambassadancers did a very good job. Their dance wasn't your typical hip hop dance. It was all really fun to watch. Here's the video I took of them, in which I scream a lot. Watch it in HD!

 (He's the second to the left at 0:16, if you were wondering. It's also a little scary, how well he did the girly parts.)

      So after his dance, we all went to congratulate him and the Ambassadancers. Here's a picture that I took of them.

      Then we all hurried off to our Accounting quiz. 

. . .

      Anyway, at the end of it all, the point is that if you really want something, work hard for it and don't let them naysayers bring you down! If you believe in yourself, you can do it! 

      Tchüss! 

(Update: Rap has written about the whole experience himself in his own blog. Click here to read it.)