Rean here…

I recently was reminded of The Dawn, a Filipino band that changed the local music industry.  The influence of this band still lingers up to today.  In a time when music was about doing covers of foreign songs or drug influenced free jam, this band had an ethic to create their own music and have it written down and properly notated.  Their sound was so new that people thought they were a Brit band.  Decades later the risk they took for going against the flow has paid off.  I guess if you have a unique sound, voice or visual artistry.  If your thing is to get a goodtime banjo at guitar center rather than a Peavey, then go for it. Who knows it will someday be the new sound?

Can be
Such.an. ordeal. Notice?

Rean here…

We are praying about getting a home that can also serve as an office, dance and photo studio. We want a home that can accommodate a large open space for us to do our creative work. Need to check if my pre-need plan payment can be released anytime in the next few months as it was purchased years ago in annuities best rates.

Rean here…

In a few days one of my ballet schools will have a mall show at SM Muntinlupa. The challenge for me is how to get my students to dance en pointe on a mall stage. Typical mall stages are made of plexi-glass so a special floor has to be put on top of this to keep dancers safe. I will be bringing my own temporary floors for this purpose. Perhaps having pallet racks would come handy to ensure proper transport and storage.

Rean here…

The weather in the Philippines has been strange the past few weeks. Early December, Davao encountered a very powerful typhoon that destroyed many towns and cities. This would have been unusual 20 or 30 years ago. Recently we have been having a lot of rain when this time of year it would usually be cold and dry. What’s next? Will we have to seek out a North Face fleece clearance sale? I guess climate change is real.

It’s Christmas once again and people in the Philippines are running around trying to get their best Noche Buena out. In about an hour, families will gather around their dinner tables to have a feast to celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus who saved us from our sins. Presents will then be given. Some will get the coolest toys and video games, others will get pandora beads, still other will get the latest Rick Riordan book. The most important gift we get, is the of eternal life that Jesus offers to those who receive it. Merry Christmas.

I found Tes working on a business card design yesterday. At first I found it too plain, only to realize a subtle logo watermark later on. This design was light years compared to the old calling cards of the client which were very traditional and dated. It just shows that design sensibilities are a function of time as the old calling cards were in about 30 years ago. Who knows what the next design thing for calling cards would be? Metal business cards anyone?

Just yesterday, my son’s friend said he was not going with my son on their next scheduled Friday afternoon piano lesson. I wondered why. Later on I learned that he was going on an earlier slot to be able to watch the Hobbit in the afternoon. Oh the memories of the dwarves with their tool belts making their way into Smaug’s lair and that of Bilbo discovering the Ring in Gollum’s domain. The family will definitely watch this movie during the holidays.

Rean here…Congratulations to all Acts Manila entries to the Philippine Dance Cup

Rean here…

In today’s event for the Philippine Dance Cup, the there was one instance that the podium microphone was not operational right when the organizers were about to announce the winers of a division. This was one of these time you wished you had one of your karaoke microphones to lend to the official just to remove the suspense. Thankfully it didn’t take long to have the microphone back.

Rean here…

In today’s ballet class, I mentioned to one of my teachers that teaching or learning ballet is a lot like playing the piano. When you study a piano piece, you start with the right hand at slow pace, the left also slow , both hands, slow then both hands fast. Similarly, ballet steps are learned starting with slow steps from 1st position. After this you move to 3rd then 5th position. You then add the arms and later the releves. Once the combination can be executed well, only then do you speed up. It’s like patiently cutting hard objects, you have to allow your diamond saw blades to do their work slowly but surely.

Rean here…

Had a discussion with my teachers today about choreography. We were tasked to do a choreography for a school event on Oct 25. So I assigned the task to one of them. I just let her scale down a choreography I did previously and had her video her work. Beginning choreographers usually panic about running out of steps to give. It’s really not as difficult as tracking the RFID signals of a migrating whale. Choreography starts with your own movements in response to a piece of music or to a theme. You can choose to express your movement in the Classical Ballet vocabulary or other genres like Contemporary, Folk, Jazz or Hip-Hop. Once you’ve created your movement “melody”, you can then create your harmonizing movements. For example my teacher did 4 sets of an eight count 1st port-de-bras. I told her to have one group kneel down on the second set and sit down on the third. An element I really consider important is texture. Movement has to fill all levels and tempos for a richer piece. In the coming days, I’ll be doing more experiments on dynamic.