UC biokenetics danceclub: A dance class with a difference

The Biokinetics Society came to being when CHED gave the go signal for the College of Education of the University of Cebu to offer Bachelor in Secondary Education major in Physical Education, Health and Music (and in the later years, Bachelor in Elementary Education major in Music, Arts and Physical Education). This was during the time of Dr. Isabela Conales, Dean of the College, now Director of Programs.

Dr. Conales saw a great talent in UC PE Dance Master, Ceasar Nimor, then choreographer and researcher of the UC Folkloric Group, and asked him to handle the Physical Education 5 (Philippine Folk, Ethnic and Foreign Dances).

For six years, the students were exposed to a semester's training on dance rudiments and mastery of some folk dances.

Just last year, however, a group of talented PEHM students, LET passers by the way, decided to pursue further training by organizing a dance club using the name of the mother organization. With the full support of the new dean in the person of Dr. Ulysses B. Aparece, the University of Cebu Biokinetics Dance Club was realized

All students of PE 5 (Dances) and PE 6 (Adapted PE) are automatically given training in various dance forms. Headstrong members adhere to a strict six hour per week regimen yet they should maintain high scores in their respective academic classes.

Following the course syllabus, the members learn to embrace the beauty of Philippine folk dancing, basic dance steps, warm-up and stretching exercises. They are further taught the rudiments of dance positions, steps and formations, dances of ¾ time signature, 2/4 and 4/4, moving from simple to complicated ethnic dances. Thereafter, the second half is spent on foreign dance forms, ballroom, dancesport and pop jazz.

The UC Biokinetics Dance Club believes that learning is not based on theories and classroom setting alone. Immersion to the actual setting and experience is the best teacher. The life of a dance educator, as the dancers become one in the near future, is a life of struggle - preparing a dance production, training, adequate skills for the job, developing social values, painstaking preparation of dance materials, performing before a live audience, getting praises and criticisms, and loving dance and culture as a whole.

This year, the first taste of performance for most beginners of the group is before a live audience during the culminating activity of the Buwan Ng Wika last August. Students who were not apt in dancing were assigned in the technical aspect of production. They were further developed during another UC big event, the annual Miss United Nations Pageant.

Last October 1st, the UCBDC teamed up with the Saraya Dance Ensemble of IPES-SWU and the Pulpogan Community Youth dancers of Consolacion for a full-length dance production entitled World Beat at the Aznar Coliseum.

The World Beat dance production will be taken to a higher level when the group performed last October 21 at the USC Cultural Center. The showcase focused on dance styles from various regions of the world beginning from the ethnic-folk of the Philippines to traditional dances of the Asia-Pacific region and Western styles of pop jazz, latin ballroom, foreign folk and retro pop in a three-part repertoire.

Costumes closely resembled to that of the original ones. A testament to Dance Master Nimor's being an ethnographic researcher and years of actual exposure, during travels and correspondence from abroad.

World Beat is UCBDC's first big break. Still, the group will have to continue its mission - having a unique strategy in learning and teaching dance while being transformed into prepared teachers in the future.