Lover of dance, fighter for a cause

Imagine a Filipino making it big internationally as a performer. Familiar and seemingly common story, right? Now, imagine a Filipino who made it big internationally but came home to his province to teach dancing to underprivileged youth. Amazing, isn't it?

Well, Odon Sabarre came home after being a danseur of Pittsburg Ballet Theater and the New Jersey Ballet Company to dedicate his life teaching dance skills to underprivileged youths in the Leyte and Samar provinces. He has been doing this since the 80's.

Let's backtrack a little. It wasn't that easy for Odon. He tasted failure for the first time from a great director, the late Lou Salvador Sr. It was told that Odon, urged by great ambition, left his hometown of Calbiga (Samar) to try his luck in Manila. Inspired by the dancers he saw performing in the Opera House, Odon presented himself before Director Salvador but was told to come back when he is a bit older.

As luck would have it, famous Director Fr. James Reuter included Odon as one of the performers for the musical play Show Boat, while Odon was still studying in Manila. He, together with many of his co-performers, had to undergo formal ballet lessons under Mrs. Joji Felix Velarde - the official choreographer of Show Boat. His late younger brother Tommy who was then studying in the Univesity of Santo Tomas also joined in the ballet lessons. Show Boat was Odon's first public appearance. TURN TO PAGE B... Afterwards, the Sabarre brothers auditioned for a dance workshop for the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). Odon's efforts in this workshop paid off, when after a year, Julie Borromeo's Dance Arts Studio granted him a scholarship. Later, Odon became the first recipient of the Julie Borromeo Dance Foundation scholarship to the US to further his study in Robert Joffrey's ballet school in New York City. Julie's ballet company provided Odon his pocket money by staging a gala concert.

Odon's rigid training in the U.S. consisted of a daily nine-to-five class. Realizing that he had lost time by starting ballet only in his late teens, Odon maintained two more hours of practice at home. Auditioning for David Howard's Harkness II, Odon was almost bypassed because he was two inches short of the required height. In 1974 Odon aspired to be included in the San Francisco Ballet Group but he came home to the Philippines even before the audition began.

In the Philippines, Odon realized the sad plight of local dancers so he stopped dancing to work in the Hilton Hotel (Manila). But Odon couldn't just turn a deaf ear to his "first love." Together with his brother Tommy, he formed his own dance team and later a ballet and jazz dancing school. Appearances at TV shows and movies soon followed. Odon was so famous that he was noticed by the then First Lady Imelda Marcos who helped him attain a scholarship to the Bolshoi Academy of Dance in Russia. Hence, Odon Sabarre became the first Filipino dance scholar to Russia and stayed there for four months. It took him that long to realize that he wanted to perform in the U.S. So he did just that and had his debut performance in the Garden State Ballet's Nutcracker. Odon then joined the New Jersey Ballet Company while teaching jazz movement classes on the side.

This 1988 Most Outstanding Samareño (Arts & Culture) devotes himself to teaching jazz and aerobics lessons to the people of Eastern Visayas but he can also be seen performing in various cultural events like the Tribute Night to Chief Justice Davide hosted by the World Jurists Association (Philippines) and the WOW Philippines project of Richard Gordon.