Alex and ASEAN

It is impossible not to follow the phenomenal Alex Eala as she shakes up the tennis world. Her improvement as a tennis player over the past couple of years has been amazing. She now plays with confidence, and grace. My colleague Abac Cordero is right; people should stop calling Alex Eala a rising star. She is a star.

She may not have a formidable serve – yet – but her returns and the way she reads her opponents’ play show that she is not only a good athlete, she is a smart one. She may not be as hefty as some players; she’s certainly not as experienced as others, but she’s a smart player and, as the last couple of weeks have shown, smart trumps heft and power.

Oh, and it’s such a bonus that she is such a wonderful person. She’s articulate, humble about her successes and sincere in her praise for her fellow players. She’s honest about her feelings, and she may have outgrown her ruffled sock and light-up shoes and chubby cheeks (maybe not yet, as she said in one interview), but she is hands down a darling. No wonder the world is in love with Alex Eala.

A shoutout too to the Pinoys all across the world who show such strong, unwavering support for her. As Jessica Pegula noted, support for Eala is “insane,” and it isn’t easy playing in that atmosphere if you’re not the one they’re cheering – loudly, boisterously – for. But Pegula has even benefitted from that; she has gained her share of Pinoy fans, with followers on her FB and podcast increasing significantly after playing Eala in the Washington finals.

Tournament organizers are the biggest winners, and they now know enough to always put her on the main court. Capacity 10,000? No problem – tickets were sold out as soon as they became available.

Never mind that her winning run ended yesterday in Toronto; Alex Eala has made her mark. To watch her on Center Court at Wimbledon, with Philippine flags waving among the crowd, was truly a sight to behold, talagang nakakataba ng puso. And the good thing is, there’ll be many more Center Courts and finals matches for the amazing Alex Eala.

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It’s been a very busy year for the Philippines as chair of ASEAN. Ministerial meetings, business and industrial sector meetings have been, and are, being held in various parts of the country. The 48th Leaders’ Summit was held – quite successfully – in Cebu last May, and the 49th Leaders’ Summit and related meetings will take place in Manila in November, when the chairship will be handed over to Singapore.

But it’s not all business and policy for ASEAN. Last Sunday, despite torrential rains, the arts of the 11 member-states took center stage – literally – at the historic Metropolitan Theater in Manila, the culmination of a week-long interaction among young ASEAN artists. Earlier in the week, the artists spent three days at the National Arts Center in Mount Makiling, participating in cultural exchange sessions, artistic workshops, collaborative rehearsals, cultural immersion activities and interactions with the students of the Philippine High School for the Arts.

The Best of ASEAN Performing Arts is a flagship cultural initiative that brings together “emerging and young artists from across Southeast Asia annually to celebrate the region’s shared heritage while highlighting the unique culture of each of the ASEAN member-states.” Aside from the different dance styles, many of the costumes showed off the country’s exquisite textiles. The first part of the program had two dancers from each country presenting their unique dance traditions; the dances from Malaysia (“Tingkal 2 Diraja”) and Vietnam (“Spirit of Vietnam”) are included in the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The spirited “Hare Fos Dance” or Life in the Fields from newest member Timor Leste looked so familiar, with a salakot-like hat and a bilao used for winnowing. The Philippines presented a poignant pas de deux, “Para Kay Gabriela,” about the courtship of Diego Silang and Gabriela, the first Filipina general of the revolutionary army.

For the second part of the evening, the artists joined the Alice Reyes Dance Philippines in the landmark dance-musical “Rama, Hari” – featuring the work of our National Artists: Alice Reyes (dance), Ryan Cayabyab (music) and the late Bien Lumbera (literature, for the libretto), Salvador Bernal (theater design) and Rolando Tinio (literature, for translation). It is a testimony to the spirit of artistic cooperation that dancers from 11 countries, of different backgrounds and traditions, came together in just a few days to get the show going. A big shoutout to choreographer and director Alice Reyes for getting it done – beautifully!

This brings to mind a similar ASEAN COCI project about a quarter century ago, when artists of the then 10 member-states came together for a dance drama, “Realizing Rama.” Both productions are based on the ancient Sanskrit epic “Ramayana,” which has a significant part in the cultural heritage of many Southeast Asian countries.

“Realizing Rama” was performed in all 10 ASEAN member-states from 1998 to 2000. In subsequent years, the production toured extensively in Europe (Berlin, Luxembourg, London, Brussels) and Asia (Seoul, Korea; Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou in China; New Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai in India; Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Yokohama in Japan). I had the privilege of joining some legs of the tour, and it was a truly inspiring, eye-opening, learning – and fun! – experience. It was a joy to see how connected we really are as Asians, at the same time discovering the unique traits of the artists from the different countries. Whatever may divide us, the arts being us together, reminding us how much we have in common and how much we can learn from and grow with each other. That’s the ASEAN way.