To be a star dancer

For lack of space in a previous column, I wrote little about Michaela “Pinky” Puno, who is helping the Council of United Professional Dance Teachers of the Philippines (CUPDTP) organize an international dance competition in the country. Pinky wants to expose Filipinos to be aware of world-class standards in ballroom dancing. She will introduce the American Smooth and invited experts Nick and Lena Kosovich to exhibit the American Smooth prowess as well as competitors and judges from all over the world to take part in the 1st Philippine StarBall Championship next year — the first in the Philippines.

Pinky started taking ballet lessons at age 5, when ballet was discouraged by nuns in her school who found the costumes and movements rather provocative. When she was a high school senior, her school principal surprisingly requested her to teach ballet to students, but she had to wear leotards beneath her skirt.

Pinky’s father, Felipe Mendoza, one of  the country’s foremost  architects, built her a ballet studio which became the New Manila Ballet Studio; here she taught ballet for 21 years, from 1966 to 1987. In 1968 she married Ronaldo V. Puno, currently Secretary of Interior and Local Government, by whom she has seven children. In 1987, the family moved to the United States, where in no time, she was conceptualizing, choreographing and directing the annual spring musicals of her children’s schools. These successful events were supported by the students, faculty and parents, and  became known as Pinky Puno Productions.

In 2000, she entered the world of ballroom competitions — not social ballroom dancing — and became recognized in Pro-Am competitions. This year, she joined seven competitions ‑ in Missouri, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Washington D.C., New York, and California. She has consistently been in the top three in her age bracket and level in the International Standard, the American Smooth, and International Latin dances. Last September, at the Embassy Ball in California, she placed first in the American Smooth, second place in International Latin, and first place in International Standard.

Next month, Pinky will  be the Pro-American representative of her region to compete in her age bracket in American smooth at the Dance Series of the Ohio Star Ball, a six-day competition and the biggest, most reputable one in the US that is televised nationwide.

At a presscon, Pinky said she and her husband dance — the simple boogie. I asked her if she would like to dance with Richard Gere, the movie actor starring in the movie, “Shall We Dance?” Pinky smiled and said, “Doesn’t every girl want to dance with Richard Gere?”

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Re my column of October 7, [email protected] wrote that the first teams to reach the Glorietta 2 after the infamous blast were the San Lorenzo Rescue team of Baraga, San Lorenzo, Makati City, and the Makati Rescue Unit. At the time of the blast the email writer was coincidentally at Netopia Internet Café; he says, “I am certain that these were the first response teams to arrive at the scene and not Sen. Richard Gordon and the National Red Cross volunteers.” Well, whoever reached the site first, must be commended, as Senator Gordon and the Red Cross must be commended too for doing their job.

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Erahville Cabillas of the Iglesia Filipinas Independiente (IFI) writes in response to my column of October 16, that out of the 630 ordained priests of the nationalist church, only 20 are women priests and two are women deacons in this church founded by Gregorio Aglipay. The number of women priests and deacons, according to Erahville, “is indicative of how IFI as a church has tried hard to live out the Gospel message of Good News: change, transformation, equality, justice and liberation amidst the deeply rooted patriarchal system in almost all aspects of our lives, affecting our humanity and individuality.”

Erahville writes: “Serious discussion on women ordination within the IFI Supreme Council of Bishops (SCB) was not that simple because it took progressive priests to lobby and gain support from a few bishops to put the matter onto the table. Contributory to this was the awareness that outside the Philippines, churches in Sweden and the USA and some parts of the world had been ordaining women already. The Church of Sweden started ordaining women into the priesthood in 1960 after conducting public discussion (on the subject) in the late ’50s. In the Philippines, it was the Episcopalians who first ordained  women clergy.

“Personally, I believe the limiting factor affecting IFI male clergy’s readiness for ordination, was cultural rather than theological or biblical. Reactions (have varied), like, ‘I am not comfortable to see a woman in the altar elevating the ‘host’, or, worst, ‘What business does a pregnant woman have being in the altar?’ The cultural/gender bias has resulted in the rejection of the congregation to newly assigned women priests. ‘We want a Father, not a woman. . .’ That is why educating IFI constituents — both the laity and the clergy — required more efforts, more patience and above all, total support first from the clergy and the church leadership. It would be superficial to (carry) the notion that IFI constituents support women 100 percent. That is why, the need to advocate ordination of women”.

The IFI’s commemoration of the Decade of Women Clergy, which ends tomorrow, writes Erahville, is “a challenge to actively advocate, recruit. . . and support women seminarian and women clergy, (and this issue) remains a real task for the IFI. Our ardent hope is that this will not just be a celebration but a new beginning of a renewed understanding of the ministry in the whole church.”

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My e-mail:[email protected]