V is for velada

After more than three months of practicing with the intensity and dedication of athletes training for the Olympiad (okay, I exaggerate), V-Day has come. On V-Day, Sunday, Oct. 17, my classmates and I from the Assumption Convent Batch ’79 will shake our forty-something butts onstage for our velada. It is the culmination of our annual homecoming, which we fondly call "Old Girls’ Day" (and I protest at the adjective "old," but what can I do with a time-honored tradition?). This year’s velada is entitled "Take Me Home" and I am already choking with sentimentality as I write this.

We will be joined onstage at the state-of-the-art Assumpta Theater at the Assumption campus in Antipolo by the Ruby (led by no less than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of Batch ’64, unless a national emergency comes up!), Golden and Diamond girls in dance numbers that will make the audience want to kick off their shoes and dance! GMA has been squeezing in a few precious minutes, but she’s a fast learner) to practice her dance steps (to the beat of such unforgettable ’60s hits as Love Potion No. 9 and Bus Stop) with her batch mates despite her hectic schedule.

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Mounting the velada was an effort that required the patience of a Buddhist monk, the precision of the military, the creativity of Spielberg and the determination of John Kerry. For the velada, about 80 women with husbands or boyfriends, children or pets, careers or causes – or all of the above – dropped everything to practice. Sometimes the practices took hours on end – as much as five hours and eight hours for the technical rehearsals. (Thanks to the San Miguel Corp. and RFM for the soft drinks, bottled water and juices!) But more than the velada, the greater show was the camaraderie and the friendship fostered and reinforced on the sidelines. As one balikbayan classmate Dolly Pangan-Specht put it so succinctly, the velada will be all or two hours, the experience of bonding with long lost friends during the practices will be forever.

Not all memories of high school are good. There were bullies and terrors (teachers as well as classmates, some of whom are now the sweetest creatures on earth). But the good times as well as the bad prepared us for the classrooms and the playgrounds of life, where the rules were not always fair, but where we strove to stand out and excel, nevertheless. I think our Assumptionista at the Palace just proved that.

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Our batch took for granted the definition of velada (basta, we knew it had something to do with the homecoming), until Dolly found out to her horror that it also meant an Aztec mushroom ceremony. Lost in translation, we sought help from a Madrid-based classmate Maite Duarte who told us velada meant an "evening soiree." Our former principal Mother Jude (now known as Pinky Valdes) said velada comes from the word velar, which means "veil," and which signified the rising and falling of curtains onstage. So there.

(At the start of the practices, a batchmate Cecille Dolendo Suarez said VE-LA-DA stood for "Very Lascivious Dancers." Hmmm...)

But for me, velada (however the Aztecs do it) means friendship. It’s a friendship that danced all the way to my heart.

(All Assumption alumnae and friends are invited this Sunday to "Take Me Home," which starts with a Mass at 10:30 a.m., followed by lunch and the velada at 2 p.m. Special thanks to our director Floy Quintos, choreographer Maribeth Bicharra, musical director Louie Ocampo, stage manager "Sunshine," production manager Chevy Salvador and velada committee chairperson Rina Go.

"Take Me Home," is also presented by The Philippine STAR, PLDT and Globe with Jollibee, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and Franck Provost as major sponsors.)

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