CADs concert this Friday! I'm dancing!

It's concert time once again. The Company of Ateneo Dancers presents "Kilos," a dance concert, on Friday, Feb 24, 2006, at the Henry Lee Irwin Theater in Ateneo. Concert starts at 7:00 pm but I'll be dancing around 9:00 pm. I only have one dance this time--opted not to dance jazz because it's quite technical, and my technique's not solid. So I chose to focus on street, which looks kind of like a production number because of the sheer number of alumni dancing!

On a CADs-related note, I was going through a CD of my old files and found a message I wrote for the 10th anniversary concert. I don't know if this actually saw print, but it did make me reminisce.

~*~*~*~

Majoring in Dance, minoring in Comm. That's how I often described myself back in college, and never was this more true than in my senior year. Aside from the time I spent at workouts and practice, there was the matter of running on org, which was made especially challenging by the fact that we were not accredited that particular year.

That we weren't accredited may have been the mother of all obstacles then. Practice and concert venues, as you could imagine, didn't fall easily into our laps. A loss at a major annual competition proved to be another challenge as well. But we managed to pull through--we were able to hold auditions, attract a new breed of talent, and hold the requisite two concerts. And towards the end of the year, we placed first for the very first (and to date, only) time at JIG, another big annual competition.

In retrospect--after the stress and tears and tempers have cleared--I wouldn't have given up anything that happened that year, even if I had the chance. I can see now that I became a better person because of it all. That year taught me how to better deal with the growing pains of a young org, of a family. It taught me to pick myself up (with a few helping hands of course) after I'd fallen. It taught me to have faith--in other people, in myself.

I'd like to think it taught everyone who was there with me a few things too. And whenever I come home to CADs and see just how far they've come, I think I'm proven right.

Tisha Alvarez
President
2001-2002