CADs DanXing

Yup, this old gal's still dancing.

In my mind, the annual CADs end-of-the-year concert will always be known as the "major concert," even though the showcase has probably gotten more major over the past couple of years (thanks to the inter-org dance competition that they brilliantly added to it). It's because when I was in school (back in the day...), the showcase would be held at the Gonzaga Dance Studio/Exhibit Hall, while the major concert would be held at the Rizal Theater. Hmm, RMT 'yun, but I can't remember what "M" stands for. Could it be "Memorial"? Or am I inventing this?

So yeah, these days, both concerts are held for one night only at the Irwin Theater. This last one had a theme similar to that of my senior showcase, Traffic. It was supposed to be some street-themed concert, but the setting was more back alley, with tires and a wire fence and stuff, than our middle-of-the-street-inspired mini-stage, pedestrian lane and all. But then, none of the kids would know this as they probably would have been in high school, even grade school (shudder) when we first used the theme.

Alumni Street met up bright and early on the 10th, the day of the concert, as we had A LOT of polishing to do. We did a few blocking changes Thursday night, and added a few things...and up until Saturday afternoon, we were still making changes. I felt so nervous and unprepared for it, but later on trusted in the alumni's powers. Haha.

One of the highlights of the day was having lunch at Manang's, which I had been longing to do the past few Saturdays. Mmm liempo. It turned out to be a not-so-good idea when we did a run right after! Later that afternoon, we had a bit of time to kill, so Bada, Tring (Shaina), and I headed to Katipunan to stock up on water, grab a snack, and talk about...Takeshi's Castle (the Smokey and Anjo version, of course)!

Lunch at Manang's! Teta: "Wala talagang tatalo sa pork chop!"

When we got back, we started getting ready. I put on a cute little jumpsuit, courtesy of stylist extraordinaire, Pam Q, some high-cut Converse sneakers, and bangles. I also applied my own makeup--something I hadn't done in a really long time. Haha. We shared a dressing room with the guests, including the Allstars! They were teaching Gab Valenciano some moves for an SOP gig the next day. It's amazing and intimidating being around such awesome dancers.

After we got ready, we watched the first act. The energy, I thought, was much better than last year's concert. But I spoke with some, eherm, anonymous viewers during intermission and they said, "Wala kaming ginawa kung di manlait buong first act!" They said the energy was too low, that the guests were overshadowing the CADsters, and the dances were all the same but set to different songs. Hmmm. I didn't think it was bad. Although some of the dances were a bit too long. And I wasn't too fond of strazz. Back then, strazz was kind of Step Up-ish, meaning there were jazzers and streeters doing their own thing in one dance. The current strazz has people doing (or trying to do) both. I just found it somewhat confusing how they'd be, say, krumping for the first few counts, then doing ronde de jambes the next.

Sadly, I missed the second act (spent the better part of it running through our dance), which the anonymous viewers praised. They especially loved adagio (set to an Imogen Heap song that Dee wanted to use before) and the all-boys number (always a crowd pleaser). Got to see the all-girls number at rehearsals, and it would've been fun to be part of it.

Finally, Act 3. I was a bit nervous, and thought of so many ways that I could mess up a seven-minute dance (hey, we only have one dance per concert, so nilulubus-lubusan na namin. Haha). But then I figured it'd be over too soon--seven minutes feels like nothing when you're on stage--and I should just enjoy it. There's a chance, after all, that I won't be dancing any more this year. So off we went. I took my place at stage right...and realized that some of the Allstars were in the wings, watching! I was so conscious the whole time, ugh. I could've done better. Sigh. But at least I didn't mess up!

Our super-labo mix started off with an a capella version of Aaliyah's Rock the Boat. Next song was I Love Them Girls (Part 2)--my favorite part!--choreo'd by Paul. Then it was the girls' part: Kelis's Bossy and Ciara's Promise. I hated both dances at the start, not because they weren't good, but because I couldn't do them properly! But later on, when we all got the hang of it, we started feelin' it. So yeah, I did like those dances. When the boys saw the video, they said "maayos"--especially compared to our horrendous tech run!

After we did our thing, the boys came in to do Icebox with us. Then we exited and left them to do I Want It That Way! Haha. The crowd went wild, especially when "Coach" Jonbada got up on top of the pyramid and fulfilled his boy-band dreams. Haha. Then we all came in to do one last song: DJ Khaled's Born and Raised, choreo'd by Allstar Nico. Naks. Anj was able to do her standing back tuck, something she was so nervous about at practice. (Anj: "I'm scared of dying!" Tisha: "You won't die naman siguro...you'll just get really, really hurt." Haha. How comforting.)

The crowd couldn't get enough of 'em.

Then Alumni Jazz did their thing--it was Kith's last dance as she's leaving the country soon. Aww. They did a U2 medley, which I so wanted to be a part of. But I had to back out a couple of weeks ago because my sched was just too packed, and it would've been unfair to them if I kept missing practice. Oh well. Next time.

H came five minutes too late. He had just come from a game which, sadly, I wasn't able to watch. He stayed for a bit and watched the Allstars with me before heading home. Speaking of, the crowd really loved watching dem World Hiphop Champs. You could just hear everyone going, "Whoa!"

Say it with me: "Whoa!" An Allstar dude's seemingly Photoshop-ed pose.

After the show, we spent the requisite hour trying to decide where to eat. We go through this every friggin' concert! Haha. We settled on Shakey's, which had bottomless iced tea--but since it took us so long to decide, it was closed by the time we got there! We made our way to Somethin' Fishy in Libis, and were just in time for the midnight buffet! Woohoo! Stuffed ourselves silly with tocino, adobo, pancakes, eggs, and bottomless iced tea worth P27! We also watched our performance (over and over again) on Bada's cam...and started making plans for next concert!

First, third, and fourth photos by Aaron Vicencio. More photos in my multiply.