It was one Sunday in 1990. I was 10. My dad and I went to a local workshop school in Manila and enlisted me in Judo.
Two sessions later, I approached the workshop registrar before my judo class and told her my dad wanted me to take jazz instead. That was a lie, of course. But I got my way in to my first ever dance class. Albeit short-lived, it was one of the things I got myself involved in, in my youth that became definitive of the future path I was going to tread.
In 1999, I got expelled from the university for incurring too many absences. I would choose to attend rehearsals for the university theater company than sit idly in the classroom listening to never-ending lectures. That's when I decided to pursue a career in performance. I started doing production work (on- and backstage) professionally and I was encouraged by my artistic director to take dance classes. So I did.
In 2000, after 2 months of paying for my classes, I was offered a scholarship at Steps Dance Studio. That summer, I had my first taste of a ballet class. Two years later, I got in as an apprentice for Ballet Philippines where my network widened. While I was with BP, I got an invitation to join a choreographic workshop in France. There, I took advantage of my chance and took classes nonstop. It is at that point that my interest in contemporain was reinforced.
Being a dancer in the Philippines, my soul was rich and nourished; but my stomach was not. Hoping to find greener pastures, I moved to HK to join Disneyland. I prostituted my art. And I got what I wanted--- food on the table, and more.
After three years of serving Disney, and with only my hunger and passion for dance and life as my ammunition, I left Disney to find out what's in store for a returning artist in HK. This is but the beginning of this journey...
My name is Ryeness. A dancer.
