The first C-Map Choreographers Festival International in the Visasyas will showcase the best home-grown choreographers and groups in the south and bring foreign groups together in two galas. It will be held on Aug. 15-16 at the University of Saint La Salle Coliseum.

Dwight Rodrigazo, artistic director of Dance Pull School of Performing Arts and its resident company Dance Pull Project, says this was the result of Content and Movement Analysis Program (C-Map), a workshop for aspiring choreographers and dance teachers. He observes that despite the Filipinos creativity, they lacked the skills and vocabulary to produce substantial dance compositions.

“They were just picking up ideas from Youtube,” he says.

His school hosted annual workshops which invited top choreographers to impart their knowledge.

“We taught improvisation and dance composition to some 50 students so that they could develop their own movement vocabulary,” he says. The activity ended with mini dance concerts.

Seeing the raised level of the choreographic outputs, Rodrigazo was inspired to produce a national festival which included foreign collaborators

He invited the French duo EC Project, composed of Franco-Filipino choreographer Ernest Mandap and Candace Behlert, to choreograph for six schools and companies in Bacolod, Iloilo and Cebu.

“Collaboration with foreign artists will give them an international perspective,” he says.

The C-Map Choreographers Festival International will present original works in folk dance, contemporary dance, ballet and hiphop.

On Aug. 14, foreign artists such as EC Project, Northwest City Ballet and the University of Malaysia (UMA) dance company will headline the show. Featured artist Derek Drilon of Northwest City Ballet was awarded as the Outstanding Senior Male Dancer at the 2015 New York City Dance Alliance regional semi-finals. Then there is home-grown talent Xiao Mitchao, second prize winner of the choreographic contest, the Yokohoma Dance Collection, in Japan.

The Garcia Sanchez School of Dance of Bacolod, the Cebu Center for Dance and the School for Theater Arts and Dance from Cagayan de Oro will premiere the works of EC Project.

On Aug. 15, eight graduates from the C-Map workshops will present their works. The Sol Fernandez School of Dance, Annie Divinagracia Sartorio School of Dance and the San Agustin Cagayon Dance Troupe will also launch pieces tailormade for them by EC Project.

“We want to show progressive works so that the audience doesn’t get bored or jaded,” says Rodrigazo.

The event will also honor teachers and choreographers who have contributed to Philippine dance such as Denisa Reyes, Agnes Locsin and Myra Beltran. C-Map will also commemorate the ballet teachers from Negros Occidental Lydia Gaston, Jeanette Garcia Sanchez and Annabelle Martin Escodilla, who have produced world-class talents.

The program is supported by the Negros Cultural Foundation, World Dance Alliance, JCI Metro Bacolod and painter Charlie Co.

Rodrigazo’s dance career spans 20 years in Ballet Philippines, Dance Forum, Douglas Nierras Powerdance and Airdance. He returned to his hometown Bacolod to start Dance Pull School of Performing Arts, which is now the Visayan center for examinations of the Australian Conservatory of Ballet.
Through his company, Dance Pull Project, Rodrigazo was able to development his own dance idiom. His landmark works were characterized by a sense of place. “Carga Tapas” and “Pamatdan” evoked the life of sugarcane workers in the fields of Negros. Their powerful movements were inspired by the planting, harvesting and cleaning of the sugar stalks.

The choreographer says that with the saturated dance scene in Metro Manila, he wanted to put the Visayas on the map with innovative works and major events.

“Through the C-Map Choreographers Festival International, we aim to promote Negros Occidental as a cultural destination,” he says.