USFAFS is very fortunate--and grateful!--to be based in Tampa, home to the Bulls but also home to the Philippine Cultural Foundation Inc. which hosts events throughout the year which promote and celebrate the culture of the Philippines, including perhaps the biggest Filipino event in the area--PhilFest!
Filipinos and their family and friends from all over Florida drive hours to congregate at the PPAC for one weekend out of the year to celebrate their heritage by enjoying pageants, traditional dances, celebrities of the Filipino community, and--of course--the food!.
Halo halo (a traditional Filipino dessert of shaved ice, flan, ube, pinipig, beans, macapuno, condensed milk, and vanilla ice cream) from Filipiniana Cafe booth.
Lucky for university students, it only takes just under an hour to get to the grounds and AFS showed up early to set up and table at our official AFS booth. Members sold cotton candy and cool mango juice to children and adults alike, taking shifts in the true spirit of a team and a pamilya. We had a great showing of support from members of not only AFS, but also of other USF organizations such as VSA, ASIA, aKDPhi, and PDPsi who all came out for the food, merchandise, but namely for the dance contest PhilFest Revolution. For three months AFS members learned, cleaned, and practiced dances for the annual competition, in which we placed 2ND in Revolution 2013, losing 1ST to fellow USF crew, Final Boss.
Final Boss will actually be competing at World of Dance 2014, which is why they chose not to compete in Revolution 2014 and instead offered their invaluable time and talent to AFS Dance. A big thank you to the members of Final Boss as well as former members of the AFS Dance Team, especially Lester Canezo and Nicki Barlaan and we encourage you all to attend WOD 2014 to support them and attend workshops taught by some of the best in the dance community.
While the AFS Dance Team is not (yet) on the same level as some of the greats you would see at WOD, we always manage to put together a crowd-wowing set. All the pieces are choreographed by AFS members, the majority of which are young college students, and it doesn't take a professional to see the quality and talent there. The Revolution judges clearly saw it, and awarded the team 2ND place for the second year in a row. This year's panel of judges included the director of the PPAC Youth Crew, which specializes in traditional Filipino dances and performs all over the area. Score sheets reveal that we actually earned the highest marks for our cultural piece. Despite Final Boss not attending, AFS still had stiff competition including Anomaly and APOC crews which made our win that much more amazing and rewarding. Congratulations to all of the crews who competed in Revolution 2014!
Click here to watch our PhilFest Revolution 2014 performance. A big thank you to Michael Aber for this excellent 1080p video of our performance!
Thank you to our AFS Dance Committee whose guidance and discipline led us to this victory. The 2014 Committee included: Raenen Golez, Alvyn Dimaculangan, Josh Mejia, Carlos Hernandez, Kamille Janess, Justin Del Rosario, Jonathan Gomogda, Chris Devera, Angel Ortiz, JC Amores, and Ryan Butron.
Thank you to our choreographers: Kamille Janess (cultural), Raenen Golez (Gloc-9's Balita and Walang Narita), Michael Pommavong (Eminem's Not Afraid), Nicalyn Perez (Diplo, Beyonce, Revolution's Haunted), Ana Caroly, Ashley Tran, and Lester Canezo (Ester Dean and MGK's Invincible), and James Nguyen (Imagine Dragon's It's Time).
While the AFS Dance Team is mostly comprised of students with little to no experience, and dance purely for the joy of dancing, we were able to organize our performance this year as a dedication to the lives of everyone affected by Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan which devastated the Philippines late last year. The set included a clip of Anderson Cooper’s telecast praising “how strong the Filipino people are…strong not to have just survived this storm but the aftermath”, and for the finale dancers formed a Filipino flag with the word “HOPE” spelled out. Regardless of awards or prizes, we felt this embodied the true spirit of PhilFest as a celebration of Filipino culture and pride which perseveres even during the worst of times, and we thank everyone who contributed, watched, and supported our performance.
USFAFS PhilFest facebook album
UNICEF page for Typhoon Yolanda
Gawad Kalinga page for Typhoon Yolanda
Like our AFS Dance Team page
