Leiwin Klaire A.

Castro
ABM 12- St. Agnes

EXERCISE 6
RESEARCH ON THE HISTORY OF DANCE IN THE PHILIPPINES

I enjoy watching people who dance energetically and cool. I like how they are inventing their own
moves and expressing their own personalities and emotion which they let the music move them.
The Philippine Hip Hop Scene broke loose in the early 80’s, which shortly followed the development of
general hip hop which manifested in Bronx, New York in the late 70’s. The Philippines is known to have the
first hip hop music scene in Asia. This is due to the theory of colonial narrative, which socially engineered the
colonized to be like the colonizer. In this case, the Philippines mimic any fad or craze that America creates.
With the popularity of the Electric Boogaloo (which is a funk dance that involves popping and fluid
motions within the legs and arms) immerging, the Filipinos were split during the era of disco because of the
advent of Saturday Night Fever. One half of the spectrum was into hip hop& popping while the other was still
into disco. The hip hop scene truly took form in the Philippines when early 80’s TV dance shows introduced
popping & locking through young Filipino Americans (or balikbayan). The early 80’s brought new movies like
Breakin and Krush Grove, which gave rise to the phenomena of dance crews. Never moves copied from the
street of New York made it to the islands. Th3ese moves included the Helicopter, Crazy Legs, Moon Walks,
Sideway Moon Walks, the Robot and Waving. The popularity of Disco enhanced the Hip Hop craze, however
instead of dancing to the music of Bee Gees, Hip Hop dancers danced to ht beat of Earth Wind & Fire and the
Commodores. The Disco scene was mixed in with Hip Hop music and Popping became a craze in the early
80’s (from 1982 to 1984). Dance Crews started around 1983 when each group appeared on TV Variety shows
with the popularity of Boy Crew (a group of 5-7 teenage dancers). Around 1984 acrobatics were incorporated
with popping, starting the B-Boy craze. In America, Filipino-Americans on the West Coast in Southern and
Northern California became involved in the hip hop scene through DJing. A Filipino party scene developed
through the rise of Filipino DJ crews. Rival DJ crews would “battle” each other and one-up each other by
showcasing superior equipment.
 It was continued when Jungee Marcelo in the early 90's who, after learning Hip Hop in the actual streets
of L.A., started underground dance sessions in a hole in the wall club in Katipunan. Coined the term
"Streetdance" as Hip Hop pertained more to the culture rather than the dance. Jungee marcelo had taught his
student, Jerome Dimalanta who was taking up Human Kinetics in U.P. Diliman, all the fundamentals of street
dance. Dimalanta pushed for Streetdance as a P.E. subject in UP Diliman –eventually, a Streetdance team was
formed and it became the first university with a Streetdance team.
 Up unto now, Philippines’ hip-hop has since become a significant highlight in the contemporary dance
scene. Numerous hip-hop dance groups have been formed in different parts of the country since the early 2000s,
when the dance first became popular in the country.
Local dance competitions are held everywhere as a form of community entertainment. These events give
the so-called hip-hop dance crews to attain a certain degree of fame. The completion often goes from region to
region, gathering huge crowds at every stop along the way.
There have also emerged sub-genres within the main hip-hop genre, like vogue femme and waacking,
some of the latest enhancements to Philippine hip-hop choreography, which add a feminine touch to the dance.
These choreographies put a strong emphasis on musicality and interpretation of the music and its rhythm.
Krumping and lyrical hip-hop are other sub-genres that enhance the standard hip-hop choreography.
Some of the famous hip hop dancers were the group ‘ Streetboys’ including Vhong Navarro, Jhong
Hilario, Meynard Marcellano, Spencer Reyes, Nikko Manalo, Sherwin Roux, Chris Cruz, Danilo Barrios, Brian
Seminiano, Joseph de Leon, Danilo Agat Jr., Eugene Calo, and Ken Lumansoc. As well as Enrique Gil also
called ‘King of the Gil’, Billy Crawford, Julian Trono, Rochelle Pangilinan, Maja Salvador and Georcelle
Dapat- Sy whose known for her dance choreographies.
For Philippine hip-hop dancers, the dance is not just a hobby, but a lifestyle. There have sprouted
fashion and behavior unique among them. They are a league of their own.