"I was introduced to Hip Hop in ’94, and I
started dancing in the year ’96 professionally. Till ’96 I was a professional
singer back in the Philippines, but later on, I grouped some of my friends who
could dance and some kids from school, and formed a crew. I started
choreographing them and everything shaped up.
For a year, we travelled around the country to compete for Hip Hop titles, and we
continually felt that we were getting nowhere. I figured that there might be
something wrong with our piece, so I decided to choreograph a new piece.
Back then we made use of cassette tapes. For editing our song, we had to cut and
paste the tapes manually. Later, we had double decker cassette tapes and
radios, so we used to wait an entire day to get one song off the radio onto our
cassette. We used up 15 cassette tapes to record a single song. We didn’t have
YouTube and the like, so the struggle was quite something.
There were a lot of dancers in the Philippines, so the competition was tight. After I
changed the routine, we went to an array of dance competitions and attained our
first win. The entire year, all we did was travel. In one night, we used to
participate in three competitions simultaneously. We would register ourselves
in one competition, and then run and go to another, and by the time we would
finish with that, one of my friends would get us registered for the last slot
in the third competition. So we would travel back, collect our award from one
competition, then from another, and then the last one. We would take home three
awards a night (Laughs).
One day, a famous Hip Hop crew, called me up. They were the first Hip Hop crew of
the Philippines, as well as on Television. Their manager asked me to be a part
of their crew. So I got excited and got my crew on their feet to realise later
that they want me ONLY. That meant that I had to leave my entire crew!
I thought it over for a while, but I got kind of greedy about it and went for it.
I became a part of their crew. I performed with the crew, and it simply kept going,
and quite well too. We competed all over
Asia and the world.
The opportunity came my way, and I took it.
Later on, I met with an accident while executing my flips. Performing flips was my
strong point. So in late ’99, we were performing on New Year’s, and I fell. I
was plastered from my waist up to the neck for 6 months. I thought that I had
reached the end of my journey as a dancer. In Philippines, you need to be fit
to flip. For one year, I just helped with choreographing but couldn’t be a part
of the dancing routines. We couldn’t let the accident repeat itself. Every show
in Philippines is live, and everything that happens is broadcasted on
television. At the same time,
I got an offer from Bollywood to choreograph a famed celebrity. I think it was
a calling – presenting me with two roads but only one way to go. I chose
Bollywood. I started as a dancer to an assistant to a successful choreographer
in the industry. Apart from this I even introduced Krump
in India which I had learnt in Philippines. And the only reason I am what I am is
because of one lady -Master Geeta Kapur. She guided me to sail over today this
sea of Bollywood industry.
I have no regrets regarding my decisions. Coming to I couldn’t take it there, so I came to India.
I did my computers sincerely and earned my B.Com. degree. I learned softwareo India was a dodgy decision, but I made it. Of course, I miss Philippines and I go there thrice a year. But yes,
India gave it all to me, and I don’t plan on letting go anytime soon."
#D2KDiaries
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