A Dance for Freedom (UP Pep Squad UAAP CDC 2012 Routine)

Every year, the University of the Philippines Pep Squad continues to push the limits of dance, athleticism and cheer dancing standards in the country.  Many would argue and say their peace, many would contend and claim that their team is better--but the UP Pep Squad is and always have been the best, for me. In the years that I got to witness their talent grow, emerge and unleash unquenchable thirst for reinvention, I know no other argument would ever be sufficient to change my mind. Watch the video below because this year, they did the best of the best of the words can't explain it but it's the best routine ever. No gimmicks, just pure showcase of skills, teamwork, perseverance and the cherry on top--ideology.

Yes, ideologies through dance--cheer dance even--only the UP Pep Squad can do that. THIS. Watch this video now. If you want to watch a better wide-angle take on the routine, check the other video I embedded on this post.

I'm the type of person who will watch, speculate and when the performance moved me, react. Many things have been said--about the routine and most of all the controversial shocking "no scores" revelation for this year's competition. I will breakdown a few of my reactions to the routine below with hopes that if anyone who bothers reads my thoughts, they too would react (in affirmation or otherwise); but for the latter, let me just make my comment short bu not sweet.

When they revealed that "ranking" is the basis for selecting the winners for this year's cheer dance competition aka. compet; I was baffled. What happened to the criteria? What happened to the judges? No, really, what happened to the very specific point-system that have been the basis for any contention or of course an athlete's (yes, these dancers are athletes) record. If I were an athlete, I'd like to know I deserved my trophy. Of course in retrospect, maybe all the dancers from the different schools deserve a trophy because coming up with a compet-ready routine is hard work--the trophies are simply about who worked the best-est. Nonetheless, if I were an athlete, I would like to know my score. Whether I came from the winning school or not, I would like to know how I did. How can I improve on myself? People always takes scores, you know. It's part of what makes the pyramid--the pyramid.

Although jokingly, one can say, maybe the absence of scores represent freedom--UP's theme for this year's routine. So let me ask you, how free did you feel knowing you're judged for... apparently no particular, consensual, agreed set of reasons? If I were from the losing team, and I truly feel it's my team that should've won, how do I contend the judge's decision? To me, the absence of a professional/transparent scoring system is all the more crippling--rather than liberating. It leaves you powerless against the preference of a select few--then again, isn't that life? Isn't that part of the inspiration of UP's routine this year?

Enough with that, now with how I felt after seeing UP's routine. Here are 5 things I need to release for documentation and for future reference (I will always look back to yesterday).

This is the better video. No frills.

1. Thank you UP for coming up with the concept--for putting your great minds together and putting all your heart and soul in executing what you all came up with with such sheer perfection--even the fall was and could be part of the symbolism. Your routine was rich, ideal and compared to all the routines showcased this year, had a voice--a loud one--a sensible loud moving voice that challenged the way people see the competition, the way people see you (as dancers/athletes), and the way people should start seeing life. You changed things. I think, more than the successful stunts and passes, what you and only your team have successfully done is open the eyes of the public to the need for action. We need to move towards solidarity, unity and our humanity and fight for freedom. More than fight, we need to represent freedom. What your routine made me realize is this: the way to freedom is through freedom of self. If each of us make ourselves a symbol of freedom, then we as a community of different race, gender and social status need not be withheld by those classifications anymore. To be free is to live free, think free and share freedom. Again, thank you for reminding me of that. You gave me the chills... and I needed the shock.

2. Did anyone notice how much of the routine's grandest pyramid were formed with three levels? It made me think, how two is not enough. How we should always aim higher--and how it's possible with the help of a team. I didn't even bother consider the concept of a pyramid consisting of a foundation that can never go up. We all serve a purpose. If we start looking at a pyramid as a symbol of togetherness, than power, then the discrimination that used to come with the lines that differentiate the levels would cease to exist. Does it really matter where you stand among the crowd? If from where you stand you stand firm, with conviction and with the will to serve--perhaps, lift another up--does it really matter if you're at the bottom, physically? I think not. Power is not about where you stand among classes. Power is in how you make your stand. To all the lifters and the spotters, if it weren't for you, the point may have been overlooked. There will always be risks especially when you wish to inspire a revolutionary mind, but what makes those risks tolerable are your solid grounds. To know that you are not alone--that someone, a team even, stands behind you for your cause... to know you belong in a community that will accept your winnings and failures all the same... that is power. True power is hidden behind the glitter and the lights. True power is in belonging... in the willingness to give yourself to a greater sense of being.

3. Of course, who's to forget how the UP Pep Squad chose to represent their competitors in their routine? I can't remember any other team doing so. If any other team have done the same concept before, do let me know, but as far as my little mind can go, UP did it. UP did what was undone. In fact, the UP Pep Squad left us undone. They committed themselves wholeheartedly to the routine in order to deliver their message with the strength we people needed to hear them out--but with such grace and poise that when the music ended, everyone was a part of us. They showed how UP is not about just being a student of UP. UP is about the Filipino community. UP is the society for all free-thinkers. UP is home to everyone. Mymymy, writing about it still gives me the greatest sense of pride. UP Pep Squad, ikaw na, ikaw na talaga.

4. It's inevitable to talk about the routine without talking about the fall. Some people felt strong fear that "the fall" would risk the team to lose the competition. But a lot of people chose to see it as a symbol on its own too. Of course, it would have been a whole different story to have had that UP flag raised as high as the rest of the school's, to have seen the formation completed in all its glory, but with the gift of hindsight, wasn't it also symbolic of UP's situation? Chronically, a flaw makes every other thing richer in character and meaning. Sure, the fall also symbolized how every great achievement merits mistakes along the way--and how it's not about rising to the top but rising up after every fall... but isn't also quite eerie to have the fall symbolize even the budget and government support given to UP as an educational institution compared to its brothers and sisters in the UAAP? A question of, is UP falling behind in terms of progress and competence comes to mind; but I take comfort in knowing that the UP experience is not about the new buildings or the new laboratories or the extensive libraries and whatothershiznits other universities have that UP doesn't. The UP experience is about its people. UP is the best because of its teachers, its students, its ate, kuya, manangs and manongs. Is UP also about the fall? Could be. But the most important thing UP is about is its ability to rise above the many challenges and misgivings we face as a nation. UP is free from captive thinking. That is why UP is beautiful, a place where champions are made--and consequently where anyone can strive to make champions of themselves.

5. Most important for me to point out because of my blog's so-called niche is the routine's expression of gender equality. Jokes were said, bakit lahat sa UP Pep Squad lalaki (why are all members of the UP Pep Squad men?) and the amazed were speechless. It was a surprise no one would've seen coming (maybe even the dancers were surprised!) But the fact of the matter is, they fought for it. Gender equality is such a pressing issue in this country and in many other places in the world. It usually starts at home and expands its way out to the way our schools teach us to define it--and consequently how the world makes us define it--and the UP Pep Squad dared to say their peace. Talent is not gender-biased. Freedom is not gender-selective. We are all one in the eyes of the Great one. The most unnecessary thing you can do to anyone, even a stranger, is to judge him or her by the way he or she looks, acts and loves. I hate to bring up the LGBTQ community issues with the routine just because a shaved head is a "man" thing cause that in itself is a gender-biased thought, but notice how it didn't matter? It didn't matter how they chose to look like? How that challenged us to come out of our comfort zones and bother to really see things the way they should be seen? Didn't it look amazing to see everyone as an equal? We are all great and together, the big picture is beyond words. Weren't we all speechless? After the routine saw the light of day, wasn't it amazing to know that not everyone will judge you for who you choose to be. If you're gay, in the closet, and afraid, know that there are people who will love and accept you nonetheless. UP is for everyone, point is definitely taken. 

Salamat UP Pep. You didn't just #made8happen. 

You made history.