DAPITAN CITY, Zamboanga del Norte – While ballet is largely considered here as the domain of the affluent, this did not stop a Dapitanon family to impart the love for this form of dancing to local ballet dancers.
Despite the hardships and financial difficulties in running their own small ballet school, the family-run Jete Performing Arts Studio managed to send three of its wards to the Asia-Pacific Arts Festival in Singapore on August 17 to 18.
The three did not disappoint, bringing home two golds and a silver.
Snatching gold medals for “Classical Ballet Solo” category are Reyna Mae Venezuela, a senior high school student of Jose Rizal Memorial State University (JRMSU)-Main Campus in this city and Kaye Lorraine Salcedo of Andres Bonifacio College (ABCollege) in nearby Dipolog City.
Winning the silver medal is Merry Diane Silva, also of ABCollege.
The festival was participated in by Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
“We’re happy that our hard work paid off. We are proud, now we’re no longer looked down as poor people in the mountains that have no sense of grown-up dancing,” Henedina Zumel-Rocamora, founder and manager of Jete Performing Arts Studio, told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
Henedina’s five children – all of whom she taught ballet – are already helping her run the studio since 2008.
To help support their school, Henedina has to work as a Physical Education teacher at JRMSU-Main Campus, and her five children are also into their own professional fields when they are not teaching ballet.
The eldest, Johanna Kay Rocamora-Zamoras, 30, is a commerce graduate and is working at a rural bank; and John Ray, 28, took up Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM) and just came home after two years of teaching ballet at the Department of Ballet of Thailand (DBT).
Jush Anne Rocamora, 25, also a commerce graduate is now teaching ballet at DBT; Jenny Mae, 23, finished Tourism then worked as non-regular employee at the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS)-Dipolog and is now back to full-time teaching at Jete; and, Joseph Ian Rocamora, 21, is studying ballet while finishing HRM.
Jush Anne also brought to the Asia-Pacific Arts Festival her Thai student, who won a silver medal.
Henedina said life with ballet was never easy, “ilabina nga akong mga ginikanan ignorante sa ballet (especially that my parents were ignorant of what ballet is).”
She finally got a break when a relative shouldered her expenses to study ballet at the Silliman University in Dumaguete City, but because of the high costs, she transferred to a smaller dance studio.
“Then I just pursued ballet while working as PE teacher,” Henedina recalled. “I also taught my children. Luckily, we started to be known when my eldest, Kay, was able to join Ballet Philippines.”
She said joining Ballet Philippines was tough, adding that she was hurt during an interview upon hearing an unkind comment: “Dapitan? Di ba probinsiya yun? May ballet pala doon (Dapitan? Isn’t that a province? They have ballet there?)”?
Henedina said in 2008, Gregory Aaron – one of the owners of Atlanta Festival Ballet in Georgia, United States – learned about Johanna Kay and invited her to teach at Ballet Center Cebu, which Aaron had earlier bought.
“Mr. Aaron even conducted ballet workshop in Dapitan, and that’s when he knew our family. Maybe he saw something with my children that he invited them to teach in Cebu every summer, and he also helped us produce ballet performances in Dapitan,” Henedina said.
The Rocamoras and Aaron were able to perform classics such as Nutcracker, Snow White, Little Mermaid, Alice in Wonderland, Swan Lake and Cinderella in Dapitan with an average cost of only PHP200,000 for every production.
She said at first, they called their studio “Shrine City Ballet” and later changed it to “Jete Performing Arts Studio.
They had studios here and in Dipolog City but later closed the Dapitan studio as it became stressful to her with growing enrollment mostly coming from Dipolog.
Jete Performing Arts Studio first sent a lone contestant – Aleya Therese Baje from Dapitan – to the Asia-Pacific Arts Festival held in Vietnam in January this year.
Baje brought home a gold medal. (PNA)
