Tags: Arts Training and Workshops, Dance, Performing Arts
By Anna Valmero
MANILA CITY, METRO MANILA – If there’s an important lesson German-French b-boys Ndongmo Patrick Bernard (aka The P.A.T.) and Micheal Andres Figueredo Hernandez (aka Fly) learn from their counterparts in Tondo, it is to keep smiling despite hard times.
Bernard and Hernandez spent almost a week in Tondo to teach kids how to MC and some breakdancing basics as part of the Rap in Tondo joint project by the German and French embassies. While in Tondo, they got acquainted with the living conditions of kids who took part in their workshops.
“The kids here, they like it very much and they learn very fast. You can see that in the motivation in their eyes and how they feel the music,” says the 28-year-old Bernard, who started b-boying more than a decade ago.
Hernandez, meanwhile, says that in breakdancing, music is the “joystick”. “You can put emotions in dancing similar to the way that you can put emotions in words when singing. In the years I have been teaching b-boys, I must say the Philippine newcomers are very good and quick to learn,” he says.
Back home, Hernandez has been working in a youth center as dance instructor for kids while doing choreographies for b-boy groups like Newstyle, Poppin, Krumping and Housdance.
“But b-boy is not only a dance. By teaching b-boys, it makes me happy to see children learn fast and do something worthwhile than spend their time on the streets and be exposed to dangerous living. For me, b-boying allows you to use your two legs to do good things,” Hernandez says.
Bernard, meanwhile, is a hip hop instructor at the Dresden Technology University in Germany. “Dancing is the best way to spend time. You can have fun and be crafty at your sport at the same time, plus you have the opportunity to show and teach people what you can do,” he says.
During a pep talk with the Tondo youth, Bernard urged them to not only dream but to “live their dream.”
“When we toured Tondo, I saw how people are living in not very good conditions but looking at them, you can you’d see there is no reason in life to be sad, just enjoy it. That is what I’m learning from the kids I’ve been teaching here,” he says.
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