A major role model and influence to my life is my great-grandfather. In my eyes, he embodies a true hero. He served in World War II defending the Philippines and even following his retirement, continued helping its citizens. Monsoons are a terrible disaster that frequently destroy the lives of many Filipinos. Realizing the assistance many Filipinos need, my great-grandfather continued helping Filipinos affected by monsoons throughout his entire life. Even at age 92, he was present in the monsoon areas, directly assisting the people in danger. Witnessing the perseverance and true heart of my great-grandfather motivates me to embody him and assist those less fortunate than me. I’m no soldier. In fact, I’m probably the complete opposite of one. Due to this, I want to leave a legacy similar to my great-grandfather’s but in my own manner through the art of dance. I have been working towards developing this legacy by being a teacher and a source of inspiration to my students. After graduating, I will use my passion for dance to teach all of my students how to use dance to benefit their life. Dance has always been a source of happiness for me, and I hope to share that with many of my students. What separates me from other dancers is my focus on using dance as more than just a means of maintaining one’s physical well-being. To me, dance establishes a connection between the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of a human. The art form has helped me cope with many of my own life problems, such as my own battles with depression. After feeling lost, hopeless, and afraid of my own future for months, I turned to dance in order to release these negative emotions from my mind. I created an interpretive dance that encapsulates my emotions when in a depressive state. Through the creation of this piece, I realized that dance not only releases negative emotions, but helps you better understand these feelings so you can regulate them more efficiently in the future. Since then, I’ve viewed dance as this magical element in my life, contrary to how other people view dance. Those, especially non-dancers or non-artists, don’t see dance as the spiritual conversation that I do. I plan to change that, showing other dancers what I see in the art form and teaching them how to use it to win their own internal battles. I’ve already been successful in one case. I started teaching this deeper aspect of dance to one of my long-time students. A few months after showing him this new side of dance, he spoke to me about how he used dance to cope with the stressors of starting high school. The fact that I was able to give him a new way to handle the many stresses of adolescence quite honestly brings a tear to my eye and fills me with desire to give this gift to the rest of my students as well. Especially with today’s mental health crisis, I believe many people would benefit from using dance as both an outlet and spiritual guide. Thus, I desire to continue teaching dance to people of all ages and lead them through a path of self-expression and self-love. Just as my great-grandfather made the world a better place by helping people in monsoons, I hope to further his work by teaching others how to use dance to maintain balance and happiness within their lives.

To me, dance is more than just a means of maintaining one’s physical well-being. Dance establishes a connection between the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of a human. The art form has helped me cope with many of my own life problems. The most recent obstacle that dance supported me in overcoming was my own depression. After feeling lost, hopeless, and afraid of my own future for months, I turned to dance in order to release these negative emotions from my mind. Alongside my girlfriend who is also a dancer, we created an interpretive dance that encapsulates our personal “darknesses”, whether that be fear, sadness, or even rage. Through the creation of this piece, I realized that dance not only releases negative emotions, but helps you better understand these feelings so you can regulate them more efficiently in the future. Since then, I’ve viewed dance as this magical element in my life. I’ve been a dance teacher for a few years now, but only recently did I discover how powerfully dance can affect a person. Following this discovery, I started teaching the deeper aspect of dance to one of my long-time students. When he started high school, he would speak to me of the many stressors that a new school brought into his life. Moreover, he would include how he’d use dance to deal with these stressors, the same way that I did with my depression. The fact that I was able to give him a new way to handle the many stresses of adolescence quite honestly brings a tear to my eye and fills me with desire to give this gift to the rest of my students as well. Especially with today’s mental health crisis, I believe many people would benefit from using dance as both an outlet and spiritual guide. Thus, I desire to continue teaching dance to people of all ages and lead them through a path of self-expression and self-love. Through passing this knowledge to my students, I hope to better their lives by giving them an art form that will help them balance the physical, mental, and spiritual facets of their own persona.