By Joelle Jacinto

This year's New Choreographers Competition at the 3rd Wi-Fi Body Festival saw many regional competitors from Western Visayas and Mindanao, with an upcoming choreographer from General Santos winning the top prize. Julius Lagare's "Manoy" was the last entry in the competition's Set 2, and this could have worked to his advantage, although the theme of his piece and his and Dee-Jay De Vera's amazing execution of complicated lifts and steps definitely played their part.

Lagare's piece began with the two walking in, getting ready for a game of basketball, as a voice over of two girls feeling giddy about a crush is heard. When the music begins, Basil Valdez's "Sana Ay Ikaw Na Nga," it is apparent that the voices belong to these boys, and a pas de deux fraught with sexual tension and hilarity ensues. "Manoy" won for its clear concept and innovation.

De Vera, who also competed with "Songs and Stories in the Afternoon," also had a very interesting concept where an inmate writes to a popular radio show to request a song for the gay lover he murdered, although it seemed both employed the same formula for choreography: clever concept, gender confusion, voice over. The composition of his movements were not as clear as Lagare's, and would have made a bigger impact with less movements at the end.

Still, both were quite different from the Manila-based choreographies that were more concentrated on form, with a main theme holding the movements together, such as 2nd place winner Rhosam Prudenciado's "Which Way," and audience choice Christine Crame-Santillan's "Bounce," in another basketball piece, but this time transforming the sport's movements into dance. Bounce was actually quite brilliant, and emotionally executed by Richardson Yadao and Jairo Ibbarientos, but tended to lose steam somewhere in the middle. With solos and duets required to be seven to 10 minutes long, sustaining the piece all the way to the end became an important deciding factor, and the reason why Lagare and Prudenciado came out on top. Prudenciado paced his solo well, although it did not offer new conceptual ideas like some of the other pieces. But with its clever composition, you could see the transformation in the dancer, from being lost to his struggle for direction.

Personal favorites were Billy Sotillo's "Battery Meter," which was his take on the Frankenstein monster story, with complementary movements between Sotillo's fluid Frankenstein and his more mechanical robot, Mia Cabalfin's "Tubig Ulan," which also developed quite well and a nice blending of her movements to music, and Chantal Primero's "Blank It," which had so many levels and should be seen more than once to appreciate its complexity.

I also liked John Philip Martir's "Temperature" and Marius Centino's "Moving Thoughts," although they could develop their works more. The other finalists were also promising, being mostly first time choreographers, namely Johnny Amar, Ea Torrado, Madonna Vitales, Jed Amihan and Joel Simbulan.

Last year's winner, Ava Maureen Villanueva, had a successful main showcase this year, sharing the evening with Spain's Provisional Danza. A striking difference from the almost sublime relationship portrait of the latter, Villanueva's experimentations in
"My Body, Your Body, Et Al" expanded greatly from last year's "In Side" and shows even more promise. Moves you could see clearly on her were executed by her dancers, Martir, Prudenciado and Jay-Anne Tensuan, but they made these moves their own, showing much promise in Villanueva's choreographic impulse. We highly anticipate what Lagare may come up with at next year's Wifi Body Festival.