The dream team

From bagging gold to finishing in places, a novice team is starting its own break through. Made from pure scratch and burning passion to an autonomous dance crew, this is the story of the first competing dance troupe of Holy Family School – Ensayaw.

A look back in time

“Mas masarap mag-ensayo habang sumasayaw”. The name Ensayaw came from two fused pre-existing Tagalog terms; ensayo which means to exercise, and sayaw as the literal translation of dance.

Before Ensayaw established its present-day phase, it was just a mere glimpse of vision to the pioneers. Originally, Ensayaw, which was formerly dubbed as the Familian Dance Society, was already seeking for acknowledgement as an official dance crew of HFS during the school year 2013-2014 wherein Chelsea Valderama was still the premier. However, the absence of the administration’s authorization befell as the crucial setback of officially recognizing the dance crew, until the then batch of seniors who unofficially founded Ensayaw graduated.

A promise was made by a then 8th grade student, Angelique Delos Reyes, who later became the 1st official Kapitana of the crew. “Nag promise ako na ipupush ko ‘tong Ensayaw. Before ako maggraduate, magkakaroon na ng legit Ensayaw,” she stressed. “The people who pioneered Ensayaw wanted to seek their purpose, why do they have such talent na hindi narerecognize ng school? And ng parents, sadly,” she added.

Fueled by immense passion

Passion, more than anything else, is the bedrock of Ensayaw. Establishing an organization would entail going through an eye of a needle, admitted by Delos Reyes. “Fueled lahat ng actions para mabuo ang Ensayaw, by passion talaga. Kasi honestly, nakakatamad bumuo ng organization ng hindi ka naman g na g diba?” she revealed. Fortunately, after sequential denials of proposal, Ensayaw formally started its run on July 2016.

The crew tapped Krumper Justin “Vngnce” David, a member of Hybrids of Freedom and a former Tamaraw in FEU Dance Company, to coach the trainees and undeveloped team. After engaging in an agreement, Delos Reyes with the help of Shamaica Verunque, encouraged Familians to form – the now known to be – Ensayaw. Delos Reyes was selected as the team captain, while Shamaica Verunque and Pamela Corpuz shared the spot as the co-captains.

The system kicked off starting with workshops ranging from different genres namely Krump, Femme, Hiphop, and the like. However, Ensayaw uniquely focused on learning and mastering the basic fundamentals of Krump, letting go the stereotypical and gender-orthodox outlook to an all-girl dance troupe.

The team was also trained to be equipped physically; undergoing to an unaccustomed and unfamiliar strength training program. The series of strenuous activities, sets of drills, and mandatory strict diet gave the members a trip down the memory lane, “Nahirapan ako sobra kasi first time ko gawin eh, yung feeling na gusto mo na sumuko pero tuloy lang ganon,” Verunque shared.

Nonetheless, hard work paid off for Ensayaw as they returned victoriously from Baguio after blowing the competition away in the hiphop division during the 58th Annual Convention of CMLI. The success of the crew continued after finishing 3rd during the annual Body Wars at San Beda College. The crew also gained exposure after participating in the 5th Season of Dance4Life and World Supremacy Battlegrounds Varsity Division Qualifiers, placing 7th out of 16 contenders, and 14th out of 25 teams, respectively.

After every setback experienced by the team, the passion ignites. “The goal to always be the better version of yourself and to achieve the dream that we have always wanted is the driving fuel that kept us going, despite every muscle pain and heartbreaking losses.” Corpuz described.

Running for almost 14months as of September, Ensayaw has made an impression breaking into the dance industry. The outgoing captain left a remark, “I hope Ensayaw, as what I've defined it, would be different this coming school year. I hope more aspiring dancers would join and make the change for the group to be the best they were, once again.”