Philippine Daily Inquirer

LOS ANGELES, California—Chris Chua, 29-year-old Filipino-American animator at Pixar Animation Studios, makes things look easy.

When we interviewed him at Pixar’s sprawling Emeryville office, Chris casually rattled off things about his career. Unintentionally, he made his rise in the animation world sound simple—which, of course, was not.

“I went to California Institute of the Arts in Valencia for college, joined DreamWorks, transferred to Pixar and then got assigned to do my first Pixar movie, which is ‘Wall-E,’ ” he said.

He added, “I always look forward to coming to work because the people I work with here are just so passionate about everything.” And so is Chris.

“It’s great working here,” he stressed. “Everyday, no matter how tired I am, I always look forward to coming to work.”

Loving it

“Work” for Chris means doing what he loves, donning casual clothes everyday, or riding a bike, scooter or rollerblades around the office. In his “free time,” he may take some “enrichment” courses at Pixar University.

“Wall-E,” the latest film from Academy Award-winning writer-director Andrew Stanton (“Finding Nemo”), is about the last robot left on earth to clean up the trash that mankind has left behind. It is a very timely and relevant movie about the environment.

Chris, who has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2-D Animation from Cal Arts, explained the look of “Wall-E,” which is unlike other Pixar movies: It is monochromatic at times and has almost no dialogue in some scenes—an animator’s dream, or nightmare.

“Some animations are bleak and have a doomsday feel to them,” Chris said. “For ‘Wall-E,’ I think there are moments when it is very colorful and entertaining. For me, it is totally a dream project because, as an animator, you are taught that pantomime comes first. All the great scenes happen when you turn off the volume and you know exactly what is going on even without sound coming from the characters’ mouths. The visuals take center stage. We do not have to deal with voices. Just the fact that these emotions can come from this little robot with simple eyes is fulfilling—you can do so much with so little.”

Chris, who got married last year, joined the Pixar team last November as a fix animator for “Wall-E.” He takes shots from the films that have already been animated and polishes them up for final use.

He explained his job further: “Mainly, I assist the animator. For example, you have an animator who has Wall-E going left and right on the screen, but he wants him to go a little slower. So he would come to me and ask me to make Wall-E slow down. I already have the main scene going on in front of me. I just need to adjust it. Sometimes it is very easy, like they will say, ‘Okay, add one blink here.’ Other times, it is more involved and they will completely change everything. I will have to do those changes as well. Then I get them approved by my supervisor. If it’s a bigger change, then the director has to see it since it’s his movie.”

The animator, born in Manila to a Chinese father and a half-Filipino mother, moved to the US at age 10. He said he’s the only artist in the family. Dad William is a banker while mom Juliet was a secretary.

It was during high school that Chris discovered his love for drawing. “I loved to draw and enjoyed watching cartoons and movies,” he recalled. “My teacher told me that I could do this for a living. She said that there is a school in Southern California called the California Institute for the Arts. I think it was right before high school ended when I saw ‘Toy Story.’ That changed everything for me. That was when I set my goal of becoming an animator. Once I had seen more Pixar films, I got more convinced.”

Asked if it was hard for him as a Filipino-Chinese to break into Hollywood, Chris replied, “In this profession, especially animation, it’s not so much about race. There is no real race barrier. It is just about how much work you put in.”

Previous work

Prior to joining Pixar, Chris worked as an animator at DreamWorks Animation on various projects, including “Sinbad,” “Shark Tale” and “Flushed Away.” In the Bay Area, he had a short stint at LucasArts working on the video game project, “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.”

“Wall-E” is his first Pixar movie.

He recently got promoted as animator on Pixar’s latest film, “UP” which will be directed by Pete Docter (“Monsters Inc.”) and is due out next May. He and wife Joy recently moved from Emeryville to North Berkeley where they just bought a house.

Asked how it was working with director Andrew Stanton, Chris said, “Andrew knows what he wants. He may feel things out a couple of times as he will see it and say, ‘That’s not what I want, let us do this.’ But a lot of times, he has a good eye for filmmaking and detail. With him, a movie almost feels like a live-action film just with the way the camera moves.”

As for the Pixar culture, Chris exclaims, “It’s great!” He added, “The movies they make here are ‘director-driven’ as opposed to ‘public-driven.’ In the same way that I am more passionate when something comes from the heart. You feel like when it comes from the director’s soul, you feel like it comes across. That, more than anything else, is what makes Pixar great.”

GMA News

MANILA, Philippines – A Dagupan-born artist won the grand prize for the sculpture category in the recently-concluded Olympic Sports and Art Contest of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Joe Datuin bested other artists from 36 countries for his masterpiece entitled “Dancing Rings.”

Inspired by the 2008 Olympics emblem, “The Dancing Emblem” which looks like a man (in white) dancing and surrounded by the color red, Datuin would be receiving $30,000 or P1.2 million aside from a diploma.

The “Dancing Beijing,” according to the Beijing Olympics website, “cheers for arts and for the Olympic heroes, who pass down the essence of the Olympic Spirit, which well connects sports and cultures.”

Champion artist

This is not the first award from the Olympics of the Dagupan-born artist.

In 1980, Datuin’s poster outshined 6,000 participants from other countries in the Moscow Olympic Poster Design.

He also won a gold medal award in 1982 in the UNESCO International Calendar Design Competition in France.

For his accomplishments, Datuin became the first recipient of the Gawad President Manuel L. Quezon in 2003 and the Huwarang Pilipino for Arts and Culture in 2004.

As a Fine Arts student in the University of Santo Tomas, he was given the Benavides Award.

Datuin had already exhibited his artworks of environmental abstract masterpieces at the Philippine Center in New York City last 2005.

Some of his masterpieces can be viewed at the National Museum, Philippine embassies and consulates abroad, and at the GSIS Museo Ng Sining.

Meanwhile, in the graphic works category, Edmard C. Colmo’s painting “Dreams for goals” was Highly Recommended and he will receive a diploma.

Both artworks will be displayed in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland and in Olympic Expo in Beijing, China.

The winners will receive their prizes during the VI World Forum on Sport, Education, and Culture on September 25 to 26 2008 in Busan, Korea.

Philippine Star

Nestor Jardin, president of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, was given the 2008 John D. Rockefeller 3rd award for outstanding professional achievement.

The award, established in 1986 through a special endowment donation from The JDR 3rd Fund, honors “individuals from Asia and the United States who have made particularly significant contributions to the international understanding, practice, or study of the visual or performing arts of Asia.”

Jardin has served as CCP president since 2001, and before that was its vice president and artistic director. He has “devoted his extensive career to championing the arts and artists of Southeast Asia and the Philippines and working to create an environment in which these can flourish.”

Cited for being “a cultural leader of rare energy, commitment, and vision who has set an extraordinary example both regionally and internationally,” Jardin is also responsible for the creation of the Philippine Cultural Education Plan, a comprehensive national plan for arts and culture education.

Jardin, who holds a BS Zoology degree from the University of the Philippines, started as a dancer with Ballet Philippines and rose to become its artistic director and president.

Through various international grants and fellowships, he has pursued studies in arts management and is a recognized leader and educator in the field.

He is the second Filipino to win the award, after the late National Artist for Music Jose Maceda in 1987.

Candidates for the award are nominated by artists and scholars from all over the world who are actively involved in Asian art and culture, and the awardee is selected by the board of trustees of the New York-based Asian Cultural Council (ACC) in consultation with specialists and experts.

The award will be conferred on Jardin during the ACC-Philippines gala on Feb. 29 by Elizabeth McCormack, chairman of the ACC board; ACC trustees Josie Cruz Natori and Sir Kenneth Fung; Ralph Samuelson, ACC director; and Wendy Wang, granddaughter of JDR 3rd The ACC-Philippines gala at the Makati Shangri-la will feature a fashion show by internationally-acclaimed designer Natori.

GMA News

The legendary battle of Filipino warrior Lapu-Lapu and Spanish voyager Magellan never looked any cooler when two Filipinos carved the historic fight in ice and won gold in an international ice sculpting competition in Canada last week.

The Tunggalian (Encounter) is a partly immortalized creation of Canada-based master chef, Armando Baisas and his nephew, Ross Baisas, both renowned ice carvers, who competed in the 21st International Ice-Carving competition from February 1-3.

Their impressive ice sculpture placed first in the Pairs category and earned the People’s Choice award, besting 37 other participants in a grueling 30-hour challenge where they carved, chiseled and sawed blocks of ice into masterpieces completely frozen in time.

Ross, who hails from the woodcarving town of Paete in Laguna, also brought home gold in the One Block Challenge, a two-hour competition where he transformed one block of ice into an icy sculpture to the theme of Arctic Art.

In a press statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs, it said that the Philippine embassy in Ottawa helped the two Filipinos in their preparations for the competition during the celebration of the Winterlude festival.

Ambassador Jose Brillantes, along with embassy officials and staff, as well as members of the Filipino community in Canada, were in full force at the Confederation Park on the day the organizers released the names of the winners.

From wood to ice

Armando, a culinary arts genius, is no stranger to the ice-carving competition, having consistently joined since four years ago.

But years before sculpting ice, Armando has been carving on potatoes, watermelons, carrots and styrofoam, having been raised in a family of wood carvers back in the Philippines .

In an interview with the Carleton University in Ottawa , it was revealed that Armando began his art in hotels around Manila before landing a job at the Hilton hotel chains in Africa in 1981.

After carving a name in Ethiopia, Cairo, and Madagascar, Armando went to Cyprus, Athens, London, and the United States .

When his working visa expired, he transferred to Canada and worked at a hotel in Montreal.

Two years ago, he received the Pamana ng Pilipino Award from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, in honor of his achievements, according to the DFA statement.

Armando is currently the chef instructor and sculptor instructor of Le Cordon Bleu, Ottawa ’s premier culinary institute.

In a 1998 interview for Asia Cuisine, Ross admitted having been deeply influenced by his family in Laguna.

“I was exposed to the craft of wood carving at an early age. My great-grandfather down to my brother are all wood carvers, so naturally I learned the art from them. At the age of 18, I began to realize my talent in wood carving,” he said.

Ross then used his knowledge with sculpting into chocolate carvings that are as impressive as those in wood.

“During the Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) held in Manila in 1996, I created a chocolate piece showing the world leaders engaged in a meeting. I captured even the smallest detail such as the famous cigar-in-hand of former Philippines President Fidel Ramos,” he recalled.

Prior to the 21st International Ice-Carving competition the uncle-nephew tandem has joined other sculpting contests.

In the 2003 Designs in Ice competition, they masterfully rendered, from ice, the life-size image of Frodo Baggins and White wizard Gandalf from the movie, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers where they won gold and $1,000 in cash.

Now, isn’t that cool?

Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines – Baguio-born Tommy Hafalla, who has made a name for himself for chronicling Cordillera life and rituals through photos, is the first Filipino and, likely, the first Southeast Asian to receive the documentary award in the 2006 International Folklore Photographic Contest.The competition, sponsored by the China Folklore Photographic Association, culminated in an awarding ceremony on Nov. 18 in Dazhou, China, a city that is almost near Tibet.

Originally, the ceremony was scheduled in Beijing, but since the Chinese capital is busy with preparations for next year’s Olympics, the venue was moved to Dazhou.

Hafalla, 50, learned from the organizers that he was one of 100 winners, the others coming from China, Japan, the United States and the European Union.

His “Faces of the Cordillera” was recognized with the Humanity Photo Award. The photo story consists of six black and white portraits of persons from the Mt. Province, Ifugao and Kalinga.

After he sent his prints by mail, the organizers e-mailed and asked him for a digital file. Hafalla said he was still doing traditional photography, using film, a darkroom, enlarger and all. The people from China apologized, telling him they would just scan his photos.

Apart from his mission to capture Cordillera life and ways in pictures, he shares his skills through workshops at Foto Baryo in Batangas and in Sagada, Mt. Province, where he has trained a group of documentors.

He says, “I do not want to keep anything to myself. I’m happy to share my knowledge of photography and what I know of the culture.”

Philippine Daily inquirer

After a decades-long search, the family of Vicente Alvarez Dizon has located his painting that won first place at an international competition in 1939 which included the works of Salvador Dali and Maurice Utrillo.

The late Dizon’s masterpiece, “After the Day’s Toil,” which was last seen by the family in 1952 when it was transported to the country for the Philippine International Fair, is in the possession of Dr. Rogelio Pine, a Filipino cardiologist based in New Jersey.

Pine bought it in 1980 from Daniel Grossman of the Grossman Gallery, who in turn bought it from IBM New York when the company unloaded a number of paintings in the late 1970s.

Dizon, of the University of the Philippines’ then School of Fine Arts, painted “After the Day’s Toil” in 1936 as a graduation thesis during postgraduate scholarship studies at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

When he returned home, he settled in Malate, Manila, and continued to lecture at UP, the National Teachers’ College, and other schools.

From 79 countries
In 1939, Thomas J. Watson, founder of International Business Machines (IBM), conceived the idea of holding an international art competition at the Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco, California.

He sent his representative, Kevin Mallen, to 79 countries all over the world to scout for entries.

In Manila, Mallen visited Dizon at his residence on 1111 A. Mabini Street, to take a look at “After the Day’s Toil.”

Mallen purchased the painting for IBM immediately after seeing it, and had it framed and shipped to the United States.

It was included in the International Competition on Contemporary Art of 79 Nations at the Golden Gate Exposition.

In that historic competition, “After the Day’s Toil” won first place by popular vote. The entry of Spain by Dali won second place, and that of the United States won third.

Utrillo’s entry did not win.

Pacific unity
The inscription on the winner’s medal reads: “Unity of the Pacific nations is America’s concern and responsibility. San Francisco stands at the doorway to the sea that roars upon the shores of all these nations; and so to the Golden Gate International Exposition I gladly entrust a solemn duty. May this, America’s world’s fair on the Pacific in 1939, truly serve all nations.–President Franklin D. Roosevelt”

The Golden Gate Exposition was held in celebration of San Francisco’s two new bridges.

San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge were dedicated on Nov. 12, 1936, and May 27, 1937, respectively.

The exposition ran from Feb. 18 to Oct. 29 in 1939, and from May 25 to Sept. 29 in 1940.

Malate-born
Vicente Alvarez Dizon, son of Jose Sampedro Dizon of Bacolor, Pampanga, and Rosa Carlos Alvarez of Concepcion, Tarlac, was born in Malate on April 5, 1905.

The elder Dizon, an 1897 graduate of the University of Santo Tomas, was a landscape artist and botanist-agronomist at the Bureau of Agriculture.

In the course of his work, he was assigned to such places as Capas in Tarlac, Magalang in Pampanga, and Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija.

The young Vicente had his early schooling at the Malate Primary School, and continued his intermediate studies in the towns where his father was assigned.

The father wanted his son to study medicine. The latter obeyed, and attended the National University College of Medicine in 1921-23.

Dizon later transferred to the UP School of Fine Arts, where he took a five-year course and graduated with an art diploma in 1928. After graduation, he became the first artist-lecturer of the Philippines.

He is among the first Filipinos to win important scholarships abroad, such as that awarded him by the Federal Schools of Art in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

On his own, he applied for, and was granted, a scholarship at Yale.

Honors
In 1936, during his stay at Yale, Dizon became the first Filipino to be elected one of the 12 members of the “Yale Phi Alpha.” (Only 12 members were elected each year from more than 300 students.)

It was also at Yale that he painted “After the Day’s Toil” as his thesis.

Read the rest of this entry »

GMA News

There was always a glint of admiration in the eyes of Chino Corrales every time he marvels at his college department’s display case at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.

Chino would ogle at the works of his schoolmates who won the annual Fishs Eddy design contest, a city-wide competition where the winners’ artwork are embossed in the dinnerware company’s products: plates, tea cups, mugs, and even bags, and sold throughout the United States.

So it came as a surprise to this 22-year-old advertising student to find out that his plate design on the New York cityscape would soon occupy a space in the same shelf he once admired, after winning this year’s contest.

Now, Chino’s creation will not only be showcased all over the US but across the world through the company’s online store.

Fishs Eddy became so impressed with Chino’s work that the company wanted to also use the design in the mugs, glasses and vases it produces.

Chino’s talent did not also escape Kraftworks LTD that has invited him for an internship and a first bite at a promising career in advertising.

However, more than taking personal glory, he actually prides himself in being able to contribute something for the Philippines.

“I’ve always wanted to give back to the Philippines,” Chino said.

“Perhaps it will be in the form of advertising or graphic design which has the ability to change the landscape of visual culture and aesthetics,” he added.

Reluctant participant

Although Chino frequently saw flyers advertising the competition on campus, he did not have interest in participating. After all, he was entering his senior year in Pratt, and he needed to spend more time for schoolwork and left with little time for extras.

But last March, he was left with no choice when his professor required the entire class to join the contest.

“When I entered [the contest] they wanted a design that revolved around the theme, “Urban Landscapes” which may feature a particular US city such as New York, Miami, San Francisco, et cetera.” Chino said.

Having a long time fascination with maps, Chino then decided to create a design that would best describe the “city that never sleeps.”

“They say the city is a conglomeration of squares, rectangles and polygons> I pretty much simplified the city into shapes that look like an aerial view of streets and buildings,” Chino explained. “So I decided to implement the grid-like formations that New York City has the tendency to look like.”

Weeks later, Chino found out that he won the contest in a comical circumstance.

“I was having a conversation with one of the department heads about my choices of senior courses for the next year when the Dean walked in to listen on the conversation,” he recalled.

“During the middle of the conversation my name came up. She then asked me, ‘Do you know who you are?’ At that point, I became a little nervous,” Chino admitted.

Then, the dean announced: “You’re the winner of the Fishs Eddy competition!”

News quickly spread around the campus and Chino was overwhelmed by the response from his professors and classmates.

“I remember walking out of class that same day and someone who I never talked to or even met came up to me to say her congratulations,” he said.

While it may be easy for some to claim the glory for their own, Chino wants to share his victory to the rest of his kababayans, saying that he has always wanted to make his country proud.

“I have no doubt that in the future I will look back at winning this competition and realize this was the first time I proved to myself I have what it takes to do that,” he added.

Far away home

Chino was only four when he first experienced being uprooted from the family home in Narvacan, Ilocos Sur. His father, who has since been in the US Army, decided to take his family to a military installation in Germany where he was assigned.

“It was straight from the probinsya to foreign soil for me,” he recalled. “It was a huge shift in culture and lifestyle, something that I had to get used to over the years.”

Often, Chino would find himself feeling isolated especially when homesickness would begin to crawl into his system. To ease the feeling, his family decided to join a Filipino community in Germany that met every week to catch up on news back home. Chino’s parents also made sure a dependable Filipino store was just around the corner.

“Being a Filipino abroad is very different from being a Filipino in the Philippines,” said Chino, “Sometimes you can feel a little isolated from the rest so that’s why it really helps to find people you can relate with.”

Three years later, his father decided to take them back home where they stayed in a house in Cavite near his other relatives. However, in 1995, Chino found himself moving out again and this time, to permanently stay in the US where his father eventually secured green cards for them.

“I was 10 years old when my parents decided to move the family out of the country again. My mother had family staying in the New York area and we chose to live there,” Chino said.

Unlike in Germany however, their new home did not have the inviting presence of a Filipino community. In the absence of a strong Filipino community, Chino’s family reconnected with the rest of their kababayans back in the Philippines through satellite TV.

“It seems like in my household, my family spends more time watching Filipino TV than the shows here in the US,” Chino reveals.

Meanwhile, Chino cures his homesickness by always being online and sending e-mails or chatting with his friends. “It helps to live in a world where everybody is connected electronically.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Eight Filipino elementary students have won prizes at the Eighth Asian Children’s Enniki Festa in Japan, an exhibition featuring illustrations by Asian children on different aspects of their culture.

This year’s contest, sponsored by Japanese company Mitsubishi and supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), carried the theme “This is My Life.”

Hana Richelle Tang Tan, a Grade 3 pupil from St. Jude Catholic School, Manila won the Grand Prix Award. West Visayas State University Integrated School Grade 6 pupil Maphete Dianne Lustre bagged the Mitsubishi Public Affairs Committee Award, while and Sharmayne Desiree Ng, a Grade 6 pupil also of Manila’s St. Jude Catholic School got the National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan Award.

Other Filipino winners: Rodner Tumaca, a Grade 6 pupil of Doña Juana Elementary School in Quezon City; Jerrika Shi, a Grade 3 pupil of St. Jude Catholic School in Manila; Seanne Daphne Ng, Grade 5 pupil of St. Jude Catholic School in Manila; Charlene Kim Dizon, Grade 5 pupil of OB Montessori Center in Angeles City; and Demi Morales, Grade 5 pupil of the University of Sto. Tomas, Manila .

The competition had several categories, including Grand Prix, Public Affairs Committee Award, National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan and Excellence Award. Entries should depict the daily life of the artists in five pages of illustrations and corresponding essays.

The winning entries of the Filipino students will be among 71 other artworks from 22 other Asian countries that will be on display at the Maracube Center in Tokyo, Japan.

GMA News

For many Filipinos, rice is a staple food on the dining table. But to Filipino-Canadian dancer Alvin Erasga Tolentino, rice is more than just a glutinous sustenance; it is a representation of a cultural heritage best presented through movements and music.

Since the last week of August, Alvin has toured the Philippines to perform “Field: Land is the belly of man,” which will culminate on September 5. This one-man, 50-minute show incorporates music, movement, and video to pay homage to the traditional harvesting of rice.

“Rice is the grain of life. It is a source of energy, livelihood, and social stability,” Alvin said.

He was first commissioned by Ballet Philippines to create and perform a dance piece reflective of the Balikbayan homecoming.

Six years ago, amid the growing debate over Filipinos flocking the cities and leaving vast lands to go idle, Alvin found his inspiration. It was also around this time that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the Banaue rice terraces as an endangered World Heritage site.

“So, at the time when I was researching it for Ballet Philippines there was a huge call to Filipinos to bring people back to the rice paddies,” Alvin said, in an interview that appeared in The Vancouver Sun.

“I was in the right place at the right time,” he added.

Dancing shoes

In 1983, Alvin’s family decided to migrate to Canada. Like most Filipinos, his parents wanted to find a better life for him and his two other siblings abroad.

Despite going away to Canada at an early age, one of the few things Alvin never forgot to bring from home was his dancing shoes.

Before leaving, Alvin was a member of a cultural dance troupe in a school in Apolonio Samson, Quezon City. Unlike other families who might not always be open to having a male dancer in the family, Alvin’s parents were very supportive.

They even prodded him to continue with his interest when he went to Notre Dame high school in Vancouver. Later on in college, he decided to leave the West Coast to pursue modern dance training at one of the schools on the East side.

Alvin was enrolled at Toronto’s York School University and honed his skills in a dance program there. A year after, he tried his luck at an audition for a summer school at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet (RWB) and landed a spot to train and perform there for two years.

After his training in RWB, Alvin realized that he wasn’t happy with his craft. He needed to change his ballet shoes.

He left school and was drawn to modern dance which had the freedom of movement that the discipline of ballet cannot give. This change of heart eventually enabled Alvin to perform with Kokoro Dance, Lola Dance and Karen Jamieson.

Armed with years of training, Alvin then tried on bigger shoes and founded his own dance group, Co. Erasga Dance Society in 2000.

A dancer, choreographer, instructor, and visual artist, Alvin serves as the artistic director of Co.ERASGA Dance Society—a contemporary international touring dance company with an emphasis in exploration and collaboration of cross cultural work promoting dance across the nation and abroad.

Among his company’s missions is to “recognize the Asian heritage and diversity within the Canadian multicultural context, and promote, share and celebrate dance to the widest and diverse audience in British Columbia, Canada and abroad.”

But after years of traveling and performing abroad, his feet ached for something else. This time, he felt he had to take his shoes back home.

Retracing his roots

“I was homesick and tired of the Western thinking, the excessiveness of the material world,” Alvin recalled.

“I was trying to find a way to discover new forms of dance, so I decided to come back to my roots and integrate [the culture] to contemporary forms,” he added.

At the beginning of his work with “Field,” some Filipinos were skeptical if Alvin can fully achieve his goal. After living in Canada for years, he may be considered an “outsider” in his native land.

However, Alvin was determined to prove his critics wrong. Alvin decided to trust his intuition.

“It was an eye opener for me. I really began to formulate in the structure of my creation and my choreography about what it is like to integrate that background, those roots, into what I know and into what I have been transformed into in the Western world.”

He employed the help of Tad Ermitaño for the visuals of the rice fields reminiscent of those in Central Luzon and the Banaue rice terraces.

Since then, he has toured other countries like Venezuela, France and Singapore to take the ‘Field’ to those who might not have seen its immense importance to a culture.

“It is paying homage to the Filipinos who worked in the field and cultivated rice, which represents our cultural heritage,” Alvin said.

“For many centuries, rice-cultivation has adorned the rural landscape in the Philippines. Rice is the grain of life. It is a source of energy, livelihood, and social stability,” he said. “The erosion of ancestral cultivation practices has inspired him to create “Field: Land is the belly of man.”

“This thought-provoking piece pays homage to the traditional harvesting of rice. It is a solemn appeal for preservation of the ancestral cultural heritage that is contained in a grain of rice, of two millennia of agricultural knowledge, and of historical and sacred customs. The performance encompasses emotion, beauty and reflection, and questions the ever-changing relationship between man and the land,” a press release on Alvin’s performance in the country said to describe “Field.”

Alvin’s work as a Filipino-Canadian choreographer and dancer has earned him a distinct reputation as an original and an unpredictable contemporary performing artist in several countries such as Japan, France, Belgium, Croatia, US, Singapore, Italy and Venezuela.

He has received professional art and dance training with The Royal Winnipeg Ballet , York University’s Fine Arts in Toronto, SUNY Purchase, New York and the Limon Institute.

This international touring initiative is supported by Canada Council for the Arts, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, the British Columbia Arts Council, Myra Beltran Dance Forum and The Lemon Circle Event Management & Consultancy.

Hosted by Samahan sa Sining (Department of Humanities) of the University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB), Field will have the last shows of its limited-engagement Philippine tour at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Havener Auditorium and D.L. Umali Theater, UPLB on Sept. 4 (7pm) and 5 (7pm), respectively, in partnership with IRRI and Asia Rice Foundation. For ticket inquiries, please call (049) 536-2320.

After “Field,” Alvin now sets his eyes on studying more about the issues in the environment which he will incorporate in his future creations.