Dance This Summer at the Ballet Philippines Dance School

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Now on its 46th year, the CCP Summer Dance Workshop is once again paving the way for young dance talents to achieve their dreams to become professional dancers.

Starting on April 7, 2015, dance students from all over the country will flock to the Cultural Center of the Philippines for the five week-long summer dance workshop. Esteemed Ballet Philippines current company members and alumni will guide these aspirants in honing their craft. The workshop gives courses in Classical Ballet for all ages, Modern & Contemporary Ballet, Creative Movement, Jazz, and Hip Hop for kids and teens.

The workshop will conclude with two grand performances of a double-bill program: “Flower Festival” back to back with “Wonderland” on May 9 and 10 at the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (CCP Main Theater).. “Flower Festival” will feature excerpts from Aguste Bournounville’s “Flower Festival at Genzano” along with other dances, while “Wonderland” adds a new kind of groove to the beloved classic, featuring the contemporary, jazz, and hip hop dance classes.

Scholarship auditions for the CCP Summer Dance Workshop will be held on February 28 and March 21, at the CCP Rehearsal Hall. Provincial applicants may also audition on April 7. Scholarships are available for students aged 9 to 13, intermediate & advanced students, and promising males from any dance background.

PH Start-Up Makes It To Elite Roster Of Silicon Valley Babies

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Kalibrr, a Philippine tech start-up, recently joined the ranks of successful companies like AirBnB, Reddit, Dropbox, Scribd and 9-gag, which were initially funded by Silicon Valley venture firm, Y-Combinator. Headed by University of California-Berkeley alumni, Paul Rivera and Dexter Ligot-Gordon, Kalibrr is a cloud-based job-matching platform, which makes online recruitment not only faster and smarter, but also more reliable.

Kalibrr generated a whopping $2 million, the largest fund raised by a local start-up so far. This was made possible by a number of investors, 75% of which are foreign-based including Pierre Omidyar of eBay and Y Combinator, and 25% from PH-based Kickstart Ventures. 

“We are proud to be the first Filipino company to receive support from the Valley, but we certainly hope that we are not the last,” says Rivera, Kalibrr founder. 

The firm started local operations in the fourth quarter of 2014 and their platform is currently on beta, but the founders recently disclosed their plan of going full swing by the second quarter of this year. 

HHI Elite Judge Margherita Vasselli Trains This Summer At Ballet Philippines Dance School

Wazzup Pilipinas!
Looking for a way to up your hip hop game? Grab this opportunity to train under Italian choreographer and Hip Hop International Elite Judge Margherita Vasselli.

As part of the 46th annual CCP Summer Dance Workshop, Margherita “Meg” Vasselli joins in the Ballet Philippines tradition of bringing together budding dancers who are eager to learn. In this case, she will enrich advanced hip hop students’ vocabularies in New Style Hiphop.

Vasselli started her dance training at the age of 6 in ballet, contemporary, and modern dance. In 1999, she started studying hip hop with Italian and foreign choreographers. She also became a teacher in dance schools and a Hip Hop Presenter in Italy, Europe, and Brazil. In 2003 she started to work with Hip Hop International. This was the most important moment in her professional life, because she started to met the most important names of the Hip Hop movement, in USA and around the world. That same year, she became a certified international hip hop judge in Miami (Florida) and every year since then she attended the international course, focusing her attention both on the artistic side as well as on the technical side of the competition routines. She became an Elite Judge for Hip Hop International in 2014 and is currently is the judge director of Hip Hop International in Italy, Brazil and UK.