Picture above: Photos from the pocket tees project at UH and a photo of UH Modern performing on stage.
DATES;
Pocket Tees Project: 3/3/13, 3/5/13
Goodphil Weekend: 3/8-10/13
Pocket Tees Project: 3/3/13, 3/5/13
Goodphil Weekend: 3/8-10/13
An Overview of the Project
Pictured below is a dance team from the University of Houston at the 2013 Filipino Student Association sports competition called "Goodphil" in San Antonio.
The shirts that the team wore to perform were made by four of the team members (assisted by two others).
Only one out of the four people knew what to do (person on the far right), so she showed us how to cut, iron, and pin the fabric pieces. She also showed me (I have experience with hand-sewing) how to machine-sew the pieces onto the shirts. I got to try sewing two of these pocket pieces onto the t-shirts.
We took two days (3 hours each day) to make 32 shirts for the competition.
Goodphil as a Part of Houston's Dance History
Goodphil is an annual three-day sports competition for the Filipino Students' Association (FSA) of 12 universities in Texas. The competition consists of four parts: the Spirit, Cultural Dance, and Modern Dance competitions for the first day; and traditional sports (such as basketball, volleyball, dodgeball, soccer, and football) competitions for the other two days.
The GoodPhil Games were founded in 1991 by the president of PhilSA at Texas A&M. In 1992, the University of Houston's FSA joined the games. When UH FSA hosted Goodphil in Houston, Spirit and Dance competitions were added into the GoodPhil games. The Modern Dance competition is one of the most anticipated competition in Goodphil that helped promote the street dance style of Hip-Hop.
For many years, hip-hop dancing includes various different techniques of dancing, such as breakdancing, locking, popping, and krumping. Dancers later took these "fundamentals" of hip-hop dancing to make sets of moves (or choreographies) for groups or teams to perform in unison. Some dancers also include other genres of dancing such has Modern or Jazz into their choreographies. This new version of hip-hop dancing is then called "Modern Hip-Hop" (not to be confused with the "Modern Hip Hop" genre of music).
For Houston, Goodphil is one of the main events that helped influence Modern Hip-Hop dancing. Many dancers from the Filipino community who practiced the fundamentals of hip-hop decided to move on to developing the style of Modern Hip-Hop. With the Goodphil competitions, these dancers have motivation to increase their skills to develop new styles to compete against other dancers doing the same. Goodphil also helped these dancers to promote Modern Hip-Hop when students observe the new dance style during the competition. Houston's most recognized studios (SoReal Studios) originated from a team from Houston that gained fame from competing in the "America's Best Dance Crew" show in 2008. This crew (SoReal Cru) was mainly comprised of Filipino dancers who were involved with Goodphil in the early-mid 2000s. After the promotion of SoReal Cru from the TV show, the hip hop dance scene in Houston grew immensely.
The GoodPhil Games were founded in 1991 by the president of PhilSA at Texas A&M. In 1992, the University of Houston's FSA joined the games. When UH FSA hosted Goodphil in Houston, Spirit and Dance competitions were added into the GoodPhil games. The Modern Dance competition is one of the most anticipated competition in Goodphil that helped promote the street dance style of Hip-Hop.
For many years, hip-hop dancing includes various different techniques of dancing, such as breakdancing, locking, popping, and krumping. Dancers later took these "fundamentals" of hip-hop dancing to make sets of moves (or choreographies) for groups or teams to perform in unison. Some dancers also include other genres of dancing such has Modern or Jazz into their choreographies. This new version of hip-hop dancing is then called "Modern Hip-Hop" (not to be confused with the "Modern Hip Hop" genre of music).
For Houston, Goodphil is one of the main events that helped influence Modern Hip-Hop dancing. Many dancers from the Filipino community who practiced the fundamentals of hip-hop decided to move on to developing the style of Modern Hip-Hop. With the Goodphil competitions, these dancers have motivation to increase their skills to develop new styles to compete against other dancers doing the same. Goodphil also helped these dancers to promote Modern Hip-Hop when students observe the new dance style during the competition. Houston's most recognized studios (SoReal Studios) originated from a team from Houston that gained fame from competing in the "America's Best Dance Crew" show in 2008. This crew (SoReal Cru) was mainly comprised of Filipino dancers who were involved with Goodphil in the early-mid 2000s. After the promotion of SoReal Cru from the TV show, the hip hop dance scene in Houston grew immensely.
My Experience with Goodphil
In March of 2012, I was supposed to perform at Goodphil (hosted in Houston) as part of Soundbox Studios. However, we were not allowed to enter the building due to max capacity, missing our performance. We stayed outside the Stafford Centre until the end of the Modern Competition because we were supporting our studio members and friends who were a part of UH's Modern Hip-Hop team. This was the first time I got to see a dance competition in front of me. UH Modern won the Modern competition in 2012. I came home and watched UH Modern's past performances, including the UH Modern teams that included the original SoReal members. I became determined to train and practice so I can join the next year's team after seeing these performances.
In 2013, I auditioned for UH Modern and made it in.
The shirts: Two weeks before the competition, the team decided they wanted red-bandana pocket t-shirts as part of the outfit. Due to budgeting and time-restraint, the team couldn't order any custom shirts to be made on time. Two female members (two "CP") stepped up to make the shirts. Three other girls volunteered to help with the preparations while one guy volunteered to find the black tees to work with. Together in a total of 3 days of work, we finished the shirts for the team. For the last day of the pocket tees project, we had to use a commons area in one of UH's dormitory buildings. As people came by to meet up for pool or for computer games, most of them gave us weird looks. Few of them asked what the shirts were for. Because of this experience, all four of us girls felt like we were running some kind of sweat shop...
Continuing my Goodphil experience: After less than two months of practice, the team went to San Antonio to compete. At 3pm on the Friday of the competition, we found out during our tech rehearsal on the stage that the stage was a lot smaller than the directors originally knew of. The team moved outside (despite the fact that the drizzle/rain had just stopped) to fix and tighten the dance formations so the team can fit on the stage. As the team became nervous and distracted, the directors and some of the team members (including myself) snapped at the team to pull themselves together to focus so that our practice and hard work won't go to waste. As we continued to practice outside on the wet concrete, my left shoe slipped when I was supposed to land from a jump with my left foot, causing me to sprain my ankle. I remembered being carried to the windows where some of the FSA members were watching and I remembered people trying to keep me sitting with my ankle elevated one several backpacks. The next thing I knew, my team was standing in front of me while someone was trying to rotate my ankle. The directors told everyone to get back to practicing while some FSA members made sure I kept my ankle moving and other FSA members ran to get first aid and ice. As I watched the team continued practicing, I noticed most of the team members glancing back at me asking if I was "ok" instead of focusing, so I got up, and slowly walked into the building behind me. The team felt better that I was able to walk myself in the building, then continued practicing.
In the building, several FSA members helped me ice, rotate, and massage my ankle. Two FSA members stayed with me as I attempted to walk normally on the sprained ankle. Towards the start of the cultural and spirit competitions at 6pm, I was switching from laying on a couch to walking back and forth in a hallway with a few of the UH Modern members. By the time the Modern competitions began, I asked one of the FSA members/my friend of whether or not I should continue to perform because the team would be performing with a hole in the formation if I was not there. He said that it's based on how I feel with the ankle, but if I do perform, the ankle would most likely be a lot worse because of the running and jumping. At around 9pm, right when UH modern's prep time was approaching, one of the directors helped me get to the restroom to change and get ready when I told the directors I decided to perform.
Right before our stage time, I went through the choreographies with two of the directors so they can tell me the formation changes that the team went over when I was not with them. When we were waiting backstage to perform, the backstage crew got me two chairs to rotate and prepare my ankle for the performance. When the team finally got on the stage, we performed as well as we could for UH FSA. At the end of the performance, after I walked off the stage, my ankle got stiff and started to burn and sting to the point where I was tearing and breathing really hard, making me unable to walk up the stairs to leave the stage area. One of the team members had to carry me from the stage area to the couch I was laying on and he continued to carry me around all night whenever I had to go anywhere (On one occasion when he was putting me down, he thought my right leg was ready to catch the fall, but it wasn't, so I dropped straight down to the floor...).
In the hotel, my ankle got numb, so I kept trying to walk around to make it better. A friend of the FSA members kept looking at me then said "Hey... injured girl... would you please sit down?" haha. That Friday night, after I painfully took off my high-top converse from my foot when I got into my hotel room, I took the bandages off my ankle to check its condition. My ankle was heavily swollen and very, very dark pinkish brown, shocking my teammates and the director who was with me. At the after-party on Saturday night, I stayed on a chair or by a column at the club because I still wasn't able to walk well with my ankle. When they announced that UH won for the Modern Hip Hop team, most of everyone were crying because of the stress we went to... and I cried because we won 1st place, despite the fact that I was dancing with a sprained ankle.
In 2013, I auditioned for UH Modern and made it in.
The shirts: Two weeks before the competition, the team decided they wanted red-bandana pocket t-shirts as part of the outfit. Due to budgeting and time-restraint, the team couldn't order any custom shirts to be made on time. Two female members (two "CP") stepped up to make the shirts. Three other girls volunteered to help with the preparations while one guy volunteered to find the black tees to work with. Together in a total of 3 days of work, we finished the shirts for the team. For the last day of the pocket tees project, we had to use a commons area in one of UH's dormitory buildings. As people came by to meet up for pool or for computer games, most of them gave us weird looks. Few of them asked what the shirts were for. Because of this experience, all four of us girls felt like we were running some kind of sweat shop...
Continuing my Goodphil experience: After less than two months of practice, the team went to San Antonio to compete. At 3pm on the Friday of the competition, we found out during our tech rehearsal on the stage that the stage was a lot smaller than the directors originally knew of. The team moved outside (despite the fact that the drizzle/rain had just stopped) to fix and tighten the dance formations so the team can fit on the stage. As the team became nervous and distracted, the directors and some of the team members (including myself) snapped at the team to pull themselves together to focus so that our practice and hard work won't go to waste. As we continued to practice outside on the wet concrete, my left shoe slipped when I was supposed to land from a jump with my left foot, causing me to sprain my ankle. I remembered being carried to the windows where some of the FSA members were watching and I remembered people trying to keep me sitting with my ankle elevated one several backpacks. The next thing I knew, my team was standing in front of me while someone was trying to rotate my ankle. The directors told everyone to get back to practicing while some FSA members made sure I kept my ankle moving and other FSA members ran to get first aid and ice. As I watched the team continued practicing, I noticed most of the team members glancing back at me asking if I was "ok" instead of focusing, so I got up, and slowly walked into the building behind me. The team felt better that I was able to walk myself in the building, then continued practicing.
In the building, several FSA members helped me ice, rotate, and massage my ankle. Two FSA members stayed with me as I attempted to walk normally on the sprained ankle. Towards the start of the cultural and spirit competitions at 6pm, I was switching from laying on a couch to walking back and forth in a hallway with a few of the UH Modern members. By the time the Modern competitions began, I asked one of the FSA members/my friend of whether or not I should continue to perform because the team would be performing with a hole in the formation if I was not there. He said that it's based on how I feel with the ankle, but if I do perform, the ankle would most likely be a lot worse because of the running and jumping. At around 9pm, right when UH modern's prep time was approaching, one of the directors helped me get to the restroom to change and get ready when I told the directors I decided to perform.
Right before our stage time, I went through the choreographies with two of the directors so they can tell me the formation changes that the team went over when I was not with them. When we were waiting backstage to perform, the backstage crew got me two chairs to rotate and prepare my ankle for the performance. When the team finally got on the stage, we performed as well as we could for UH FSA. At the end of the performance, after I walked off the stage, my ankle got stiff and started to burn and sting to the point where I was tearing and breathing really hard, making me unable to walk up the stairs to leave the stage area. One of the team members had to carry me from the stage area to the couch I was laying on and he continued to carry me around all night whenever I had to go anywhere (On one occasion when he was putting me down, he thought my right leg was ready to catch the fall, but it wasn't, so I dropped straight down to the floor...).
In the hotel, my ankle got numb, so I kept trying to walk around to make it better. A friend of the FSA members kept looking at me then said "Hey... injured girl... would you please sit down?" haha. That Friday night, after I painfully took off my high-top converse from my foot when I got into my hotel room, I took the bandages off my ankle to check its condition. My ankle was heavily swollen and very, very dark pinkish brown, shocking my teammates and the director who was with me. At the after-party on Saturday night, I stayed on a chair or by a column at the club because I still wasn't able to walk well with my ankle. When they announced that UH won for the Modern Hip Hop team, most of everyone were crying because of the stress we went to... and I cried because we won 1st place, despite the fact that I was dancing with a sprained ankle.
Here's a photo of my ankle from Friday night (though the sprain is a lot darker in person than in this photo).
Here's the video of UH Modern's 2013 Performance:
I found out on Sunday that part of the Modern team (8 members in one of the hotel rooms) watched me and my left ankle in the entire video during their let's-watch-the-video-over-and-over-and-over runs. Ever since Goodphil's after party, I've been called and known as "soldier" in UH Modern along with being the MVP for the year.
(After Goodphil 2013)
I was advised to go to the doctor after coming back to Houston from San Antonio. However, due to a retreat I was volunteering during the weekend after Goodphil, I did not. During the retreat, after escorting retreatants to their cabins and running errands all of Friday night, I woke up on Saturday morning with a painfully stiff ankle. I ended up sitting on a wheelchair for the rest of that weekend, and I ended up using crutches for two weeks. I met my doctor during this period, and tests showed no broken bones. She then told me that the pain would be normal and that my sprain should feel better after two weeks. However, after I continued dancing the two weeks after Goodphil, my ankle did not get better. After meeting a physical therapists, I found out that my sprain was a second-degree sprain and it could take 6-10 months to heal and that I needed to go to therapy for at least two months. I joined Soundbox's elite team in August (6 months after the incident), but I found out that my ankle was still not healed enough to dance when I almost tripped during the first practice. I got kicked out of the team due to that fact and I continued to rest until November 2013. 8 months after Goodphil, I was able to audition for UH's 2014 Modern Team.
During our first meeting for the 2014 team in November 2013, four of the original members of SoReal who participated in Goodphil from around 2000 to 2006 joined the meeting after they found out that UH Modern was still running strong. They shared their thoughts about Goodphil and UH FSA, and they shared their thoughts about dancing as a team in order to inspire us for the new year. [On the side note, most of the people in Soundbox's elite team that I wanted to join started dancing because of Goodphil.]
These made me realize how important Goodphil was to the hip-hop community in Houston.
During our first meeting for the 2014 team in November 2013, four of the original members of SoReal who participated in Goodphil from around 2000 to 2006 joined the meeting after they found out that UH Modern was still running strong. They shared their thoughts about Goodphil and UH FSA, and they shared their thoughts about dancing as a team in order to inspire us for the new year. [On the side note, most of the people in Soundbox's elite team that I wanted to join started dancing because of Goodphil.]
These made me realize how important Goodphil was to the hip-hop community in Houston.