Bacolod Masskara dance group wows New York

Darlene May P. Casiano, Eden De La Cruz

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

For the second time, the Bacolod Masskara New York Edition dance group is hailed champion of the Philippine Independence Day parade in New York City

BACOLOD PRIDE. Bacolod Masskara New York Edition dance group outshines other groups at the Philippine Independence Day Parade held on June 2 in New York City. All photos courtesy of Msb BTrn

MANILA, Philippines – Bacolod Masskara New York Edition, a dance group composed of Bacolodnons, outshone other groups at the Philippine Independence Day parade held in New York City last June 2.

The group was once again hailed champion of the parade, repeating their victory last year.

On the day itself, immediate social media posts on the performance generated “oohs” and “aahs” among Bacolodnons who saw their friends dance in the streets of New York City to the familiar beat of masskara music.  

Such an event in the “City that Never Sleeps” is truly a boon for international tourism for Bacolod City and the country. The Philippine Department of Tourism’s efforts to mount a similar effort would require a cadre of media experts and financial resources that could easily cost the government a good sum.

Watch a video of the parade here:

Road to victory

I got in touch with Eden De la Cruz-Oyco, a Bacolodnon and New Jersey resident, to find out more about Bacolod Masskara NY Edition and the people who made it happen.

This is how Eden relates it:  

“It all started with Maria Imelda Pipet Genovea Gargarita who mused while watching the Philippine Independence Day parade last June 2011 to  create a group to represent Bacolod City. She shared this musing with her personal circle of friends during a Christmas party in December 2011.

“Pipet opened up to our nursing classmates of Batch ’88 asking if we are willing to join. About 16 of us were present. She was elated when we all decided to join. We invited our friends and friends of friends who were from Bacolod. We linked up with Negrense professionals like engineers,  Palarong Pambansa runners, accountants, doctors, and many more. Of course, our own families were all there to swell our ranks.

“This year, our dancers doubled. We had our costumes done in Bacolod. Even our masks were made back home by our very own Jojo Vito Jr of masskara fame. All expenses came from our own pockets including the shipping of our costumes. Our masks had to come in at various times, ‘pugtak pugtak,’ whenever somebody was willing to bring some of our costumes.  

RAINBOW SPECTRUM. The Bacolod Masskara NY Edition dance group wear their colorful costumes and masks proudly

“We relied on our personal network to bring in our paraphernalia. To prepare, we practice through social sites (thanks to YouTube!) and whenever there’s a party, we would practice too. We were few in number during practice due to our busy schedules. We only had one general practice a day before the big event itself. When the parade happened, we did it for fun. It was very easy to gather people to be dancers. We asked the dancers from last year, and some of them asked their friends and family to join too.   

“Pipet Gargarita herself was the one who taught us the steps. We didn’t work with the Philippine Embassy since it was something we wanted to do on our own. We were also able to get other Filipinos who weren’t Bacolodons to participate, and they were just as happy to join us.  

“These days, more and more tourists from Luzon join the Masskara festivities.

“While dancing in the streets of New York, we wanted to concentrate on having fun, the competition wasn’t much on our mind. We were also thinking of our kids, we wanted to show them that they should be proud of their roots and origin. We are happy with our group because they really gave their dedication and full cooperation.

“When we won last year, we were challenged by the Philippine Consul General during the Gala Night. So this year, we took the challenge, our group grew in number and we didn’t disappoint him. This year, we emerged victorious again.” – Rappler.com

 

Add a comment

Sort by

There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.

Summarize this article with AI

How does this make you feel?

Loading
Download the Rappler App!