TEAM Dance Studio offers dance classes year round, with a Summer Dance Workshop in April and May, and a recital for its students in a concert format to end the year. Theatrical Ensemble and Artistic Movement, known more popularly by its acronym TEAM, is the performing arm of TEAM Dance Studio and its choreographic lab headed by Eli Jacinto. Established in 1981, Jacinto designed and applied a train
ing program for Filipino dancers, consolidating classical ballet, modern jazz and contemporary forms to produce dancers with strength and versatility. The syllabus aims to train TEAM students in the basic rudiments of classical ballet while targeting strength, grace, agility and sense of performance. The syllabus is authored by Eli Jacinto and Joelle Jacinto. Aside from classical ballet, TEAM Dance Studio also offers Modern Dance technique, as developed by Joelle Jacinto, and Jazz classes, as developed by Eli Jacinto. Father and daughter have an ongoing open dialogue on technique and pedagogy, which serves to continuously improve the syllabus – and the training of the TEAM student. Through the years, TEAM Dance Studio has staged its annual school recital, presenting full length ballets of top quality despite the participation of its students of all ages. TEAM has also performed in various independently produced shows, such as TEAM’s summer dinner theatre performances at the Manila Polo Club in the early ‘80s, and the Dance and Arts Festival in 1985 and 1986, at the Gallery in Alabang. Jacinto invited the four major ballet companies of that time to perform with TEAM’s dancers and students, as well as artists of other disciplines, such as members of the famous Saturday Group, headed by National Artist Cesar Legaspi, to do sketches of the dancers. In these concerts and recitals, Jacinto’s creative energy thrived, producing important works that were hailed by critics Basilio Esteban Villaruz and National Artist Leonor Orosa Goquingco. In 1991, Eli Jacinto was awarded a venue grant by the CCP and produced Dating Gawi, Bagong Anyo, which showcased several acclaimed works such as Manton at Abaniko, Manukan, and Sa Panimula ng Buhay, a lengthy work inspired by Filipino origin myths. In 1992, the Harid Conservatory of Florida awarded full dance scholarships to TEAM students, Quincy and Lucas Jacinto, and TEAM put up a benefit concert featuring the Stars of Philippine Ballet, including Nonoy Froilan and Lisa Macuja. In 1997, Eli Jacinto was invited to choreograph for Philippine Ballet Theater’s Choreographers Showcase, bringing along his dancers to perform in his Magdaragat. In 1998, TEAM was a featured group in the Philippine International Dance Festival, presenting Jacinto’s Bathala. TEAM has regularly participated in Ballet and Dance festivals hosted by the Cultural Center of the Philippines since the festivals began in 1998. At the last Balletfest, also the culminating concert for the 2004 Philippine Folk Dance Conference, TEAM impressed folk dance experts and the rest of the dance world with the world premiere of Jacinto’s Giri. In 2005, TEAM has represented the Philippines at the first China-ASEAN Dance Development Seminar in Nanning, China. Eli Jacinto regularly engages in observation and teaching tours of different Orange County and Irvine-based schools in California, USA to update his pedagogical knowledge and to see what new methods in both teaching and choreography are being used internationally. TEAM continues to mount full length ballets such as Swan Lake, the Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, Coppelia, Cinderella and the Nutcracker, as well as concerts featuring a wide range of styles in Jacinto’s contemporary works and excerpts from the world’s most beloved classical ballets. For over 30 years, TEAM has produced some of the best dancers, dance pieces and artists in the Philippines and continues to do so for the years to come.
