Maria Elena talks with the famous Filipino dancer Pinky Puno about her many passions

When Michaela “Pinky” Puno was seven, her parents enrolled her in the ballet class of  Joji Felix Velarde and the late Totoy Oteyza. Little did they know that this would kick start a life-long  passion – uninterrupted by neither marriage nor motherhood.

Pinky’s passion for ballet was a sig­nificant factor in her formative years. She was so good at it that she would choreograph dance routines for their
school programs in Maryknoll Col­lege. At 16, during her senior year, the very strict nuns asked her to teach ballet in their school, this at a time when ballet was banned in all other schools. She enjoyed teaching so much that when she got married, her father, the late architect Felipe Mendoza, built her a ballet studio in New Manila. She taught ballet from1966 until 1989. Not even her seven pregnancies could derail her pas­sion for dance.

After she had moved to the USA in 1987, she con­tinued to get involved in dance. The schools where her children studied needed a choreographer/di­rector for their Spring Musicals and Pinky was the best person to fill the role.

“I believe in using and sharing the talent God gives you and I knew that God gave me the talent to teach. So I taught hundreds of American students to sing, dance and act.”

She retired from teaching at her children’s schools, (the Oakcrest, the all girls school and the all boys school, Avalon School) when all her seven children graduated from their respective schools.

Today, with her sights set on ballroom dancing, which is her new passion, Pinky shares with us her involvement and vision for ballroom dancing in the Philippines.

Why did you decide to concentrate on ballroom dancing?

In the year 2000, I was watching a ball room com­petition on TV in the USA and I was so enthralled by it. I had studied other dance forms previously, but I thought it was totally fascinating to watch the women swirling and twirling in their gorgeous gowns and in such sync with the movement of the gentleman. I thought to myself: what a beautiful way of dancing, of two people moving as one! I was hooked.

What is  special about the discipline of the ballroom dances?

When you learn to waltz, to fox trot, to tango, to do the quick step, you learn elegance and grace, expansive movements, and beautiful figures and shapes. There is a spirit and an emotion that comes from dancing to such exquisite music. When you do the cha cha, the rumba, the samba, the jive, you learn to be rhythmic, powerful, sensual and ro­mantic without being suggestive or offensive.

Ballroom dancing is a “lead and follow” discipline, so it teaches you to trust your partner completely. You learn about body and hand connections. You learn to “tell a story” with your movements. There is a joy about dancing together that a solitary phys­ical activity does not have.

Participating in a ballroom competition is a marvelous experience: the lights, the colors, the gorgeous costumes, the beaming smiles. You feel beautiful as you shine across the dance floor, lost in the ecstasy of rumba music, or the sweeping strings of waltz music.

How do you compare life to dance?

There is an old country song entitled “Life is a dance” and the lyrics go: “Life is a dance, you learn as you go; sometimes you lead; sometimes, you follow. Don’t worry about what you don’t know, life is a dance, you learn as you go.”

When you first start to learn to dance, you are treading into the un­known. You learn how to use every part of your body – do you turn your feet out, do you point your toes, do you straighten your knees? When do you flex, when do you compress? How do you control those abdominal muscles? How do I put my arms up without lifting my shoulders? How do I position my fingers? Where do I put my chin? What are my eyes saying? How do I angle my head? So many things you don’t know. A hundred things for each part of your body to learn, hundreds of hours of practice to perfect hundreds of movements. Many times, you can’t get the step. Many times you stumble, you injure yourself, you get down on yourself. You sweat, you exhaust yourself. Sometimes you get it. Other days your body can’t take it. But you push yourself because you know that with time, patience, determination, you will get it.

And so it is with life. When you enter the world, you are treading into the unknown. Each year and each phase of your life is like constantly learn­ing new steps but this time, you are learning lessons and values that affect your life. You are learning virtues of faith, hope, love, courage, fortitude, justice, temperance and piety, humility…countless things that need to be practiced, much like dance steps so that they can be reinforced in your life. Hundreds of things your mind and your heart have to learn, hundreds of hours to practice them.

Many times, you also fail in your endeavors but you men­tally get up and just like a dancer who pushes himself, you know that with time, patience, and determination, you learn to deal with disappointments, regrets, anxieties, failures. Be­cause “life is a dance, you learn as you go…”

What do you think makes a good dancer?

Many things contribute to make a good dancer. All good dancers have great technique, flexibility, agility, strength, coordination, grace, and rhythm. They must be in superb condition and have excellent stamina. They must have an emotional energy to tell the “story” of the dance to the audi­ence and make everything look effortless.

What kind of teacher is Slava?

He does not belong to the era of torments and reprimands. In fact he understands my limitations but works me to my outmost capacity. The age gap between us (I am much older) can’t be used as an excuse. One thing, he is very strict about is giving 100% effort at every practice including emoting, us­ing facial expression, to tell the story of the dance. But he is very encouraging and is a calming factor in a competition.

Who are your favorite female and male dancers?

During my ballet days, I loved watching the principal danc­ers of the American Ballet Theater and the Kirov Ballet. Now that I am into ballroom dancing, I am so mesmerized by the Latin Duo of Yulia Zagoruychenko and Riccardo Cocci and the American Standard couple Katusha Demidova and Aru­nas Bizokas. I watched them often in US competitions which is probably why I am drawn to them.

What is your favorite dance?

In Latin, it is rumba and jive. But I also love American Smooth because I am able to use my ballet training with all the open work. In American Smooth, I love the waltz and the tango.

What is the best advice you can give young women out there who would like to pursue a dancing career?

First, make sure you have expert instructions from a quali­fied teacher so you can hone your skills properly as a dancer. Then work on your technique, and keep practicing, practic­ing, practicing. Realize too that except for a very few, a dance career will not turn you into a millionaire. It will be your love for dance that will make you feel like a million bucks.

What inspired you to do the first StarBall?

The first time I went to the dance festival in Blackpool, Eng­land, in 2005, I was so inspired seeing hundreds of fabulous ballroom dancers from all over the world. Here were the top competitors in front of my eyes. I kept thinking – I wish the Filipinos could get a glimpse of even a portion of the quality of dancers I was seeing. So when I was asked by Jojo Carino and the Council of the United Professionals to organize a ballroom competition in Manila, I agreed right away.

What I am hoping for is to be able to sustain sponsors and support so we can continue to hold the Philippine StarBall every year which will truly place us on the map of the ball­room dancing world.

The Second Philippine StarBall

Michaela “Pinky” Puno worked hard  for  the 2nd Philippine StarBall  to happen.   She was able to get the same sponsors of  the 1st StarBall, which were  the Department of Tourism, and the First Gentleman’s Foundation.  Needless to say, the event held at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel on February 15th of this year, was a huge success. Competitors and adjudicators from 27 diferent countries arrived to grace the 2nd Philippine StarBall. Master of Ceremonies was Gary McDonald, a World Professional Ten Dance Champion and Master of Ceremonies for all United States Professional Championships. He was Jennifer Lopez’s dance partner in Shall We Dance, in the fashback  scene of  the Blackpool  competition  in England. Danish Dance Champion Charlotte Jorgensen, who trained Richard Gere in the same movie, Shall We Dance, was the emcee for the TV show together with TV star Edu Manzano.  The event was packed with ball room afcionados not only from the Philippines but from other countries in Asia as well.

Ms. Pinky Puno and her Russian dance partner and teacher, Slava Sergiev, opened the event with Adagio, an American Smooth slow fox trot number. Her supportive husband, Ronnie Puno, Secretary of the Department of Interiors and Local Government, and the other members of the Puno and Mendoza clan who came to support her project looked on with pride. The evening ended on a high note. Some of the dance competitors were invited to spend a few days at El Nido, a beach resort in Palawan. Others stayed in Manila to enjoy the tours that DOT had prepared for them.

The perfectionist that she is, Pinky Puno monitored all the details to ensure that each and every foreign dancer was taken care of. Her sisters Margie and Sally flew in from the States and a third sister from Singapore, Nini Mitchell, two weeks before the competition to help her deal with the foreign guests and make sure that everything was the way Pinky always wants things to be.

One of the Adjudicators who flew all the way from the USA was overheard saying “Only Pinky Puno can pull off an event as big as this. We are so im­pressed by the way all of us are treated so royally, starting from our arrival at the airport, to our hotel check-in, the welcome dinner for us, the success of the event itself. We are looking forward to the third Philippine StarBall, which is now an internationally recognized major dance competition.”

A successful partnership, a doting moth­er, an excellent equestrienne

Dance may be her passion, but in Pinky Puno’s life, her husband and her children take priority over everything else. Last year, Pinky and her hus­band Ronnie, celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. There have been many milestones in her life, but this one was her definitive aha moment. “It was like a triumph for me. We got married very young – I was 19, he was 20. Everyone thought it would not last. We had many wonderful times, but also many trying times. So having lasted through the years gave me the biggest sense of achievement.”

Ronnie Puno’s successful political career spans several decades. Because of the political intrigues that surround a politician’s life, Ronnie and Pinky de%