We got 2nd place in our Arnis PE Culmination!
We totally weren't expecting to snag second place! Seriously, we were ecstatic. Going into it, with all those other amazing teams, we figured we'd just be happy to participate.
So, you're probably curious how we pulled off second place, right? Here's what happened:
Are you familiar with the Pambansang Arnis stick? Well, college life isn't complete without a PE class, especially one on Arnis.
During our first semester of sophomore year at CTU Main Campus, we had PE. We assumed it would be badminton, like in other programs. But our teacher surprised us – it was Arnis! I was totally expecting badminton, but Arnis? Sweet surprise! I knew I'd dig it, but it was even better than I thought. It was a great opportunity to learn about the importance of Arnis and its basic attack styles. Yeah, I wasn't wrong – it totally became my favorite class! Tuesdays (2-4 PM PE – the last class, bleh!) were actually something to look forward to, even though it was long. We couldn't slack off, grades were on the line!
And huge thanks to our prof – they were awesome, and the whole thing was surprisingly easy to learn.
Weeks later, our professor announced a competition against other programs. We were excited to use the techniques we learned and create our own steps. It was a dance competition, each team with a unique theme, making it impossible to have identical performances. Originality was rewarded.
Our professor asked us to design our sticks. So, none of us had the same stick design as our classmates. It made the performance visually appealing, and our professor was right.
This was my stick design. I don't know if it's beautiful, but the judging wasn't based on the stick design, but on the dance performance and its relation to the given theme.
This was our first practice. We were wiped! It was the last class of the day, and those steps were killer. Our choreographer (a classmate, bless their heart) was pushing us hard – it was a competition, and our grades were riding on it.
This was our second day of practice, too! We were getting the hang of the steps, but we needed more energy in our performance. But we persevered because our grades were at stake.
After long practice days, we were starving, so we got burgers to fill our stomachs before returning to practice.
We practiced all week, mastering the movements and tempo of the music. It was rough. We're used to Arnis without all the fancy footwork, so this was a whole new ballgame – our first time dancing with the sticks! Honestly, the redonda and sinawali steps were brutal. My grip was all wrong, and those sticks felt way heavier than they actually were! But after tons of practice, we finally got the timing down.
This photo was our last practice, by the way. We gave it everything we had – our leader really wanted us to shine. It wasn't easy; the dance needed rhythm and balance, but we pulled it off after a bunch of practice sessions.
Practice ran super late because our leader wanted us to have those steps, balance, and stick work memorized.
When the competition came, we were nervous as heck. We knew there were some seriously good teams out there.
This was our first costume for the initial steps.
We changed costumes for the following steps until the end of the dance. Our theme was tribal, hence the costume style.
All that crazy practice, even getting home late at night, totally paid off! Second place! We're so stoked; all that hard work was worth it. Out of 21 teams in the PE contest, we were Top 2! Seriously, nothing's impossible. We never thought we'd get second – those other teams were amazing – but we're so happy and proud of ourselves.
