CANDICE ADEA'S SWAN SONG THAT WILL NOT DIE

The year 2005 was the start of a massive exodus of Filipino talents from local theater, dance, music and other related arts as Hong Kong Disneyland first opened its gates.

- TATS REJANTE MANAHAN

The year 2005 was the start of a massive exodus of Filipino talents from local theater, dance, music and other related arts as Hong Kong Disneyland first opened its gates. Suddenly, Filipino talents—who would shine brightly, as expected, in the Hong Kong showcase, given our natural performance savvy that only gets better with extensive training—had gone abroad, leaving a vast, arid desert among local live performance companies. The attraction of performing in HK Disneyland, with its high salaries, once again meant losing our Filipino identity to a cartoon mouse.

Performance fees for local talents have, ironically, been put on the back burner despite the well-honed performance training these artists undergo. One reason is that sponsors, out to promote their corned beef or toothpaste, prefer quick-fix investments by hiring pretty faces with nothing much to offer except their smiles while holding the product. It goes without saying that the arts then suffer, especially among professional dancers whose chosen field, for some reason, is the hardest to push of all the performing arts.

Candice Adea was one of those dancers who decided to stick it out in the ballet world, notwithstanding the low pay. As a new member of Ballet Philippines, signing up just two years before the Disneyland diaspora, she was a fresh graduate of the Philippine High School for the Arts, majoring in ballet. She kept on dancing while finishing her studies at the College of St. Benilde, earning her bachelor's degree in performing arts, majoring in dance in 2008. In 2010, she was promoted to principal dancer, firing up her spirit to join international dance competitions, winning herself a string of awards.