College of Arts, Sciences, and Education defends title as OTG champions

By: Anne Gabrielle V. Mangali | The Paulinian | January 25, 2023 

As the annual SPU Manila University Week celebration came back onsite, so did the Paulinian Dance Troupe’s street dance competition, Out to Groove, where the College of Arts, Sciences, and Education (CASE) dancers were hailed as champions. The iconic dance showdown bannered the theme, “Grooving in the new normal.”

The night event, held on the first day of the University Week, was attended by Paulinians and several guests from outside the campus. It began with an opening performance by the organizers, the Paulinian Dance Troupe (PDT), which was then followed by the presentation of the criteria for judging, as well as the introduction of the judges—Carlo Torrijos, Nikko Madrid, and Jhomari Miano—who come from various dance groups.

The first contestants to perform were students from the Senior High School Department, who chose the group name, “10 Shades of Slay.” They performed a medley of songs by their chosen artist, Jason Derulo. During the post-performance interview, they narrated that they chose Derulo’s music as he is one of the well-known performers of the 2020s.

Following the first performers were the “Nightingales” from the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences (CNAHS) and College of Music and the Performing Arts (CMPA). For the group’s music choice, they went with the discography of P-pop girl group BINI. After their performance, they shared the challenge of the boy members of the group adapting to the feminine-inclined steps of their dance.

​​​​​​​Before heading on to the last two contenders, a special performance from the guest dance group, BacBoyz, hyped the event. They promoted and introduced their group as a group of street dancers hailing from Baclaran, Parañaque City. They also asked for support in their then upcoming international competition in February.

After the special performance, a raffle draw was held, where four winners were picked. Three of them were students of the University, while one was an outsider.

As the competition continued, “Indak Mabaya” from the College of Arts and Sciences and College of Education (CASE) presented a performance using the music of the P-pop boy group, SB19. They then shared the struggles during their preparations, where they highlighted their conflicting schedules as a key challenge in their practices.

The last to perform were the student participants from the College of Business and Management that called their group “Casa Azurillo.” In their sharing, they focused on tackling gender openness and acceptance, through a dance performance with Meghan Trainor’s music. According to them, they wanted to give the LGBTQIA+ community the love and care they deserve.

As the judges tallied the scores, a dance game inspired by a hit TikTok craze was held. Two performances were rendered by PDT. The first was a dance to a Bruno Mars medley, while the second was a final performance that also included the participants of the competition. Certificates of appreciation were given to the judges, after which they also rendered a short dance number.

Finally, the winners were announced: 
-    Champion: Indak Mabaya, College of Arts and Sciences and College of Education
-    1st runner up: Nightingales, College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences and College of Music and the Performing Arts
-    2nd runner up: Casa Azurillo, College of Business and Management
-    3rd runner up: 10 Shades of Slay, Senior High School Deparment

During the short interview, CASE’s representative, Christian Radana, shared that this competition was special for them, especially that it was a back-to-back win. Personally, for Christian, it was also memorable as he first joined the competition in 2019 and now, in his last year in SPU Manila, their group once again won under his leadership.

“As soon as we knew that there will be a comeback of Out to Groove this year, we immediately formed a team to join the competition and started brainstorming for the concept, finalizing our music, and scheduling the practices.” Additionally, he said that they were confident with their choreography and preparations. They put all their attention and maximized every time that they had for practice. They fully committed to compensate for all the delays due to conflict in schedules. But despite all of this, they still did not underestimate their competitors.