First of two parts
On any given day, Marielle Graciella Benitez-Javellana straddles the worlds of the two loves of her life — folk dance and football.
She is the executive director of Bayanihan, the National Folk Dance Company, and at the same time the coach of the Philippine Youth National Football team.
It would seem odd to many that a woman who is both graceful and athletic could have two passions, perceived as completely different from each other.
As it turned out in her experience, she has not only been able to balance her time for both, but she has also taken skills, knowledge and experience from one and applied it to the other. The phrase about everything being connected could not be more real than in Marielle’s life and that includes her being a wife to a football player and coach, Dave Javellana, and a mother to a three-year-old son, Lucho, who, at an early age, has already participated in a folk dance workshop.
When the Social Set section of the Daily Tribune recently visited Marielle at the Bayanihan Walk-Through Museum at the Philippine Women’s University, she excitedly invited us to the forthcoming show of the Bayanihan Folk Dance Company.
The show, “’Continuum: A Dance Spectrum through the Years,’ is our annual season production where Bayanihan mounts the classics and its new research works in the show,” she explained.
“In this year’s show, we will present our new works and new choreographies. We will also restage the timeless classics like singkil, tinikling and pandanggo, and at the same time, we will present what’s new with Bayanihan, like the dances that we recently learned and researched in Negros Occidental.
“So, now, we celebrate 67 years of Bayanihan. And taking over from my late mom, we’ve really wanted to push what Bayanihan has been known for — being in the forefront, the pioneer in traditional folk dance.”
Filling mom’s huge shoes
“Mom” is the late Suzy Moya Benitez, who was Bayanihan executive director for decades, a position that was first given to her by the company’s pioneers and stalwarts, Philippine Women’s University president Helena Z. Benitez and National Artists Lucrecia “King” Kasilag and Lucrecia “Urts” Urtula.
With her demise a few months ago leading to a void in the management of Bayanihan, an institution that Suzy had run with effective and efficient management practices, Marielle had been unanimously voted to the Bayanihan Board of Trustees and then appointed as executive editor.
“My mom passed away 28 March last year,” Marielle related. “By April the board was talking about who was to take over because there were bookings and shows already. Mom had already got things fixed for performances, festivals and trips abroad.
“But I was in denial when they asked me if I was interested. I just knew it was difficult to fill the huge shoes she left behind. Because even when my mom and Tita Helen were alive, everyone was, ‘Sino ang susunod? (Who’s going to be the next?).’
“My mom was developing a core group, pretty much the seniors running the Bayanihan. When we had workshops or planned dance modules, they were the ones coaching us.
“But when she passed, I think everyone thought that I would be the best to take over. But I told them I never thought of replacing her because there were alumni who knew more of the nitty-gritty of Bayanihan. They said that I was young and would have the energy and stamina, and that I knew the Bayanihan having been dancing for years. And that I had been under her and with her in her travels. I was even attending her lectures.
“But then, after the denial, I realized it would be an honor to be in my mom’s position and to be able to steer where the national treasure that is the Bayanihan would go in the coming years,” she said.
In love with football
It had been quite a journey for Marielle, who, all her life, was engaged in sports.
To start with, it was a family thing.
“The encouragement to be an athlete came from both my dad and mom. They would encourage my brothers and me. They encouraged us to play outdoors. We would be running in the park. We would drop everything to have weekend games. Or we would all go and watch basketball games of Marco. Even when I was young and Marco was the one with the team, parang I always said, ‘I also want to have a team.’ Kasi I was doing tennis, gymnastics and martial arts, which were focused on the individual athlete, just myself.
In PAREF Woodrose, where she took her elementary and high school studies, she became involved in organized sports. “We sort of had a football club when I was in high school. But, growing up, I had always been athletic. My siblings and I were always encouraged to be in sports. While my older brother was in basketball, I tried tennis, gymnastics and martial arts. When football opened up in Woodrose, I wanted to join. It was always just an excuse to hang out more with my friends because it was an after-school activity. We would train on weekends. We always enjoyed being together as a barkada playing football. In my sophomore year, I was asked to join the Gothia Cup in Europe. Twice, I went to Sweden, Finland and Denmark.
“It was all just something fun. Then, the skills followed and that qualified me to do football in college at De La Salle University. It was only then that I realized how serious football was in the UAAP. I eventually played for the UAAP under coach Hans Smith. We would have training at 5 in the morning and do 10-kilometer road runs. I really fell in love with the sport. It helped that my teammates were enjoyable to be with. Many became my closest friends through the years.
“After my first year, I was asked to play for the national team. I started off as a defender and then I became a central mid-fielder.”
It had been quite a football journey for this young woman but what she didn’t know was another activity would take so much of her time from her first love.
More of a “bugoy” athlete
Dance beckoned early on, given that she belonged to the Benitez family that spawned the Bayanihan, and that her mom was a dancer herself but dancing wasn’t anything that the young Marielle gave much thought.
Marielle recounted, “Obviously, I grew up knowing about Bayanihan. The cousins, our generation, would always have to watch the shows with Tita Helen there. More so when my mom became the executive director in 1997. That was when she would take us to the shows. We would know that she would travel abroad with the group. And so, I saw them a lot. My dad, my brother and I followed to watch them in Florida. I knew about the Bayanihan, and I was mesmerized watching them and appreciating the beauty and the grace and the costumes. But I never thought of being a part of it. To me, it was baduy. I saw myself more as an athlete, very rugged. Yung bugoy type. If I danced at all, it was in high school for the class demonstrations on the field. And these were mostly hip-hop and modern dance.”
To be continued