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[av_heading heading=’ MY LIFE AS ART ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY PETER SOLIS NERY
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The boyband and Peter Solis Nery
212i is a teen pop boyband from Santa Barbara, Iloilo.
Iâm not a boyband kind of person.
I sang some Boyzone tunes in this lifetime, but I swear I do not know much about them. Except perhaps that Justin Timberlake was in The All-new Mickey Mouse Club.
Wait, Justin is from N Sync! Boyzone is from Ireland, or something.
The Beatles was a boyband. I sing their songs, but Iâm not really into them.
Sometime around mid-2000, I managed an all-boy dance group called the Newsies Maneuvers Dancers from Dumangas, Iloilo.
When I was managing the Newsies, I insisted that they just be called The Newsies, after the Disney musical film, which has also become now a Broadway musical sensation.
At worse, I thought they should be called the Newsies Maneuvers.
Newsies Maneuvers Dancers is just an overkill, what with all the sâs in the name.
Even if NMD is a cute acronym, itâs not to my taste
I think âmaneuvers dancersâ is also tautological, pretty repetitive.
But I came in late in the game. Theyâve named themselves before they were discovered by the great Peter Solis Nery.
I was The Newsiesâ manager until about 2003, when I finally started to get very busy with Nursing school that ultimately led me to have a life in America.
The Newsies met for their 28th year grand reunion in Dumangas in April and May this year. They have become an institution of seven or eight generation of dancers, that boasts of over 30 members.
I missed the reunion, but I am ever so proud of my boys. Well, I call them my boys because they always call me âManagerâ or Tito Petes, or To Pete.
The ones who call me Tita Petes have a special crush on me, and think Iâm a girl. (They wish!) Bwahaha.
My trademark, or signature effect, on The Newsies as an all-boy dance group is their inexpensive but great-looking dance costumes, and truly winning stage presence and showmanship.
How else can it be? Iâm a compleat theatre person, onstage and backstage. Iâm an actor, dancer, choreographer, director, costume designer, among many other things.
But my involvement with the boys was more than just show business. I taught them some sense of spirituality like teaching them to actually pray, more than just say prayers.
Now, Iâd like to think that Dumangasanons are among the cleanest people in the world. But when I managed The Newsies. I made them shining, shimmering, splendid. Spic and span. Tidy, neat, and looking so washed and cleaned.
For example, I banned perfumed and branded deodorants for a while, and insisted on the lowly alum powder (a.k.a. tawas) to control the heavy sweating especially during the mindboggling performances and dance showdowns.
Because my boys donât sweat like factory workers or stevedores when they do their synchronized and elaborate break dance moves, they always appear so deliciously good on stage and the dancefloor.
Back then, I would often take the boys to the beach after an afternoon of dance rehearsals, advocating sea salt water to rinse off the sweat, stress, and exhaustion.
Then, when night comes, I would talk to them individually, and as a group, about home and parent issues, girlfriend problems, school and schedules, growing up troubles, and other concerns including adolescent sex , and, Iâm not kidding you, teenage circumcision!
I like being big brother to my boys. I was already in my thirties then, but those teenagers loved me as one of them.
I got it both ways. They respect me because I was the voice of reason and maturity, but they also enjoyed me because I was an eternal child, and I understood their often misunderstood adolescence.
To my boys, I am Peter Pan; and also The Pied Piper.
Just because I live in the US, I would never have heard of the teenage pop boyband 212i if Alfie Zulueta Gonzaga of AZG Ensembles wasnât flooding me with posts and newsfeeds about the group.
So, I finally watched and listened to their videos. I saw talent. I saw great promise.
And knowing me as a crusader and talent advocate, I decided I should just say and do something about it.
I told Alfie that I really appreciate what he was doing organizing and managing the talented young boys of his town.
I mean, itâs very much in line with the thrust of The Peter Solis Nery Foundation for Hiligaynon Literature and the Arts, Inc. in discovering new talents, and promoting Ilonggo artistry.
So I told my Facebook friend, âWhile the Foundation does not currently have funding for the performing arts like the thing 212i is doing, the great Peter Solis Nery can perhaps share his talent and expertise in performing arts, and image building.â
Alfie was ecstatic. So we have arranged that on August 21, on the first Monday I am in the country for my annual pilgrimage, I will spend the day with the boys of 212i in their hometown of Santa Barbara.
I will give them a psycho-spiritual integration workshop (always a good stuff for teambuilding, and teenage development), a showbiz âfinishing schoolâ course (with beauty school plus), and if their young minds can take it, social responsibility and art/artist values.
Right now, thatâs my plan. But because I am adaptable, and flexible, it can change depending on how I assess the boys on our first five minutes.
As a mentor and life coach, I normally meet people where they are, rather than just push my own agenda.
In matters show business, I do not believe in being the first, or being with the artist/s for the longest time. For me, what matters most is how you influence people. The magnitude of impact, and its aftershocks.
A lot of people think of me as a flash of lightning, or even a lighted match, in their lives.
They meet me for a brief moment, and their lives are changed forever because they have never met anyone like me. In talent, in passion and excitement, in style and conviction.
Honestly, I rather like that! (500tinaga@gmail.com/PN)
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