Part of this year’s KANYAW: Kanta At Sayaw Competition filled the stage with colorful costumes and bright and lively performances, entailing the enthusiasm of the 21st Charter Celebration. But what truly shows the spirit of such is not always what meets the eye. Rather, the moments the crowd doesn’t witness behind the closed curtains.

For this year’s 21st Charter Anniversary Celebration, several schools and campuses of Eastern Visayas State University (EVSU) gathered to compete in this year’s competition, with faculty members and staff as the competitors for this year’s event commencing at Miguel Romualdez Memorial Auditorium, Wednesday, August 27.

Several participants from Eastern Visayas State University (EVSU) – Main Campus rose to victory with the School of Architecture and Allied Discipline earning third place and the School of Education in second place. Ormoc Campus emerged as champions as they took the first place for this year’s KANYAW.

What made it more amazing was they were also chosen as the champions from last year’s competition, making it a remarkable record for their campus to take pride in. However, behind every great performance are greater challenges that they had to pull through not just as individual performers but as a team being a proud representative of their campus.

For Mr. Roxy Pardejo, the Culture and Arts Coordinator of the Ormoc Campus, time was the challenging part of their endeavours as many of their faculty staff had to juggle from being a teacher for their students while some are always on the go travelling for their own seminars. Financial constraints was also another challenge they had to counter with when they were unable to obtain the right costumes for their own performance.

With limited time and resources, they were still dedicated to rise and shine in their own way on the stage. For them, every performance holds not just colorful costumes and props but the very passion of their fervid spirits. Each of the dancers chosen for their campus held so much amazing skill and talents in fire dancing, which they utilized well in the flow for their choreography while using props from their last Piña Festival. The music also created a huge difference as they also knew the brilliant composer Icon Velez, who is a former alumni of Eastern Visayas State University (EVSU). They didn’t have much, but it didn’t mean they had nothing on their hands.

“I told them [the dancers] to just do our performance and then let’s see what happens,” said Mr. Roxy Bandejo.

Despite the burden of heavy schedules and work, they still came together and united as a team, and because of their trust in each other, as they also finalized their routine yesterday with only one hour left of rehearsal, it led to their victory as being the champions again this year.

“We meet halfway, and it’s significant because we defended the title from last year, so we’re happy and proud to represent our campus,” Mr. Bandejo happily expressed.

It was a collective memory of dedication through challenging times, filling their hearts with ambition to rise above the obstacles. It was their moment as well to not just remember how to give a performance for a lifetime, but to realize that what lasts longer than the trophy is the growth and resilience they gained, forever carrying with them a story of perseverance and fervent spirits.

Article by Princess Adona