In this interview, the performer recounts her evolution from a teenage manager of a nascent Filipino girl group to a seasoned dancer, choreographer, and movement coach. She describes early challenges in a market with few girl bands, handling choreography, makeup, and stage performance while also being part of a boy band. Her breakthrough came when she joined the competitive dance crew Philippine All-Stars, traveling worldwide, winning multiple gold titles, and collaborating with international artists, a period that spanned roughly 13 years. Later, extensive travel as a performer and coach left her feeling ungrounded; despite a glamorous lifestyle, she realized she was meeting the wrong people and lacked a solid personal foundation. This led to an identity crisis, a reflective “spiral” where she grappled with who she was versus who she wanted to become.
Chapters
She was my, I would say, like, manager, right?
Because I was in a singing group at that time that, you know, so not only I was in a boy band, I also managed a girl group, a girl band. We have very few girl groups in the Philippines now. They're very popular now, but back in the day there weren't a lot.
There were a lot.
It was hard.
And your goal was to make us like the first Pussycat Dolls.
There was no Pussycat Dolls then.
Yeah, but we were killing it. Yeah, we were the stress relief.
Wow.
We were these girls who were just like Sam Poi.
Sam Poi.
You have footages of this, right?
Yes. Yes.
Okay, we'll show them. I think you did everything from the video, choreography. Choreography. We also had a choreographer.
Makeup.
Makeup. So that's where I learned. So in that chapter, I started as a performer. That opened the doors for me to see how I perform on stage, the singing, dancing. So that's where the performance, I think, came in. And that's when I started, like— well, at that time, I still didn't really understand what I was doing. But I think from that journey, having that as an experience and then going into a, I would say, a competitive dance group, called the Philippine All-Stars. We started competing all over the world and we won gold titles internationally. That also opened— yes, that also gave me the experience and that also opened doors for me to work with international artists. Nice. And that what happened there was I ended up having the confidence to work with other women who were like me, who wanted to just be on stage. So I was doing that for almost like 13, 13 years. I was taking professional— like as a dancer professionally and then as a movement coach.
Okay.
And then the other transition of my life happened. Another chapter came into my life where I was traveling so much as a performer, as a teacher, as a dance coach, and competing, I felt like I had no foundation in my life. I'm just traveling everywhere. I was meeting all these different people. It was fun. It was glamorous. But then I was meeting the wrong people. I was making money but not making money. I was just living so glamorously.
Living like a true artist.
I go home. I kind of went on a spiral. Spiral because I didn't feel like I have a foundation because I was always traveling.
Rose, you were always on the move, you forgot to find who you were, but you know, at the time—
I think so. I think so. I think at that time I thought I knew who I was, but then, you know, I think, you know, as time changes, you change as well. Yeah, priorities change, people change, everything just changed. And then sometimes you go into this in-between, napan. It's like you want to embrace that past, but you also want to let go, but you still don't know who's the next you. So it's kind of like an in-between.
