Ballet Philippines Collaborates with Independent Artist Eisa Jocson in “Your Highness”

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Eisa Jocson’s newest creation, “Your Highness” will have its world premiere on July 27 (8pm) and 28 (3pm, 8pm) at the CCP Little Theater, and will be performed at several major European performing arts festivals from August to September 2017. The work is a production by Ballet Philippines and Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt am Main (Germany), in co-production with Internationales Sommerfestival Kampnagel (Germany), Zürcher Theater Spektakel (Switzerland), La Bâtie – Festival de Genève (Switzerland).

Eisa Jocson is an internationally renowned artist creating and touring works in Asia, Europe, America and Australia. Educated as a visual artist and trained as a ballet dancer, she won her first pole-dancing competition in Manila in 2010 and began her international dance career with public interventions like “pole-tagging” here and abroad. Her 3 solos, “Death of the Pole Dancer” (2011), “Macho Dancer” (2013) and “Host” (2015) toured extensively in major festivals abroad. Under the HAPPYLAND (2017) series, her new creations, “Princess” a duet with Filipino performance artist Russ Ligtas and “Your Highness” are a continuation of her investigation into Filipino labour, performance of happiness and production of fantasy within the happiness empire. “Your Highness” is her first ensemble creation, and is the first of all her works to be premiered and produced in the Philippines.

In “Your Highness”, the classically trained dancers masterfully alternate between stylized Disney gestures and standards of ballet classics like Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake – and explore the fine line between portrayals of happiness through ballet history and princess archetypes in a globalized entertainment industry.

The massive employment of Filipino performers by Hong Kong Disneyland has led to a dire brain drain, with its impact strongly felt in Ballet Philippines, which has lost half of its top dancers within the last decade. Against this backdrop, choreographer Eisa Jocson has now created a dance piece with five young dancers of the Ballet Philippines.

“As an independent Filipina choreographer it is a unique and inspiring adventure to collaborate with Ballet Philippines in creating this new ensemble work,” shares Jocson. “It is exciting to see the dancers push their capacities into unknown terrain with incredible virtuosity. And I am looking forward to share this performance born out of an intense and meticulous process of exploring the dancer's and ballet's manifold bodies and voices.”

“Your Highness” international artistic team is led by Eisa Jocson (choreographer), Gia Gequinto, Stephanie Cabral, Maila Habagat, Alexis Piel, and Carlo Padoga (Ballet Philippines dancers), Arco Renz & Anna Wagner (dramaturgs), Teresa Barrozo (music & sound design), Florian Bach (lighting design), and Dennis Maristany (costume design).

Connect to Ballet Philippines online through the following social media networks:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/balletphilippines
Twitter: @balletph
Instagram: @balletphilippines
YouTube: balletph


For tickets, call Ballet Philippines at (+632) 551-1003, the CCP Box Office at (+632) 832-3704, or Ticketworld at (+632) 891-9999.

DOE To Restore Energy Services After Visayas Earthquake

Wazzup Pilipinas!

At around 4:00 p.m. on 6 July 2017, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake occurred in Jaro, Leyte causing power interruptions in Leyte, Samar, and Bohol Islands. Panay, Negros, Cebu and the other areas in the Visayas.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has been closely coordinating with the members of the energy family to assess the extent of the damage.

Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi advised industry players to ensure the safe delivery of energy services to consumers in the earthquake-affected areas.

The DOE initially monitored the following pieces of information that happened on Thursday (06 July 2017):

1. The Bohol Grid experienced total power failure at 4:04 p.m. because it was affected by the tripping of Ormoc-Maasin Feeder load involving 64.2 megawatts (MW).

2. Market Intervention was declared by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) as system operator starting at interval 17 (or 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.) due to the isolation of the Leyte and Samar Areas and tripping of the Leyte-A power plant.

3. After the earthquake, power interruptions occurred in the Panay and Negros areas due to the Under Frequency Relay (UFR) caused by the outage of Leyte-A power plant.

4. Initial report from the power generator, GreenCore, stated that all the geothermal power plants in Leyte tripped at 4:04 p.m. after the magnitude 6.5 quake with the epicenter near the geothermal complex.

Damage to Unified Leyte Geothermal Power Plant switch yard was reported.

Power generators, Green Core and Energy Development Corporation (EDC), are assessing the total damage.

5. The epicenter of the 6.5 intensity earthquake is near the Municipality of Kananga, Leyte where the geothermal plants are located.

Leyte, Bohol, Cebu, Negros and Panay were affected by the earthquake but only Leyte and Bohol experienced total power failure.

Due to the earthquake's impact on the power situation for these provinces, which may still change because of the volatility of the demand by the hour and the loss of the generating capacity of affected geothermal plants, the DOE is advising the public to practice demand-side management by curbing their use of electricity as a community effort to keep the power situation stable.

6. Earthquake Advisory as of 6:00 p.m. from the NGCP relayed that:

At 4:03 p.m., a magnitude 6.5 earthquake occurred in Jaro, Leyte causing blackout in Leyte, Samar, and Bohol Islands. Panay, Negros and Cebu Islands experienced power interruptions but are now fully restored.

NGCP is still assessing the extent of the damage to its transmission facilities in the Visayas region. Aerial and foot patrol will commence once it is safe.

Updates will be issued as soon as available.

7. Additional information from the NGCP stated that the System Operator-initiated Market Intervention is still in effect. All Trading Participants are required to comply with the dispatch instruction of the System Operator.

8. In the power generation sector, Vice President Lito Santos of the EDC reported to Energy Secretary Cusi that all employees were accounted for, with some of the personnel suffering from minor injuries. EDC owns and operates the Unified Leyte Geothermal Power Plants (ULGPP). Santos further submitted that all of ULGPP's units which generate over 500 MW tripped. Santos assures the energy Secretary that the assessments are still ongoing and will prioritize the Tongonan Unit. The EDC observed that the 138kV tie-line is intact. Hence, it can concentrate on restoring the operations of its generators to deliver the generated electricity into the grid which may take one to two weeks. This timeline may change after a thorough assessment is conducted.

9. Another power generator, Green Core Geothermal Inc. reported that in Palinpinon geothermal power plant unit 1 which generates around 37 MW tripped. It was offline at around 4:00 p.m. due to the activation of the Cebu-Negros System Integrity Protection Scheme.

However, the plant was immediately back online and delivering its generated electricity at 5:00 p.m. of the same day.

10. The NGCP, reported as of 6:00 p.m. that services by the transmission facilities have been fully restored. Nevertheless, the NGCP seeks to re-assess the extent of the damage to its Tongonan-Kananga 158 KV tie-line as well as the other transmission facilities in the entire Visayas region.

NGCP assured the DOE and the public that the necessary aerial and foot patrols will immediately commence once the conditions to conduct the same are safe.

11. At 9:00 p.m., the NGCP updated its report stating that the areas without power are Samar, Bohol, Southern Leyte and some parts of Northern Leyte.

The DOE enjoins all the managers of the energy facilities, including the power distribution utilities, to submit regular updates to the DOE for proper coordination and quick restoration.

One Championship Posts Impressive Social Media Growth Following Myanmar Event

Wazzup Pilipinas!
The largest sports media property in Asian history, ONE Championship (ONE), hosted a blockbuster event in front of a packed Thuwunna Indoor Stadium in Yangon, Myanmar last Friday, 30 June, posting record-high social media growth statistics. ONE: LIGHT OF A NATION saw Myanmar crown its first ever world champion in any sport, electrifying a raucous crowd cheering on its new champion in front of a global audience.

Chatri Sityodtong, Chairman and CEO of ONE Championship stated: “The atmosphere in Yangon was absolutely incredible. It was an emotional moment for our new world champion, and an amazing achievement for the nation of Myanmar. Broadcast to millions of people all around the world, ONE: LIGHT OF A NATION was a magical evening of authentic martial arts action, true warrior spirit, and unbridled bravery.”

For the night of 30 June, ONE Championship posted record-breaking social media numbers, enjoying another sharp acceleration of its audience reach, scale, and engagement numbers. The organization gained more than 80,000 new fans on the evening -- a four hour affair that featured nine spectacular martial arts bouts including the blockbuster main event. The overall social media statistics registered 5.4 million video views on the day, including over 3.2 million video views with 80 thousand shares for the main event recap.

In data sourced directly from Nielsen, Facebook and Repucom earlier this year, ONE Championship continues to experience exponential growth for 2017.