The After-party
Picture this! Loud singing, seemingly neverending laughter, beer bottles clanging in its own tune and sounds of nothing but happiness from everyone of us in the music room. 

From where I was sitting and with each blink of an eye, the view was awesome! So I just conveniently stashed away all the mental photographs I could take in with a huge smile on my face.

It was quite a momentous occasion! It's amazing how all our different sorts of uniqueness and awesomeness came together neatly.

It was as if we were childhood buddies throwing in the crazy punchlines, some blunt opinions, rhetorical questions, real and amusing conversations wrapped in this tight bond coupled with the warmth, fun and wild side childhood friendship brings.


Shshshshawie and the Jets'
 performance at the Marco Polo

Commedia Dell'Arte

I usually listen to the music in my head. I find it quite soothing. The next morning was no different except that this one specific beat kept on and on and on like a broken record would.

It went "Scaramouche, scaramouche!" I put a grin on my face as I realized that a simple question seemed to have plagued me.


What is scaramouche? who is scaramouche anyway? I had so much fun the night before that I laughed and quickly put my Freddie Mercury mustache on.

We've been having fun with it for weeks and I guess it never really crossed my mind while we were busy with our Bohemian Rhapsody chorale practice until our Saturday sessions, Familia Zaragoza snapshots, breakfast at Barbs' place, hair and make-up, year end party and chorale competition at Marco Polo, KTV after-party and three beers later.

Looked it up and as it turns out scaramouche is a stock clown character of the Italian commedia dell'arte. At least that's how Merriam-Webster and Google put it.

I smiled and giggled like a little girl as I thought to myself that's why everyone in the group have such a special kind of fun and love for scaramouche.

Rehearsals at the dance studio with Kuya Edward


 Diction is Done with the Tip of the Tongue and the Teeth

Let's kick back, relax and take a peek at the beginning of it all. Picture this! Twelve individuals all rounded up for the very first time in a small room with faces lit up with happiness and excitement while waiting to meet with Kuya Edward, our vocal coach and choir conductor.

Edward and Tin Santelices,
siblings at the Marco Polo
Kuya Edward is Tin's brother who happens to be a brilliant vocal coach and choir conductor who we absolutely adore. The first time we met him was on a fine Saturday morning during our first ever session. He walked in the room with his keyboard and some paper where our chorale piece arrangement was scribbled.

So  there we were rounded up for the very first time with familiar faces but clueless of the kind of characters we were with. We were all quite excited when we were walked through some vocal warm ups and to further push us out of our comfort zone we were asked to go front and center and sing one by one.

Nervous and awkward as we may have felt, we were all ears and did our own thing anyway. Kuya Edward sorted us quite nicely and it marked the beginning of a spontaneously beautiful and unique bond.

The Sopranos: Ella, Gail, Duna and Ayie
The Altos: Barbs, Tin, Ails, Em and myself
The Men: Jeck, Karlo and Jesse

A couple more weeks of bursting in laughter and relentless humor, dozens of chorale sessions , Duna's catwalk struts, Ella's jazz hands and improvs, group snapshots, spontaneous combustions of wacky and witty personalities and a dance studio rehearsal later we were ready for some pitch slap action.
Power vocals at play

Inside Out

We may be opposites but we definitely attract. We were so happy in pulling off our Bohemian Rhapsody rendition with our vocal coach and choir conductor, Kuya Edward during the company year end party December 12, 2015 at the Marco Polo Ortigas.

And the best prize well won more than anything was a surprisingly strong bond and beautifully blossomed friendship we found in each other. We are quite an assortment of wit, wackiness and oddities. How everything came together genuinely is beyond us.

Barbs' place turned recording studio
But I think I speak for everyone when I say it works amazingly well. We've all made unparalleled core memories of happiness together to last us a lifetime. My own personal theory on why it works? I think we all have a big heart in all that we do, we have energy as bright as the rainbow colors and our tears are made up of scrumptious candies with a little bit of glue, a solid fan base and support group. And so no dull moments are ever there to likely exist.