by Joelle Jacinto
International Dance Day has always been a special event for Filipinos who dance, and what better way for me to celebrate than to restart Runthru Dance Magazine. Before we get excited, I'm referring to this online incarnation, since we're all glued to our tablets and phones anyway. From today, I will endeavor to keep this website updated with reviews and opinion essays, and we're also looking to start a podcast dedicated to dance, practice, process, and more. Keep checking back, though I will also make announcements over social media over the coming weeks.
For those new here, we started Runthru as a print magazine in 2008; honestly it was the brainchild of my brother, Lucas, who was at the time working in publishing. He was the art director and I was editor-in-chief, as well as main writer, and we shared the burden of distribution and marketing, as well as my sister, Jacqui and even my parents. Lucas and his wife, Erica, also worked on sales and getting ads. It takes a village.
The second issue of Runthru Dance Magazine with Ava Maureen Villanueva on the cover
The reaction to Runthru was quite heartwarming - dancers, dance-makers and dance leaders were full of praise and support. To this day, colleagues would tell me they wish we would produce our indie magazine with the iconic size and shape again because it was such an important part of the local dance scene. Such pressure, right? But the pressure was part of the reward - we weren't trying to make money, we sincerely wanted to serve the art form that we belonged to. One of my ultimate favorite Runthru anecdotes was about how this young boy had seen the magazine and was so inspired by the feature of a local ballet school that he enrolled for classes in that school. Now, he dances overseas and is kind of a big deal too.
We published 4 issues before losing steam and money. There was no return of investment and, in general, we just couldn’t afford it. Print is super expensive and we purposely weren't pricing the magazine accordingly, afraid that we wouldn't be able to sell it. That said, I would like to dedicate my undying love to everyone who bought a copy and, hopefully, still own one. You guys are the absolute best.
I started the online version when we closed the print version. There were times when there were so many reviews, and there were times when there was no writing at all. I got other writers to contribute as well, sometimes having money to pay them, but not often enough. My dearest mentor, Steve aka the premiere Philippine dance critic Basilio Esteban Villaruz, would send me things he had written after he had declared that he was retired, and I would post them up on Runthru. I mean, why just send them to me, right? Also, I really wanted to encourage our baby dance critics to write more - a number of which I had engaged to write for the Dance volume of the CCP Encyclopedia. I was happy to have cultivated this posse of dance smarties, which I think is Runthru’s most important legacy. You will be seeing them write more here, in the coming year.
Most of my writing hiatus was due to feeling burnt out, mostly from submitting encyclopedia entries, but I also eventually felt that my writing was not very important and why do I try (insert fishing emoticon and violin emoticon here). Also, importantly, I had a “day job” - it may be surprising to some, but writing about and publishing a magazine about dance cannot pay the bills. Meanwhile, I transferred platforms twice: Runthru was first on Google Sites, then a phishing accident made me move to Wordpress, which I didn’t like so much because it looked too much like a blog. I am finally happy with this one. However, the constant stopping and restarting can disrupt your momentum, and I didn’t maintain the site for too long. I actually stopped updating in 2020, mostly due to the pandemic because there wasn’t much to watch, much less review, but also because I started to dedicate my full self to my PhD dissertation, which was about The Filipino Ballet. So I actually WAS writing about dance in the last few years. But only a handful were able to read it.
Was asked to dance at my PhD graduation ceremony, where they specially requested "Galawgaw," choreography by my Dad, Eli Jacinto. Performing with me were Nina Sayoc to my right and Jacqui Jacinto to my left. Photo from the UP Asian Studies Center.
After the dissertation, I just felt like I needed a break. Somewhere along the way, I found a new full time day job (sometimes, it feels like an overtime day-to-night job) which I actually enjoy very much and find stimulating and challenging. It unfortunately does not leave me with enough time to write, but I figured, that’s fine, maybe the writer in me has retired. Importantly, I need to add that I became a recluse since I left Kuala Lumpur to move back home - I didn’t want to leave the house even because I thought I didn’t have the energy to socialize nor deal with Manila traffic. A couple friends quoted this back to me recently when I went out to watch 2 different shows. Okay, fine, I said all that. I reserve the right to get over myself.
Pau Bomi Quisay in a work by Giveway Diosanta at the Last Quarter Intensives Festival of Teatro Ambahanon, General Santos, November 2024
And so here, I am. And here is Runthru Dance Magazine, newly updated with Erica Marquez-Jacinto’s review of Wayne McGregor’s Autobiography, opening the International Dance Day Fest at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater. Actually, there are other reasons for reviving Runthru, but those, I will keep to myself for now. But come back in a day or two for a new review.
