Dance to inspire, not to impress.

Choreographer/dancer Mickey Perz lives by these words, and he is imparting this wisdom to young people who want to dance.

“I believe in the talent of Filipinos in performing but there are a few people to guide them. Having the privilege to learn different dance styles, I want to share my knowledge and experience with my kababayans,” says the 25-year-old Filipino-Austrian.

This Pinoy Big Brother alumnus admits that he came back to the Philippines and tried out showbiz because he had long dreamed of putting up a dance school and teaching here. Finally, his dream has come true as he opened early this year Planet Jupiter, located along Jupiter St. in Makati.

“One of my dreams is to have a dance school but I never thought it would be this soon. But I’m not complaining,” says Mickey who teaches hip hop at Planet Jupiter thrice a week.

Hip hop, says Mickey, gives him the freedom to do anything he wants to do on the dancefloor. With hip hop, there are no wrong moves. ‘’You can just let out your feelings and express yourself,” he continues.

Interestingly, Planet Jupiter instructors also teach at the European International School in Parañaque, since the teachers come from all over the world and can speak the students’ languages. Mickey himself is quite a linguist as he speaks four languages: German, French, English and Filipino.

Apart from dance, Planet Jupiter also offers yoga, pilates and boxing classes, backed by an impressive group of instructors who are experts in the field. “The students benefit from the quality of classes because we have professional hip hop teachers from Switzerland and the US,” he says.

TRUE CALLING

Teaching is not something new to Mickey. He used to dabble in it back in Switzerland at the New Dance Academy.

“Teaching is fun. It depends what age though. With kids, you’ll need more patience,” he says.

For the love of dance, Mickey had to turn down a promotion, quit his regular job as a financial analyst for eBay, and pursue his real passion and his true calling instead.

“They wanted me to focus on my work. They saw that dancing takes a lot of my time. They said I can do a lot more for the company if I stopped dancing. I told them I’m sticking with my dancing.

Besides I can always go back to my work. It’s not about the money. That’s why I’m an artist because I’m doing it for the art. I’m doing it for dancing. Absolutely no regrets,” he adds.

Mickey was not into dancing when he was a kid. He remembers how his mom and aunt would force him to go ballroom dancing with them.

“So I did it for fun,” he looks back. “There was even a time that they wanted me to join dance competitions. Eh I didn’t wanna wear tight clothes. Baduy yun sa amin back there.”

Dancing, Mickey says, has no limits and boundaries. In fact, he keeps on changing his style in choreography through the years. “I’ve always been interested in different dance styles. The more you try to change your style, the more creative you get and the better you will be.”

‘IT’S NOT OK TO COPY’

Having Filipino roots, Mickey and his friends Stalder Ryan and Widjaja Daniel of Limited Edition have also put their passion and skill for dancing into a more altruistic use here in the Philippines.
The three formed this group in Switzerland.

Their foundation, which they call Dance for a Cause (DFAC), seeks to promote the idea that dance, as a powerful art form, also has capacity to propel change, enrich the nature and value of dance in the country, and empower Filipinos through dance.

DFAC’s top priority is to teach, support and encourage Filipino dancers by conducting workshops to enhance their skills and expand their knowledge on styles and techniques that are widely used abroad but are uncommon locally. It also aims to help Filipino artists gain more recognition
in the international scene. Free workshops in public schools and correctional facilities are also in the pipeline.

“We want to provide more accessible learning opportunities especially for the youth and the less fortunate, whose resources often consist only of TV and YouTube,” he says. “We’re trying to change and educate people. Dance is an art form and it’s not ok to copy. Sadly, here in the Philippines ganun ang nangyayari. A lot of people are just copying dance styles from YouTube. Some even claim that it’s theirs. People are not aware of it, and people have to know that that is wrong.”

Aside from dance-related activities, the foundation also facilitates feeding programs for public school students. It also sells shirts that cost P400 to P500 to help fund its free dance workshops.

TOUCHING LIVES

Mickey is proud to have achieved and learned a lot from dancing.

“Dancing has made me more of an extrovert. I became more creative. I can let everything out with dancing. In ASAP for example, I dance for three minutes and I believe I was already able touch many people’s lives. That’s why every time I dance, I give everything, all out,” he enthuses.

He advises aspiring dancers and choreographers that there is nothing like learning dance from the experts themselves.

“It’s still different if you take classes, if you go to school, and see how you can be better and improve yourself. You can actually be better than the best choreographers in the world if you want to. I never planned to be here. I hope I’ll be successful in what I do and touch a lot of people’s lives,” he ends.