FOR ALL its countless victories in the UAAP warfront, the University did more than just embrace a 70-year-old culture of athletic virtuosity on the seventh day of the seventh month in the seventh year of the millennium.
Celebrating the seventh decade of the country’s premier collegiate league, UST showcased what Thomasian artistic excellence is all about as it opened the UAAP’s 70th season with aplomb inspired by the theme “Winners All: Recreating the Value of Honesty through Sports” last July 7 at the Araneta Coliseum.
Thomasian talents at their finest
Backed by the University’s top musical ensembles – the UST Symphony Orchestra, UST Band, UST Liturgikon Vocal Ensemble, Coro Tomasino, and the UST Singers – the UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe rendered an upbeat fusion of hip-hop, modern ballet, and jazz dance performances to captivate the audience in the one-of-a-kind four-part presentation.
Conceptualized and directed by former Salinggawi choreographer Rene Hofileña, the presentation also featured the “five-peat” UAAP cheerdance champions in a dance showdown with the University’s college and elementary students before exhibiting their trademark jumps and flips to the beat of the UST Yellow Jackets’ drum rolls.
The first part ended with the formation of the Main Building tower, underscoring UST’s role as this year’s host and setting the celebration in motion.
Dancing along to the UST orchestra’s version of the hit musical “Were All In This Together,” student-performers flashed puzzle boards carrying the university seals of the eight UAAP member schools, (UST, UP, La Salle, Ateneo de Manila, Adamson, Far Eastern University, National University and University of the East), as the UST Singers sang the Season 70 theme song “Tagumpay ng Lahat,” a modern ballad highlighting the message “Winners All,” with lyrics from Center for Creative Writing and Studies director Dr. Ophelia Dimalanta and Rene Sulit, and music from UST Conservatory of Music Professor Tonton Africa.
Keeping the festive spirits alive, the 59-man Salinggawi Dance Troupe performed a modern rendition of the Flores de Mayo, wielding arcs that represented the 14 UAAP sports disciplines (basketball, judo, table tennis, swimming, taekwondo, baseball, softball, football, volleyball, beach volleyball, badminton, tennis, athletics and cheerdance) in an amazing display of ornaments and colors to wrap the festivities and officially kick-off the UAAP wars.
Prior to the opening festivities, UST rector Fr. Ernesto Arceo, O.P. emphasized the importance of “good clean fun” in his message as the athletes took the vow of sportsmanship led by Tigers mainstay Chester Taylor.
