Ang Kalatas Volume III August 2013 Issue | Page 12

12 | www.kalatas.com.au

| Vol. 3 No. 11 | August 2013

THE MESSAGE. BRINGING INTO FOCUS FILIPINO PRESENCE IN AUSTRALIA.

Ang Kalatas Australia in collaboration with Oz Pinoy Promotions is giving away 10 tickets to Kuh Ledesma concert on August 23 at Rooty Hill RSL Club in Rooty Hill. To join the raffle, simply purchase your ticket from August 4 to 15 to Jim Paredes Live in Sydney: The Man and His Music concert on October 4 and you automatically qualify for the raffle. The 10 Lucky winners will be drawn on August 16. Winners will be notified by text message so please don’t forget to leave your mobile number when you purchase the ticket to Jim’s concert through our online booking system. Hurry! Buy your tickets now at www.kalatas.com. au/jimparedeslive/buytickets and get the chance to win a free ticket to Kuh Ledesma’s concert, A Night of Nostalgia, at Rooty Hill RSL.

Hosts shine as ev
FILIPINOS as a people love ?estas, parties, concerts, dance events and the like. Generally, the success of such events has been mainly focussed on the stars and the performers. However, an equally important factor on the success of most of the events is the interesting and free-?owing way the program of entertainment is conducted. The master of ceremonies or emcee has a great in?uence on the audience ‘s level of enjoyment as well as ensuring the various parts of the program occur in an orderly sequence. The FilipinoAustralian community can boast of a number of individuals who have great skills as emcees. It is noteworthy that their level of enthusiasm and performance is the same, be they are performing their role in paid concerts or donating their talents in community events. Two of these popular emcees who combine knowledge, glamour and good sense of humour in their role are Rod Dingle and Michelle Baltazar. Ang Kalatas asked them a few questions about their role to give the readers an insight into these emcees who are stars on their own right.

Rod Dingle

When was your ?rst event to be the emcee? As a teen-ager, I was already MCing our community events in our village annual Christmas parties, school events, ?estas and the like. My ?rst biggest break was when I was studying at National Teachers University. It was the university’s Golden Jubilee Celebrations and there was this Miss National Teachers College (that’s how it was called at the time) Beauty Pageant and they needed a student MC. When I came to Australia, my very ?rst gig as an MC was at the very ?rst Mrs. Sydney Blacktown Pageant organised in 1982 by Mrs. Vivian Tee, who is an old family friend. My Manang Emily told her that I am an MC. Of the events you have done which one you remember fondly and which one you were happy with. Oh dear - HEAPS is the word! Beauty Pageants became my forte. I was host of the Miss Philippines-Australia for a total period of some 9 years - in the very early days. Other Pageants were those held in Wollongong/Illawarra, Newcastle, Central Coast, Canberra, Melbourne and even Darwin. There were one-off ones but organisers in places like Darwin and Newcastle kept

asking me to go back for the last 11 years. I also was MC of Miss Earth - Australia, Miss Earth - Philippines, Australian Supermodel, Mutya ng Manila-Sydney Quest, Ginang Filipinas-Australia, Mr. and Mrs. Golden Citizens Pageant, Little Mr. and Miss Pageants - name it, I would have done it all! Based on your experiences, w hat are the highs and lows of

being an emcee? Highs - is anytime when you know that you have delivered and done your job well. Organisers are happy, participants are happy - everyone’s happy. It does not matter to me, whether it paid or gratis stint. What I look forward to is the end-result and that we have delivered and achieved what we aimed for. Lows - I guess there will always be some but I don’t really dwell on them because no matter how major or minor an event given to me is to MC - i give my 100% all the time. I drew from my strengths when I know that a situation is somehow lopsided and do my best to lift the situation and try not to make it too obvious. I am a spontaneous MC - you give me a script - that is my guide - but do not expect me to follow it to the letter because that is not my style. What is your advice to anyone who is interested in being an emcee? Know your craft. Understand what the event is about. Learn your lines. Pronounce names properly. Don’t try to be funny. Make sure the microphone is switched on and the sound is clear and loud enough for everyone to hear you. Be in control - and be the voice - and not your guests. If your guests are noisy then it means they are either not listening to you - or are bored. Be prepared for those short lulls, those quick delays - you must have some ready things to do and say on stage. One second on stage is like

Veteran artist s multi-dimensio
ALFREDO “Ding” Roces is well in his 80s but is far from showing any signs of slowing down. He even gets busier having just recently attended two important book launches in Manila. He contributed text for these two books about artists: one was about Pablo Antonio, a national artist for architecture for which Ding wrote a personal introduction; the other book was about painter Phyllis Zaballero where the octogenarian wrote the main text. Ding came back from this trip just in time for the start of the Four Songs to Oz art exhibition on July 15 at the Verge Art Gallery at Art House in Sydney. This art exhibition with three other Filipino-Australian artists will run until September 14. In this exhibition, Ding showcases explorations in two different mediums, one using recycled material as art, the other the computer. Three works are large assemblages; and the other three are 18”x24” prints on canvas of his digital art done on iPad. Ding was also one of the seven artists involved in the Philippine Arts Festival which exhibited art works at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, Penrith on July 20. The exhibition was held prior to the performance of The Filipino Tenors later in the evening. Ding’s credentials include completion of Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA in 1954. Afterwards, he took

up extra year of drawing under the German Dada artist George Grosz at the Art Students’ League of New York in 1955-56. He has held over 40 One-Man-Shows in the Philippines, including the National Library, Cultural