IT’S one thing to be a dancer, it’s another to discover talents and put them together to form a dance crew that will be recognized worldwide.
EMNT is a Davao-based hiphop dance crew that started out as a group of LGBT dancers who are scholars in the University of the Mindanao. The group, as well as an all-male and all-female scholar-dancer crew, was led by Samuel Garte III. During that time he was also UM student.
It was in 2015 when he founded and led these three groups. Over the course of time, some of the members of the LGBT group decided to focus more on their team including Sam. They became an independent crew and not anymore as a scholar dance crew.
They were nine in the group then. Most of them use and incorporate feminine moves in their dancing. They get their inspiration from Youtube among other videos online.
“It was the peak of LGBT dancers but the dance is jazz. I thought I’d change the game. That’s the time we decided to dance hiphop to show them that gays can also dance it as good as the guys can dance it,” Sam said.
However, venturing more into femme and hip hop dance moves, Sam said they were aware that innovation of steps is a must.
“Hiphop is moving. Dili siya pwede na you stick sa same style always. You should keep growing sa style and experimenting,” he said.
Their first ever win was in July 2016 when they won first in the MOR Hiphop showdown. Most of the competing teams were all-male except for the all-female team that Sam also founded way back when he was still a scholar in the university. This first competition only showed what Sam and his team had wanted to prove: that hiphop can also be aced by LGBT dancers.
The following year, they won competitions in different parts of Mindanao particularly in Cotabato, Bukidnon, Tacurong, M’lang, Kabacan, and Koronadal City.
In October of this year, they won second place in World Supremacy Battleground Monster Crew Division against 10 other teams from New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and Thailand.
It was only February of this year that Sam decided to open EMNT to non-LGBT and to recruit other youth who he sees to have passion in dancing. Now, from originally nine members, EMNT grew to 47 members of 15 to 25 years old students.
“I trust my team, their will, their passion. It inspires me a lot. Mga ginakuha nako usually wala pay experience. Katong mga ginasayawan nila kay sa school (Those I recruit don't have experience or those who only dance in schools). I like filling out empty minds. If they are already good, they might filter my teaching. But if they are still starting, sulod tanan (they take everything in). Naga-learn gyud sila (They are really learning). When I recruit these kids, there’s something within me that tells me there’s something good in a person,” Sam said.