Steve founded the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Music dance degree program with former Dean Dr. Ramon Santos and Dr. Corazon D. Dioquino. Trained in Bacolod, Manila, Germany, Holland, Britain, and the USA, he then danced with groups he formed and directed at the Central Philippine University (CPU) Student Ballet,  Dance Theatre Philippines, Ballet Philippines, Movement Men-Manila,  and the UP Dance Company, and choreographed more than 100 works performed by these groups in the Philippines, Asia, and Europe. Aside from judging for the Asia Pacific Ballet Competition and  the Wi-Fi Body Competition, he helped set up ballet competitions for the National Music Competition for Young Artists and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). Critic, columnist, and scholar, Villaruz published Treading Through Philippine Dance (2006) and Walking Through Philippine Theater (2012) which won national awards.  He is president of the  World Dance Alliance (WDA)-Philippines and former president of WDA-Asia Pacific. Some of his awards are from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts,  CCP, UP, Congress on Research in Dance-USA, Quezon City, City of Manila, and City Bago (Negros Occidental). 

Ava, a visiting arts faculty at the Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA) and instructor at the University of the Philippines, Los Banos (UPLB). She is a graduate of  the College of Music, University of the Philippines,  Diliman (UPD) where she earned her Diploma in Creative Performing Musical Arts (DCPMA) and Bachelor of Music major in Dance. The winner of the 1st WiFi Body New Choreographer’s Competition and a  WiFi-JF-CCP NeXtage awardee, she was artistic director of Airdance and a dance lecturer at the UPD College of Music.  Ava is a recipient of the 2020 Alvin E. Tolentino Koreograpiya Award. She is the mother of two healthy boys,  a full-time teacher at Ava’s School of Dance, and an MA in Public Affairs student majoring in Education Management at UPLB.

Georgette started dancing with her mom Janette Garcia Sanchez in Bacolod at the age of three. She was a scholar of Ballet Philippines (BP), a member of BP2 and later of BP, both under Agnes Locsin, the adcdance company in Austria, Tanztheater Darmstadt in Germany, and State Theater Gärtnerplatz in Munich, Germany.  Georgette was a silver medalist in the 9th Paris International Modern Dance Competition  in  2000, a Scholastican Achiever of the 2nd Millennium in Arts and Culture in 2002, and an Outstanding Benildean Alumni awardee in 2007.  She was a recipient of the 2011 Gawad Buhay Award for Best Female  Lead Role in Contemporary Dance  in Locsin’s Encantada. She is now the artistic director of the Garcia Sanchez School of Dance.

Novy is a Filipino-Australian choreographer from Iloilo City now based in Sydney, Australia. He is a former member of the renowned Dagyaw Theater and Dance Company of the Iloilo National High School then later with the Edwin C. Duero Dance Company. He danced professionally with Ballet Philippines. His advocacy Sayaw PD Dance forParkinson's is recently established and making waves in social media with its pure art-based free classes designed for people with Parkinson's disease.

Nicole earned her BA in Music major in Dance from the College of Music, University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman where she was also a member of the UP Dance Company.  She is currently the artistic director of Airdance. As a member of the company since 2013, she has participated in dance festivals and residencies both locally and abroad. She is an officer of Contemporary Dance Network Manila, project coordinator of Dance Alliance Philippines, and creative director of LikhaPH.  Nicole is an introvert and prefers the company of her family and few favorite people. Black cats fascinate her and family dogs are her perfect therapy. She enjoys traveling, taking pictures, and reading fantasy novels. Gin & tonic is her drink of choice.

Jethro started his contemporary dance career with Airdance as part of the company’s  delegation to a national modern dance competition in 2004  and  its performances in festivals, expos, and shows in the Philippines and abroad. He did projects with Myra Beltran’s Dance Forum and Donna Miranda’s Green Papaya Arts Project. In 2006, he received the DanceWeb European Scholarship for Contemporary Dance in Vienna and upon returning to the Philippines,  became one of Airdance’s resident dance teachers and choreographers while attending artist residencies in Manila and China. In 2008 he left Manila to work for Hong Kong Disney and in 2013, he set up DanceOutHK, a contemporary dance collective performing in festivals in Hong Kong and China. He continues to explore dance/movement/ performance outside the confined space of a studio and exclusivity of a company.

Rita started dancing at age seven in Manila.  She graduated from the Philippine High School for the Arts and continued her dance education on a full scholarship with the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Dance School and the DLS-College of Saint Benilde in Manila where she graduated with a degree in Performing Arts major in Dance.  She was a soloist of Ballet Philippines and later became a faculty of the CCP Dance School. In 2017,  she received the Gawad Buhay Award for Outstanding Female Performer in both Classical and Modern Dance Production. That same year, she moved to Europe and danced with Ballet Kiel in Germany. In 2019, she joined the Hessisches Staatsballett in Wiesbaden. This is her second season with the company under the direction of Bruno Heynderickx.

Sasa an independent movement artist, theater performer, choreographer, and Butoh dancer pursuing the possibilities of movement through collaborative work with various artists. A recipient of the 2020 Alvin Erasga Tolentino Koreograpiya Award, the 2018 CCP Wifibody.PH  New Choreographer’s Competition Award,  and the 2015  PUP Outstanding Achievement Award for Arts (in Dance), she is the first Filipina to study Butoh in Japan. Sasa is a former company member and choreographer of The Addlib. She is currently an artist-in-residence of  Para Sa Sining, a community of Filipino artists engaged in collaborative art-making.

Chaya started dancing at age eight at the Standing in the Gap Christian Church and later  received a full scholarship for formal training in ballet at the Vella C. Damian School of Ballet. She studied Music majoring in Dance at the College of Music,  University of the Philippine, Diliman where she trained in classical, modern, and contemporary dance with Basilio Esteban  Villaruz, Angela Lawenko-Baguilat, Desiree Peralejo-Medina, Ava Villanueva-Ong, Herbert Alvarez, and Elena Laniog-Alvarez. Chaya was one of the chosen dancers who joined the UP Filipiniana Alumni Dance Group which showcased  Filipino cultural and ethnic dances  in France for two months. She joined  the Airdance Company after the tour.  In 2015, she decided to emigrate to Hong Kong where she is currently a dance instructor at the Hong Kong Funky Dance Centre.

​

​

Angela earned her BA degree in Music major in dance from the College of Music, University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman, and her MFA in Dance with a focus on choreography and performance from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM). In the Philippines, she was a member of Airdance and the UP Dance Company which performed and participated in festivals in Taiwan, Malaysia, and China. Before taking her MFA in Hawaiʻi, she was a parade dancer for Hong Kong Disneyland for one and a half years. She has performed with professional dance companies in HawaiʻI, including the Convergence Dance Theatre, Iona Contemporary Dance Theatre, and was a guest artist in dance concerts like Bollywood Dance Concert at HoMa and Tagpo, and A Gathering of Filipinx Contemporary Art. 

​

Chihiro is originally from Nara, Japan. She started dancing ballet at the age of three. In 2015, she moved to Toronto to study ballet, contemporary dance, and the Graham technique. She loves not only receiving dance routines from choreographers but also exchanging ideas on movement and process with them. She returned to Japan in 2018 and has been performing as an emerging dancer. 

Aries, also known as "AJ" started dancing at the age of 10. She took ballet, jazz and modern classes at St. Anne's Ballet. She pursued her love for dance and got accepted at the University of the Philippines Diliman, where she studied in the College of Music, honing and developing her technique and learning the style of contemporary dance. She finished her course and graduated with a Diploma of Creative and Performing Musical Arts (Major in Dance). During this time, she became a member of UP Dance Company and Airdance, two dance companies which performed locally and internationally. She also performed with Philippine Ballet Theater (Coppelia 2012) and at Resorts World Manila (“King and I” and Rodger and Hammerstein “Cinderella”).

She accomplished her Royal Academy of Dance examinations Grades 5, 6 and Intermediate with a grade of Distinction. She also accomplished a seminar for Pre-Primary and Primary level for the new RAD syllabus. She also has a certification for Progressing Ballet Technique, specifically for juniors and seniors level.

She is currently residing in Hong Kong, performing as a parade dancer at Hong Kong Disneyland.

Johanna is one of the homegrown dance artists of ACTS Manila having been trained and honed both as dancer and teacher under Chelo B. Gemina, ACBA, its Artistic Director. She took master classes under local and international
dance artists in classical and modern ballet: Tony Fabella, El Gabriel, Maiqui Mañosa, Anna Villadolid, Noordin Jumalon+, Declan Patrick, Max Luna, Alan Hineline, Anatoly Panasiukov, Jun Saagundo, Carlos Garcia, Elizabeth Rae, and artists of Ballet Magnificat.

Johanna performed in several professional productions like, but not limited to, Philippine Ballet Theater’s “Giselle” in 2006, Australian Conservatoire of Ballet Festival’s “Waltz of the Flowers” choreographed by Christine Walsh, A.M., David Benoit Concert in 2012, “FAB!” tribute to Tony Fabella, “Romancing Ivory” in 2013, International Dance Day celebration with Myra Beltran’s restaged “Rosas Danst Rosas” in 2014 choreographed by Anna Teresa de Kiersmaaker, and ACTS Manila performances at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Main Theater. As a teacher, she is a Registered ACB teacher and passed her students 100% in 2017 and 2019. She has also taken other seminars on pedagogy. As part of ACTS Manila, she travels abroad for its Dance Missions Trips like Hong Kong, Laos, and Cambodia. Johanna is one of the Directors of ACTS Manila who runs her own affiliate schools under its headquarters.