Angela Sebastian, MFA
About
Angela Sebastian is a Filipino Dance Artist with an MFA in Dance from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) with a focus on choreography and performance with Dr. Kara Jhalak Miller (Chair), Dr. Betsy Fisher, and Professor Peiling Kao as her thesis committee. Angela was a graduate assistant in the UHM Dance program teaching undergraduate courses in Ballet and Contemporary Dance as well as organized creative movement courses for the East-West Center participants, where she was a Student Affiliate and a Foundation Scholarship Recipient. She has also taught for dance schools locally (Hawaiʻi) and internationally (Hong Kong & Philippines) ranging from beginners to advance level Ballet, Modern, and Contemporary Dance.
She performed and choreographed for several UHM Theatre and Dance productions such as the 2018 to 2019 Footholds productions (with her works such as Limbo, Taglagas, Arch, Fight for What, Pleasant Remembrances, and Me, myself and I), Integral bodies, and A Mid-Summer Night's Bollywood dream. She also performed with professional dance companies in Hawaiʻi
including Convergence Dance Theatre, Iona Contemporary Dance Theatre, and dance concerts like Bollywood Dance Concert at HoMa and Tagpo, A Gathering of Filipinx Contemporary Art featuring her choreographies Saksi and Ugoy sa Duyan.
Prior to Hawaiʻi, she was a parade dancer for Hong Kong Disneyland for one and a half years. While in the Philippines, she was a member of Airdance Philippines Contemporary Dance and Aerial Arts Company and the University of Philippines Dance Company that presented her the opportunity to perform and participate in festivals across Asia, such as Taiwan, Malaysia, and China.
Her love for dance sparked after seeing a live performance by a prominent ballet school in the Philippines, Halili-Cruz School of Ballet. This event encouraged her to take ballet classes as early as the age of four at Pink Toes School of Performing Arts, where she also continued to learn various dance genres such as hip hop, jazz, modern and contemporary. Persistent with her
passion for dance, Angela acquired a Bachelor of Music, Major in Dance at the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD), Quezon City. Under the expertise of dance instructors Herbert Alvarez, Elena Laniog-Alvarez, Angel Lawenko –Baguilat, Ava Maureen-Ong, and Emeritus Esteban Basilio, where her technique and creativity were enhanced enormously.