By Maridol Ranoa-Bismark
When 18-year-old Rai won the People’s Choice Award at the Geek+Pop cosplay competition three years ago, life never became the same again for the shy only child. People started noticing the morena looker. Before she knew it, Rai, a student at Mapua University, did something she never dreamed of.
She gave her all in the BOA (Best of Anime) dance competition as part of the group Yumeshou (Rai has since left the group and gone solo).
Like all first-time performers, Rai was a bundle of nerves as she entered the SMX Convention Center with her friends.
“I was always drinking water,” she recalls.
Transformed
But the minute she and her group faced the audience, Rai became different. The girl who always stayed home transformed herself. Rai danced with a confidence she thought she never had. She gave it all she got.
That’s when she realized she can perform before a crowd of strangers with ease. Her group didn’t win. But Rai felt like a winner because she was proud of what she did.
The competition tired her. But she didn’t mind.
“It was a wakeup call,” she smiled.
Recently, Rai sang and danced to Taylor Swift’s bouncy hit Opalite before an audience of music lovers at Manila House, where award-winning singer Ivy Violan staged her homecoming concert, Endless Memories (with Nanette Inventor, George Sison Tagle and Jeri Violago).
Weeks before, she sang the Tagalog version of the haunting spiritual song The Prayer as Angel Gabriel in the Lenten musical Martir sa Golgota (with Ivy as Blessed Virgin Mary).
The ballad’s operatic, classical style and the extra high notes are way off Rai’s comfort zone. But she was unfazed.
“It was my first time to sing that kind of song. It was out of my comfort zone, and it was so hard. I’m not vocally trained to sing that way. My alternate was. So the pressure was harder,” said Rai.
Rai admits she found the notes too high, so she sang the melody a few notes lower.
For God
Then, she looked upwards and told herself, “This is God.”
Rai pulled it off. This made her mentor, Ivy Violan, who coached Rai vocally, even prouder of her new talent.
Rai wants to make her mentor and her family even prouder of her by giving her all every time she mounts the stage.
“I’m hard on myself,” she admits.
After senior high graduation this year, Rai will take up Communication Arts in college to become a better performer. Singing and dancing ceased to become a mere hobby. It’s now her career.
Rai is even more inspired to combine studies and performing, knowing both make her the person she wants to be. Luckily, she has her fair share of believers.
