Monica Villarica Cusi

Monica began dancing at the age of 4 at Balletcenter Cebu, which was then under the direction of Fe Sala Villarica. There she trained under Fe Sala Villarica herself along with Baby Cabaero, Johanna Mangubat, and Nicholas Pacana. From 2004-2006, she participated in the Ballet Philippines’ Dance School Summer Workshops, which was where she was first exposed to contemporary and modern dance. In college, she decided to take a break from ballet and joined the La Salle Dance Company-Contemporary under Peter Alcedo Jr. Here she was exposed to genres like hiphop and jazz. After graduating, she went back to Ballet Philippines and became an apprentice with the company from 2013-2015. Among the productions she performed with them were Alice Reyes’ “Rama Hari”, Edna Vida’s “A Christmas Carol”, Agnes Locsin’s “La Revolucion Filipina” and a duet with Mark Grantos choreographed by Rita Winder for Ballet Philippines II’s, “Hugot Sa Rosas”. Right after, she took a 1-year Independent Study Dance Program with The Alvin Ailey School in New York. Currently, she is back in the city working towards building a stronger dance community with the Arts Council of Cebu and is a co-founder of Art Party which is an intimate multi-disciplinary art event giving creatives in Cebu a venue to show their work.