For Jacquey Anne Julio (COL ’10), being a performance coordinator for Club Filipino combines both of her origins: her Filipino heritage and the spectacle of her hometown of Northern Las Vegas, Nev. Currently choreographing three dances for the club’s annual Filipino Cultural Night, or Bayanihan, Julio has her hands and head full with stomping beats, banging coconuts and clicking castanets. Luckily, she had some time after dance practice to tell The Guide all about the upcoming big night celebrating all things Filipino.

How did you get involved with Club Filipino?

I’ve been involved since before my freshman year. The executive board members of the club got in touch with me the summer before my freshman year by inviting me to join their Facebook group. I joined, and then at the end of last year, after choreographing some dances, they asked me if I wanted to run for the executive board, and I did. They made a new position for me, the performance coordinator.

What was your primary interest in the club?

Both of my parents are, for the most part, Filipino. My primary interest in Club Filipino was the family sense that it gives me. Being so far away from home, the farthest I’ve ever been from home, it was easier to find something familiar in this campus and in this community with people who grew up like I did. I think multicultural groups have a big impact on this campus, especially because they hold so many shows and bring culture to the campus.

What is Bayanihan?

Bayanihan is the name of our Filipino Cultural Night. Bayanihan refers to the spirit of community members volunteering to move a house with bamboo sticks to escape flood waters. It’s the idea of an individual and the community working together.

It’s an annual show. We normally have 10-12 performances; we have an outside choreographer and then many students who have experience choreographing. We’ve held the event in different places; one year we held it in the Holiday Inn on Wisconsin. For the first time this year, we’re holding it in Leo’s. It’s kind of challenging because we’re going up against [the Hawaii Club’s] luau, which normally sells out. It’s a big feat that we want to do. If we sell out and the show is successful, we will be successful. We want to sell out.

We’re going to have buffet-style food. We picked out the dishes at Leo’s and tasted them, so we know they taste good. We always also get a roasted pig from off-campus. We have a lot of family, alumni and sometimes people from the Philippines embassy come.

What sort of performances will there be?

For the most part, most of the performances are cultural dances. We do have independent acts that are done by professional performers. I’m choreographing three of the nine dances. The dances I choreographed are dances I’ve danced before or someone I know has danced in before, like my mom and my sister. I don’t normally take on something that is totally foreign to me. The first dance, Dugso, is a ritual dance to celebrate a harvest. We have jingle bells that are tied to the ankles. It’s more of a stamping dance where the feet are making all the noise. The movements are very stoic since it’s a ritual. For Pukol, it’s the act of hitting one another with coconuts. The movements are in hitting the coconuts together and making a loud noise. The last dance, the Jota Caviteño, is from a specific province. It uses castanets and has a lot of Spanish influence. Part of the music is Spanish, and the other part is more upbeat, just beats. Most of the suites are just beat, though the Muslim suite is calmer, stoic and royal. The mountain dances are more up-beat.

Club Filipino’s Bayanihan is Saturday night in O’Donovan Hall. Doors open at 6 p.m. and food will be served at 6:30 p.m., Tickets are $17 and are currently on sale in Red Square and at the door. For more information, go to http://studentorgs.georgetown.edu/clubfilipino/.