“I met a flamenco dancer at Starbucks who told me her personal tragedy about losing her child while dancing,” he says. “Naiyak ako and I started developing the story revolving on the theme of mother and children. Tami Monsod plays a disabled and frustrated flamenco dancer who pushes her daughter, Lino Dino, to follow in her footsteps. Liza’s teacher is Clara Ramona, who has two sons, Biboy Ramirez and Ed Gatmaitan, na parehong na-in love kay Liza. Dahil it’ll require dancing, I auditioned actors who already know the dance. I’m lucky Clara Ramona, one of the most accomplished flamenco dancers in Spain and Asia, is in town. She auditioned and I chose her to play the teacher. Tami was also into flamenco and she also auditioned. Si Liza, dati nang nagpa-flamenco.”
Some folks are comparing his story with Natalie Portman’s “Black Swan”. “But my inspiration is really more of Spanish melodramas. The movie shows the fusion of flamenco and Filipiniana in the dance numbers. We hired 30 dancers for these production numbers and Clara trained them first for three months before we started shooting. The effect is great. You’d see the singkil mixed with flamenco, to the wonderful music of Bob Aves.” Will is now based in Seattle, USA, where he moved to study as a teener. He first became a computer programmer for Microsoft for ten years until he decided to pursue filmmaking in earnest at the University of Washington and New York Academy. He now dreams of directing a local teleserye for a major TV company or a mainstream local movie.
