Her story is often likened to Cinderella’s. However, Jessa Balote’s story is far from being a fairy tale. She was exposed to child labor before she was 10 because her family earns a living from salvaging garbage. Like her peers, Jessa would tag along with her parents to go house-to-house to collect trash, which they sell to secure meals for the next day. In a country where child labor is rampant, being a child scavenger is nothing new. But little did she know that her unfortunate circumstances would lead her to better days ahead.
SCHOLAR
Jessa is among the scholars of the Philippine Christian Foundation. Like other PCF scholars, Jessa was given a chance to improve her life with free education and material support from the institution founded by British Jane Walker. Yet, after classes, Jessa would still help her parents between 8 and 10 o’clock each night to scavenge garbage.
When Jessa was recruited to be a scholar of Lisa Macuja-Elizalde’s “Project Ballet Futures” (PBF), she finally “graduated” from scavenging. Following the footsteps of her older brother who was also a PCF and PBF scholar, Jessa was initially amazed and intimidated by ballet.
“Wow, my kuya (older brother) was dancing. I thought he’s already an actor,” says Jessa as she recounted her first time to watch a ballet show with her brother in it.
Eventually, Jessa’s curiosity was aroused and wanted to learn how her brother and the rest were able to dance gracefully on their toes and how they easily managed to split on the dance floor. Before being exposed to ballet, Jessa would perform folk dances and other genres familiar to her age.
“I was motivated by my kuya. When the next audition was held for PBF scholars, he taught me the basic positions and helped me practice. I forced myself to pass the auditions because I was afraid that my brother would bully me at home,” she recounts.
At the age of 10, Jessa passed the audition and was part of the original 25 PCF scholars who was given free classical ballet training at Ballet Manila through the efforts of Macuja-Elizalde, the Philippines’ prima ballerina. They were also provided with dancing attires, ballet shoes and nutritious food as part of the PBF scholarship. After seven years of training, Jessa is one of the two scholars from the original batch of 25 who remained. She is also a consistent top student at PCF.
Looking back, Jessa said that if it wasn’t for ballet, she would have remained a typical student. “If I wasn’t given a chance to learn ballet, I would have only stayed at school and focused on my studies. If it wasn’t for ballet, I wouldn’t have been able to go to other countries to perform,” she said. Since her audition in 2008, Jessa has already performed in ballet productions including Swan Lake, Pinocchio, Don Quixote and Cinderella. At age 14, she became a finalist of the 2012 Asian Grand Prix in Hong Kong and performed in Macau a year later. Early this year, Jessa flew to London to perform during a fund-raising event for the PCF.
Jessa’s ballet teachers saw potential in her and eventually promoted her as a Ballet Manila company member, who is entitled to a monthly honorarium from Ballet Manila. Jessa’s allowance from Ballet Manila and honorarium from occasional ballet productions has added to the regular family income. From this, Jessa was able to provide capital for her father’s fish vending business and to convince her mother to stop scavenging. Nevertheless, two of her sisters continue on as rubbish pickers to augment the family’s income.
DISCIPLINE AND RESPECT
Aside from the exposure she got, Jessa learned the values of discipline and respect from ballet.
“We need discipline in order to learn. Even if only one of us makes a mistake, we will start from the beginning. We also have to show respect to our teachers and to our fellow dancers because without respect, we will not learn enough,” she says.
The training she got and values she imbibed prove handy beyond the walls of the ballet school. Despite being a professional ballet dancer, Jessa still dreams of finishing her studies to become a teacher someday. Jessa wants to teach Math, Science, and English.
“I want to go to college and to continue ballet training simultaneously. I want to, eventually, teach and still continue on with ballet because I’ve learned to love it. I can also be a ballet teacher and I also dream of having a ballet school of my own someday where I will teach poor dancers like me,” she said. Already, Jessa is starting to teach fellow slum dwellers at a ballet studio recently inaugurated inside the PCF school.
“Whenever I look back, I wonder how I was able to get to where I am right now. I was only a scavenger and yet, I was able to attend ballet classes that only well-off dancers can afford,” she says. “It all seemed a dream to me. All I wanted was to learn. But I got more than training because I am starting to make a difference in my family’s future.” Photos Chris Yuhico
