CPDRC Dancing Inmates

On July 17, 2007, Garcia uploaded "Thriller" on YouTube,[4] a rendition of Michael Jackson's music video.[2][5][6] The video has Crisanto Nierre as Michael Jackson's role and openly gay inmate Wenjiel Resane as the role of Jackson's girlfriend.[7][8] Both Crisanto Nierre and Wenjiel Resane enjoy popularity amongst YouTube fans, and their faces usually highlighted quite often in most later videos.

On December 19, in an article on "Most Popular Viral Videos", Time magazine ranked CPDRC's "Thriller" fifth on its Top 10 list. Time's stated description of the prisoners was: "Orange-jumpsuited accused murderers, rapists, and drug dealers paid homage to Michael Jackson's Thriller in a dance performance filmed at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines".[9]

On October 6, 2007, Cardinal Archbishop Ricardo Vidal visited CPDRC for the first time, and the prisoners performed six dances for him, as part of the celebration of the Prison Awareness Month; the Archbishop noted, "It was a marvelous show of discipline. If only they had practiced that (discipline) in their lives, they wouldn't be here."[10]

CPDRC requested to participate in the 438th Founder's Day celebration. About 20 inmates were chosen to perform in front of the Cebu Capitol. They performed a medley of "Thriller", "Jump", and "Radio Ga Ga". Donations from the performance totaled 1.6 million peso (US$35,000).[1] The governor and provincial officials were so moved, that they included all 1,500 inmates in a share of the mid-year bonuses for Capitol employees. Each inmate was given 1,000 Philippines pesos (US$22) for good behavior.[1][11] On December 27, Michael Rama, acting mayor of Cebu City, announced that the Sinulog Foundation executive director Ricky Ballesteros informed the former of the possibility of CPDRC’s participation, but was concerned about parade security.[12] In January 2008, Cebu provincial governor Gwen Garcia, visited CPDRC and took part in some of the dancing exercises with the prisoners. They danced to her signature song, "Mabuhi Ka, Sugbuanon".[13][14]

"Together in Electric Dreams" by Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder, and "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice were presented during the Garcia's visit to the prison, on her birthday in October. A competition was held amongst the prisoners as to who would take the lead role of Vanilla Ice in the dance.

In April 2008, CPDRC established a two-hour program, planned for the last Saturday of every month, where visitors could watch the inmates perform, have their pictures taken with inmates, and buy souvenir T-shirts.[15] Nineteen-year-old Egan Torrecampo, a lead dancer, said, "When we are dancing we tend to forget why we were here in the first place."[14]

Ten hours after Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, the 1,500 CPDRC inmates performed a tribute show which included songs "Ben", "I'll Be There", and "We Are the World".[16]

The "Queen Medley" consisting of eight Queen songs notably includes the performance of popular gay/transvestite prisoner Wenjiel Resane dressed as a ballerina performing a major routine. Wenjiel was most famous for his performance in "Thriller" with prisoner Crisanto Nierre. The CPDRC 8-minute group performance of Queen songs ends with the appeal "Peace to mankind" and a quotation from Byron Garcia: "If we make life like a living hell for these fallen angels, then we might just be turning out devils once they are released and re-integrated into society".

"Grease Lightning" was performed on November 28, 2009, on the third anniversary of a shooting at CPDRC between feuding gangs. Arabo, a surviving gang leader, was given a lead dancer position. It was his last performance before he was transferred to New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa to continue his three consecutive life sentences (or minimum 90 years before parole) for a triple murder.

"They Don't Care About Us" with intro from "Bad" was performed by the CPDRC inmates on January 19, 2010. The dance was specially choreographed for them by Travis Payne, the Michael Jackson choreographer and associate director of This Is It. Through an initiative of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment[17] Payne and two of the top dancers of Michael Jackson's This Is It show, Daniel Celebre and Dres Reid[18] performed with the CPDRC inmates in the Cebu prison, with all the inmate dancers wearing This Is It tribute black T-shirts. Payne, Celebre, and Reid taught the routine to the inmates within 2 days, and all three took part with them in the public performance. The video shoot was part of the global launch of Jackson’s This Is It DVD by Sony Pictures Worldwide.[19]

The customized mix contained dance routines and sampling from Michael Jackson's "Bad" in the intro, and a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. while an audio of his speech is being played. Will Devaughn, a popular Filipino model and actor took part in the routine carrying a poster of the African-American civil rights activist.[20] King is specifically mentioned in the song lyrics as well ("Some things in life they just don't wanna see / But if Martin Luther was livin' / He wouldn't let this be"). In addition to the dance video, a feature video of Payne and the MJ Dancers visit to the prison, the dance practices and visits to Cebu officials was made to document this initiative.[21]

Payne and company also danced to "Thriller" with the inmates. The "Thriller" viral video by the CPDRC inmates featuring Crisanto Nierre and Wenjiel Resane had catapulted the inmates to fame. "Michael saw the Cebu dancing inmates on YouTube and enjoyed them immensely", said his choreographer, Travis Payne. "During rehearsals, we would watch and he would get tremendous joy". Sony Pictures' Fritz Friedman told USA Today, "We thought it would be a great idea to pay homage to MJ on the occasion of the release of This Is It by going to Cebu and having Travis work with the dancers to create this piece which is from the film."[22] The inmates also made special performance of their Michael Jackson tribute routine.

In February 2010, Cebu governor Gwen Garcia ordered that the program be put on hold, pending investigation of proper accounting practices for donations received by generous admirers of the CPDRC program. The inmates’ longstanding choreographer, Gwen Lador also resigned. Byron's contract as Capitol security consultant had also not been renewed past 2010. Media reports talked about strains in relationships between Gwen Garcia and Byron Garcia, as Gwen instructed the Provincial Agriculture Office to continue with the reform and intensify the program on "planting of crops inside the compound" instead of dancing, expressing concerns that the dance performances were overshadowing the general rehabilitation program.[23]

After a public outcry asking for the resumption of the dancing program for the inmates, Cebu Capitol consultant Rory Jon Sepulveda said that the rehabilitation by way of dancing at the CPDRC has continued, but the public viewing has been put on hold. "The CPDRC is now on regular operations—the dancing continues to be one of the rehabilitation activities", said Sepulveda. Furthermore, Sepulveda said, "Public performances will resume once the mechanism for full accountability on donations are in place".[24] Also, as a sharp contrast from earlier days, as of March 2010, the dancing has become optional. About half of the prisoners said that they would not take part if the performances were not public.[25] The Governor sought the services of the original "Thriller" choreographer, Vince Rosales, to teach the dance routines inside the jail facility for the inmates.

On September 29, 2012, after "insistent demand" from the public, and after many months of no online releases, the CPDRC dancers returned to perform "Gangnam Style", an international dance hit by South Korean rapper PSY, in the rain.[26]

The Dancing Inmates inspired the launch of a stage musical entitled Prison Dancer: The Musical. The musical play was staged in New York during the New York Music Festival (NYMF) in July 2012 at the St. Clements Theatre. The story revolves around the lives of eight Filipino maximum-security prisoners who get a shot at changing their lives when a video of their dance-based rehabilitation program becomes a YouTube hit. The main character, Christian Escodero was played by Filipino-American actor Jose Llana. The play was created by writer-director-composer Romeo Candido and writer Carmen De Jesus, who met while performing in the musical Miss Saigon.[44]

In 2012, Filipino Canadian singer-actor Mikey Bustos starred in a 12-episode interactive web series titled Prison Dancer: The Interactive Web Musical inspired mainly by the CPDRC dancers.[45] The series also featured 12 original songs with music and lyrics by Romeo Candido and script by Romeo Candido and Carmen De Jesus, a creative team who met while performing in Miss Saigon. The series recounts the story of six Filipino prisoners whose lives are forever changed when they decide to form a dancing group inside the prison and turn a maximum security jailhouse into a world stage. This web series is an adaptation of Candido and De Jesus' stage musical production, Prison Dancer: The Musical." [46] The episodes were titled chronologically "Point of View", "Day One", On the Inside", "Lose Your Way", "Pak Yow", "Evermore", "Step", "Loveteams", "This Great Divide", "Breakout", "Finally Free" and Sensation".[47]

In 2013, a film, Dance of the Steel Bars was launched through Portfolio Films International. The 94-minute action and adventure drama film that premiered in the Philippines on June 12, 2013 and is greatly inspired by the CPDRC Dancing Inmates of Cebu. Upon insistence of the directors, the film's first screening was held inside the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center a week earlier on June 7.[48][49] Jointly directed by Cesar Apolinario, a GMA News and Public Affairs reporter and host and Marnie Manicad, producer-director of National Geographic documentaries, it stars Dingdong Dantes and Patrick Bergin. The screenwriters were Cris Lim and Michael Villar. The film tells the story of Frank Parish (played by Bergin), a retired US fireman and philanthropist who finds himself wrongly accused of murder of a local Filipino. Stuck in a Philippines prison, Frank becomes friends with an imprisoned dance instructor Mando (played by Dingdong Dantes) convicted of killing a transsexual. whose passion for dancing will topple the corrupt system that weighs down the inmates' chance to become better individuals. Allona, a transvestite (played by Joey Paras) in the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center plays role of a dance instructor who tries to contribute to prison reforms by teaching his fellow inmates dance exercises. Also in the film are Ricky Davao, the jail warden, Gabe Mercado, as Diaz, the corrupt and ambitious deputy warden and Thou Reyes, as Dong Mata, a criminally insane hatchet man of the deputy warden. It was filmed on location in Cebu and Manila and some scenes actually filmed inside Cebu prison filmed many inmates in various roles. Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia played a cameo as herself. Cindera Che, a well-known performance coach based in Los Angeles, choreographed the dance performances in the movie. Edward White, a London-based composer, wrote the score for the movie.[48][50] the film received 4 nominations for the 32nd Luna Awards.