Name: Esercaina Valencia
Nicknames: Eser, Cainas
Birthday: October 5, 1986
Hometown: Gaithersburg, MD
Favorite Dance Style: My favorite style is locking. It's a fun style and I'm told to be a fun guy hehe.

I was born in Manila, Philippines and brought over to the U.S. when I was 1-year-old. Funny thing is that I was born as a premature baby (about a month and a half early) and as my parents tell me I was as big as a 2L Coca-Cola bottle. Ironically, I now stand at a height of 6'1.5" (crazy I know). I have one sibling, and he's my older brother but acts as young as 6-8 years old hehe. Love my family to death and very family oriented and don't what I'd do without them even though they drive me crazy sometimes. I currently reside in Silver Spring, MD and I have been in the DMV for the majority of my life, attended private/Catholic schools from elementary (St. Ann's Academy) to high school (St. John's College HS) and wore uniforms everyday. Both schools were located in DC. While in HS, I was in the band (yea yea yea) and played the flute in the Wind Ensemble and played in our JROTC Marching Band. I was involved in musical theater there as well.

During my middle school and high school years, outside of school, as the rest of the Tito BoyScouts, I was in Mabuhay Inc. and did cultural dancing for the Filipino community in PG and Moco (Montgomery County) areas. So pretty much dancing, band, and singing was very involved in my life and I don't know what or where I would be without it. Music is such a large influence on my life. In terms of my dancing ability, all I knew were line dancing and cultural dancing. Then of course my brother and I danced like crazy when hearing Michael Jackson or anything with a good beat when we were kids. We danced like fools (especially) when growing with our cousins AJ and Cres then of course Angeline came along a little later and joined the fun =P. So Hip-Hop was there, but the dance ability was finding its way to us. I was exposed to Breaking during high school but never participated because I didn't have the self-esteem to do it. I was still developing some kind of dance style for myself on the dance floor at dances lol. Good thing I have rhythm haha.

It wasn't until I arrived at UMBC that I saw my brother and his friends dancing choreography. It all started from being in the Filipino American Student Association (FASA). They perform annually at their District Six Semi-Formal every December. I didn't know what it was at the time, but I did want in on it. I met this individual Lyle Beniga that attended the university and he taught my brother and his friends how to dance like that. So my next step in music and arts was the Hip-Hop scene. It was challenging especially learning from Lyle - very humble friend and dancer and still is humble to this day btw. Eventually, Lyle's dance inspiration blossomed from the FASA dancers to UMBC's own dance troupe, Major Definition, where I have danced and choreographed for 5 years, but our name wasn't always that. We had to go through several name changes which one of them was Common Ground lol. I didn't have the self-confidence to do something like this, but I pushed myself to do so. Initially when I got involved with this, I did it for vanity and to impress. Then eventually I realized vanity wasn't what I wanted out of it. I stuck with dancing and the development of this group of friends as dancers. I got my answers as soon as I got involved in the culture that is Hip-Hop. Witnessing all these amazing dancers in the cyphers at Culture Shock's East Coast Dance Competition Pre-show at George Washington University in 2005 was a hit to the face for me. It was all for love and for self-growth as well as living up to the art that is dance. I fell in love with it and wanted to get better, but of course my parents frowned upon dancing for a bit. I danced anyway and stuck with it throughout my undergraduate years. Soon enough, Major Definition was thriving. It took a lot of time to get where we're at and we decided to compete as a legitimate dance troupe. The hard work paid off. They recently earned 3rd Place in Culture Shock's East Coast Dance Competition 2009 in May. After about 2 more years of watching in the audience since my first time viewing ECDC, I wanted Major Definition to be on that stage. A dream I had for the team since Major Def became official as a competing team.

From all this choreography, I know there were several different dance styles that made up Hip-Hop or are and have become associated with it. Popping was something that looked cool but I knew it wasn't for me. Breaking/B-Boying was a lot of physical effort and required physical attribute in order to perform. I didn't have physical attribute or self-confidence to do that either. I didn't learn about other dance styles until later but I didn't favor them as #1 in my book. Don't get me wrong they're all awesome dance styles, but they weren't for me. So being in the dance scene for about 3 years, I found Locking along the way to be the dance style for me. First time I saw Locking was when Culture Shock, D.C. did a piece to it back at ECDC 2005. It wasn't until when my friends Mike and Miguel (pre-Boogie Bots) were on CSDC and I saw them in our student union practicing while Common Ground (Major Definition) was practicing for a show back in 2006. So I wanted to see what they were doing so I tried it out and felt awkward and goofy. Soon enough I wanted to train more in it. Basically, I watched too many Locking tutorials and videos, on youtube, on my own and self-trained just mastering basics, but my "funk" wasn't there yet. Bryan East helped me improve my technique a bit more just to clean up my act as well as come correct with the style. From then on I continued my self-training and went to take classes wherever available to just improve and learn more about the Locking style. I am currently improving and still learning =). I love this style to death!

Of course throughout these years TBS was always there. We always have fun and are around DMV doing shows big or small. I can always count on my Tru Family - always and forever. I can't live without them. These are the kind of people you do not let go of because they're all dime-a-dozen. These individuals have heart as well as good spirits. I call them friends, weirdos, crazy, stupid, but most of all great companions and each have inspired me in their own way. We just click together and we just have good, clean, fun =P. I've grown up with most of them and known them since childhood so we pretty much know how we think and tick (scary I know lol). Overall, I love each and every one of them.
I graduated UMBC with a Bachelor's in Psychology in May 2009. Currently working and trying to pursue something higher in my life. Still dancing with my one and only crew - TBS and am on Culture Shock, D.C. Dance Troupe. I go back from time to time to see Major Definiton at UMBC and teach, as well as choreograph. All in all, I do this for me and for the love of the art and educate others to be aware. I thank God for this gift as well as making it this far in my life. Looking back at what I have done and accomplished, I have no regrets and remain satisfied. So I'm gonna let this ride keep going. It's not the destination, but the journey that makes it all worthwhile. Life is good =)

Nice lil quote for yall to think about and something I've used to reflect on my self as a dancer and person:

"Ultimately, martial art means
honestly expressing yourself...
it is easy for me to put on a show and be cocky,
or I can show you some really fancy movement...
But to express oneself honestly, not lying to oneself,
and to express myself honestly...
Now that, my friend is very hard to do."
-Bruce Lee