1 month after Vancouver tragedy, this Filipino folk dance group is channeling grief into community support

On the morning of April 26, Rachel Ambrosio and the dancers with her Filipino folk dance group were finishing up media interviews in anticipation of their performance at the Lapu-Lapu Day festival in the afternoon. Some dancers arrived at the festival early to try some of the food and take in some of the other performances.  

Ambrosio, the president of PhilCAS of B.C., said the performance went great — they interacted with the audience, had some laughs and enjoyed the good weather. 

When the group left the Lapu-Lapu Day festivities at about 5:15 p.m. PT, the energy was still high as the sun shone down on a day of celebration. 

But later that evening, Ambrosio learned there had been an incident. 

Eleven people were killed and many others injured when the driver of a black SUV slammed into a crowd as the festival was winding down, just after 8 p.m. The driver, 30-year-old Kai-Ji Adam Lo, has since been charged with eight counts of second-degree murder. 

People across the world mourned with Vancouver's Filipino community in the days following what police described as the "darkest day in our city's history."

And while Ambrosio, 36, and the PhilCAS dancers were certainly mourning, they also channelled their grief into community support. 

"A lot of our dancers really leaned into what's the call to action that we can do," Ambrosio said. "In tragedies, there's always an opportunity to sit back and hide, but they wanted to help."

PhilCAS members Thea Hamberger and Sophie Ianonne-LeBlanc, both 18, got teachers and students at their Richmond, B.C., high school involved, and turned an annual spring showcase for arts students into a fundraising opportunity. 

The pair were slated to perform a Filipino folk dance at the showcase, but after the festival incident, Hamberger said it didn't feel right doing so without acknowledging what had happened. 

They suggested turning it into a fundraiser, which garnered enthusiastic support from staff and students. 

They raised more than $1,900 for United Way B.C., which has been collecting donations to provide assistance, counselling and trauma services to those affected. 

"It felt nice to be able to do something and make a difference," said Hamberger, who joined PhilCAS over a decade ago. "It felt really nice to be able to say that when [the tragedy] happened, we tried our best to do something, because we really cared."

Ianonne-LeBlanc, who isn't Filipino herself but has been a dancer with PhilCAS for several years, said the tragedy taught her and the other members of PhilCAS how to support one another and the community at large.