Today we’d like to introduce you to Carlo Patenia.
Hi Carlo, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My name is Carlo Garrido Patenia and I was born on March 30, 1991 on the beautiful island of Guam in the village of Yigo. I am a Second Generation immigrant from parents who migrated from the Philippines. So I am ethnically Filipino and Culturally Guamanian. I am Queer and Nonbinary, and go by He/They pronouns.
As far as my journey in dance and content creation it has been a long journey. I first started dancing when I was in elementary/middle school and remember my first moments of dancing were at my school’s musicals, live performances at malls and outlets, or simply by myself with siblings, those moments were my favorite.
One thing about me is that I’ve always enjoyed performing! Whether it was dancing, or acting, in school events, I was always so enthusiastic to join and this brought me joy. After 7th grade I moved out of Guam and lived in Virginia for a year. This was my parent’s hopes to provide me with a better education as I would be moving to the states later on to attend college.
This was my first time separating from my family but the start of a journey as a leader and as a performing artist/content creator.
I was living in Newport News, VA, and was under the care of my lola (grandma in tagalog) and auntie. This experience was one-of-a-kind but it taught me a lot about using your voice to create change. I went to a middle school with only a handful of Asian American/Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander friends that I knew of, and it was a culture shock since I transferred from Guam who’s schools’ majority was Asian American and Pacific Islanders. During this time my aunt got me a camera to chronologize my life and dancing. She essentially was my first experience of what it looked like to record videos of dance/singing skits from my siblings and I. My aunt always believed in my art and my ability to perform. Shout out to her!
This year of youth was also my first time experiencing dance cyphers at parties. I saw breaking, popping, and just freestyling in general. I was inspired.
I didn’t end up staying in Virginia and moved back to Guam to start high school. Coming back to Guam was different because prior to me leaving the island I went to a private school and returned back to attend public school where I had no friends and had to create a new identity. During this era the movie You Got Served was released and everyone wanted to dance like the people in the movie. I remember my aunt who took care of me in VA who also got me the camera purchased me choreography videos to learn the dances from the movie.
As freshman year started in Guam I remember there was a school-body dance competition that was happening. I competed solo and was the only freshmen to join the competition and I got first. This jump started my dance identity in high school. At that time dance didn’t really exist at schools outside of an actual dance studio you were paying for outside. So I thought it was a great idea to start a dance crew at my new high school and ended up creating Guam’s first dance crew that was allstyle’s called Urban Individuals. This was special because this team had dancers with no studio experience. Very grassroots. My whole high school career was all about creating memories with my team and friends I made through dancing and also won the title of Guam’s Best Dance Crew before leaving for college.
In conjunction with my dance era in high school this was also my start as a content creator on Youtube. On Youtube I shared adventures of my siblings and I at home as @bkah671 (bored kids at home and 671 was Guam’s area code) and on my personal dance profile @uiclo (clo pronounces see-low is my artist/creator name).
As I got older and learned how much I wanted to create art and dance I made it a goal to try to make it in the industry in LA. Once high school ended I moved to LA with a couple of my closest friends and started to take classes at a community college and dance classes in North Hollywood. I spent a year and a few months in LA but it was cut short because my parents wanted me to focus on college so they moved me to San Diego to attend the University of San Diego.
As a transfer student to the University I had no friends and had to create an identity for myself. The school body was majority white and I really had to search for space for students of color. There was a dance team on campus but it was majority white women, so I decided to start a multicultural dance team called Less Than Three and at the same time I was also a part of one of San Diego’s competitive young adult teams called 220. Not only was I involved with dance at a collegiate level, competitive level, but I was also doing dance as forms of resistance to advocate for oppressed communities at a community level. I did a showcase at the Mosaics Showcase which is an artivist community event at the Malcolm X Library. Moreover Less Than Three is still a strong team at the University of San Diego to this day.
My dancing and my passions in creating change and advocating for marginalized communities is my identity now. All my experiences have shaped me to become a leader in developing dance and art events to prompt positive change. Furthermore, being a content creator explores the many ways I express my life and my passions from it. From my joys with dancing and adventures with food I post to chronologize my happiness and share with many communities on avenues such as Threads, Instagram, and Tiktok. I hope to inspire other Creators to utilize their energies to build artistic communities for joy and collective hope.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road. As I have mentioned there was always obstacles and adverse events that I had to overcome to create art and joy for myself. I moved away from my family twice for school and dreams so I was depressed a lot, and very lonely. However feeling these emotions and going through these obstacles only pushed me to become stronger in my art and passions
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am currently a Program Coordinator for a non-profit called APPEAL (Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment and Leadership). My professional experience as a program coordinator and a community organizer, along with my natural artistic leadership skills I gained through grassroots organizing and dancing, helped me develop a strong understanding of creative community outreach and relationship building. Furthermore, the skills I gained from being a Creator strengthened my development of innovative strategies to grow engagement in various artistic communities. I am very proud of my upbringing and artist journey. This journey has shaped me to become a stronger artist/creator and increased my ability to connect with others holistically through art and social media.
What does success mean to you?
Success is joy. If what you are doing brings you authentic happiness that is “success” to me. Furthermore, I believe success is not a finish line, but an ongoing feeling of euphoria.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlopatenia/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Uiclo and https://www.youtube.com/@bkah671
- Other: https://www.threads.net/@carlopatenia
