Fresh off recent performances in Guam, Gab showed off his razor-sharp dance moves alongside his dad and mentor, Gary V. “Seventy percent of those who attended were natives from Guam,” the tall, skittish 19-year-old tells us during the launch of the instructional dance CD ASAP Supah Dance, in which Gab shows off his stuff on “Shake Yo Thang.” “They came up to me after the show to say how much they liked my performance.”

          Not that that’s a stretch as he, after all, learned from the best. “Because I’ve been doing it (dancing) all my life, in a way, it’s become a natural thing to me,” Gab says during an earlier email interview. “But when I learn new moves, it can get pretty bloody! Of course with much practice comes excellence (and) that I learned from my dad.”

          In addition to the instructional CD, Gab has been working on his first solo album that was due out later this year. It’s been a dawn-to-dusk-to-dawn affair for him. “I just stay in my room and work,” he admits. “I don’t keep track of time. Especially since I have very heavy curtains, I don’t know if it’s day or night!”

          He also confesses to dancing wherever the rhythm and spirit takes him. “I dance everywhere! Ha-ha! The mall, school, at home, in the car, on the plane! Anywhere, everywhere!” Before scheduled performances, he practices from between three to four hours a day.
And the ideas for his music and his moves?

          “Ideas come and go actually. Cheesy or cliché as it may sound, I dig deep inside my heart for the ideas – he-he, drama!” But turning serious, he adds, “Most of the time I pray for it...and when it comes, it’s awesome!”

          His first album promises to showcase the inspirational awesomeness, a self-produced, self-composed 13-track debut album, which he says is a mix of electronica, dance, chill, and “music that’s bagay while you’re on the road to the beach.” In it, he sings two tracks and enlists the help of friends whose talents he is exited to show to the world.

          Tentatively titled My Turn, the album is Gab’s “shout out to the world.” He explains: “It’s not so much my turn to outshine all others but my turn to let my talent out.”

          And the talent is considerable, his bookings ever expanding. Last August, as guest performer in the 20th Awit Awards, Gab showed off his vocal and rap skills for the very first time. Gab is also a mainstay with the Sunday noontime variety show of ABS-CBN, ASAP ’07. He has had a guest appearance in QTV’s weekly sitcom, I Robot, which stars Ogie Alcasid. And he continues to appear as guest performer in his dad’s live concerts.

          While the next few months will be very busy for him, the De La Salle high school graduate has set his sights on even bigger things next year. He is enrolling in a two- to three-year film and sound course at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, California. With solid academic fundamentals, Gab hopes to put up his own recording, dance, film and editing studio one day.

          “I’m gonna save up in the U.S.” he confesses, adding that he was floored by the tuition of the school he’s setting his eyes on. “I’m gonna audition as a dancer for Disney; I know they provide plenty of opportunities for their shows. Basta, I’m gonna try everything!”

          In fact, he says he even wants to start his own taxi company and burbles non-stop about ideas and stuff he’d like to try out. In fact, his dad has cautioned him about ladling out his ideas too freely. “Someone may just beat me to it,” he says.

          He stops and thinks of his role in the business he hopes to carve his own name in. “It’s hard for me sometimes when I hear people say I’m only where I am because of my dad,” he admits. “As if everything is being handed to me on a silver platter.” In the U.S. where nobody knows him, “I will start from zero.”

          But it may be too late for that. Because Gab Valenciano has proven that with or without a famous dad – and mom, former singer and talent manager Angeli Pangilinan who runs Genesis Entertainment – he already is where he is because he matches talent and ardor with butt-breaking hard work.