Member Profile: Dante Alambra

Member Profile: Dante Alambra

The story of Sikaran started in the summer of 1851. At the time, it was merely a game rice field farmers would play in the moonlight after harvesting. Old men would kick each other for sport.

When karate arrived in the Philippines, these farmers realized their game was actually a form of martial arts. Thus, Sikaran became a formal form of martial arts and is now practiced all across the globe.

In 1977, Dante Alambra arrived in Winnipeg and discovered no one in the city was practicing any form of Filipino martial arts. Shortly after immigrating to Canada, he opened up the Sikaran-Arnis School of Martial Arts.

Since the school’s inauguration, Dante has sponsored 33 local and two global tournaments. He’s excited to announce Winnipeg will again be hosting the 4th world tourney on May 10, 2014 at the RBC Convention Centre. Athletes will fly in from the U.S., Philippines, Costa Rica, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait to compete.

Dante began practicing Arnis in 1955, and started learning about Sikaran in 1968. He started his Arnis training at only five-years-old and was taught by his father.

When he first established his business, he would run the martial arts school and find additional employment simultaneously. For five years in the early 90’s, he tried to run the institution full-time – but due to budgetary cuts in the martial arts sector, he had once again balance multiple jobs.

Needless to say, Dante is passionate and dedicated to his craft.

“The most important piece of advice I can offer to someone in business is: dedication,” says Dante. “I dedicated myself to pursuing this martial art since 1977. Many of my friends who started out at the same time are no longer in service because they weren’t dedicated enough.”

One of the reasons Dante has stayed in martial arts for so long is because of his strong connection with its culture.

“It’s a Filipino martial art. Arnes is one of the sports recognized by the government of the Philippines, and Sikaran now being integration into the Philippines’ public department of education system.”

The Sikaran-Arnis School of Martial Arts is recognized by the World Sikaran Arnis Brotherhood of the Philippines. Dante and his son also started their own organization, ARMAS (Alambra Refined Martial Arts System). ARMAS has branches all over the Canada and U.S.

Dante joined the MFBC because he believes in a mutually beneficial synergy between his company and the organization. He has taken advantage of fantastic networking and advertising opportunities through the MFBC, and was a proud sponsor of last year’s MFBC Awards Gala.