IN HER USUAL SELF-DEPREcating and irreverent persona, Bessie Badilla summed up her remarkable journey from Tondo girl to Balenciaga model to TV star to indie film producer and, most recently, carnival queen, in nine words: ?I?m just a simple fag hag (actually, she said babaeng bakla) from the Philippines.?

The quote is from the bio-documentary, ?Dance of My Life,? produced by Nick Brown and written and directed by Lyca Benitez-Brown of ?Batibot? fame.

Now based in the United States, Bessie flies home to Manila every so often, visits that have become more frequent since she added film producing to her resume.

Her most recent homecoming was for the opening this month of a Gawad Kalinga village built in honor of her late husband, Bambi del Castillo, in Barangay Balian, Panguil, Laguna.

Apart from co-producing the much-awarded indie film ?Baseco: Bakal Boys,? Bessie worked on the bio-docu for two years.

On the surface, the docu chronicles Bessie?s transformation from a fiftysomething widow into the first Filipina destaque or carnival queen in São Paolo, Brazil?s famed Mardi Gras parades.

While attending a mutual friend?s wedding, Brazilian carnaval ambassador Renato Freitas spotted Bessie on the dance floor and convinced her to be the queen of three samba schools: Escola de Samba Unidos de Vila Maria, Escola de Samba Nene de Vila Matilde and Escola de Samba Vai Vai. (The latter would emerge as the 2008 Carnaval winner.)

Not fully comprehending the challenge ahead, as she would later admit, Bessie said yes.

In the docu, she recalls that she had to ?shed 25 pounds, learn the samba and master the Portuguese language? in less than six months.

She also had to wear a Swarovski crystal-studded costume that weighed 80 pounds. Only now can she joke about it: ?It was like carrying a balikbayan box.?

On top of these hurdles, she was also grieving Bambi?s sudden demise, taking care of a bustling household with three daughters and recovering from thyroid cancer.

The docu also reveals how Bessie survived an abusive marriage, plus a harrowing secret that, ironically, inspired her to forge ahead on life?s highway.

Thus, she is seen in a different light, far removed from her iconic role as a fag hag and fashionista on the 1980s TV show, ?Eh Kasi Babae.?

Between images of the patient in a hospital gown, undergoing a battery of tests, and the dancing queen, in a feathery, bejeweled costume, blowing kisses from atop a colorful float, viewers invariably get the drift.

As Sister Mary Placid, OSB, a teacher in St. Scholastica, says in the docu, ?For Bessie, nothing is impossible.?

In a nutshell, that?s Bessie, and her ?Dance.?

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