Jose “Joey” Horstmann Omila
Executive Director/Choreographer
His friends call him Joey. He fills a number of hats and wears different shoes in any project he endeavors. No one will be at all surprised that he is the Executive Director, Choreographer, and Costume and Prop Designer for the Philippine Performing Arts Company.
Since coming to Tampa in 1986, Joey has been elected in various positions, (President, Board Member, Chairperson) in different Filipino organizations around the Tampa Bay area.
Born of Spanish-German-Filipino parents in Bugusan, Cotobato, a city in the southern island of Mindanao in the Philippines, he is number 5 of 10 children.
He performed his first solo dance at the age of 5 in his sister’s ballet dance company. Joey continued performing in high school and college and was one of the original members of the University of Santo Tomas’ Dance Group called Sallinggawi.
After earning a degree in Fine Arts, majoring in Advertising at UST, he joined different local productions and performed in various Broadway plays. He then joined the world famous Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company and later the Karilagan International and Fiesta Filipina Dance Companies.
After touring the world several times with the different dance companies, he landed a job with the Baron Arndt Krupp von Und Halbach of Germany, known as the Steel Baron. He rose through the ranks and became the Lord Chamberlain until the Baron died in 1986.
That same year, he decided to settle in Zephyrhills, FL. In 1987, he volunteered to choreograph the show for the Pilipino American Association of Tampa’s Inaugural Ball. Since then, he has not stopped volunteering to any civic or social organization, not only in the Tampa Bay area, but also throughout the United States.