Ophelia Nombrado Sampang

Ophelia Nombrado Sampang was born in Macrohon, Southern Leyte. She inherited her joy and love of dancing from her late mother Villa Ibalarrosa Nombrado who was a beautiful and graceful Kuratsa dancer besides being a good singer. Ophelia’s appreciation for the beauty of Filipino folk dance began when she was in first grade performing at the annual town fiesta. It continued throughout high school when she joined the Filipino Folk Dance Club. During college, she became a member of the Mutya Dance Troupe of Manila and was a regular performer on the television show Oras Ng Ligaya. She was a dancer with Mutya aboard the Philippine President Lines during the Expo'70 Asian tour. She and her friend Evangeline Loredo were picked by Bayani Casimiro (a famous dancer and actor who’s considered the Fred Astair of the Philippines) to dance in the movie Nora in Wonderland (1970) starring Nora Aunor and Manny de Leon.

When Ophelia immigrated to the United States, she joined the Bahaghari Dance Troupe of San Francisco performing on various social functions and charity presentations in the Bay Area. One event brought her to the stage at Las Vegas Convention Center as part of the show of famous Filipino actor and balladeer Bobby Gonzales featuring Katy de la Cruz and the Reycard Duet.

Ophelia loves to share the beauty of the Filipino heritage that she led three dance productions for her church involving kids to adults wherein she was also a dancer and choreographer: Maligayang Samahan (1997), Unity (1998) and Reflections (2000).

After a hiatus to focus on her family, Ophelia joined Parangal Dance Company in 2010 and has performed at Asia On Stage in 2010 and 2013 and at the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival in 2010-2011, 2013-2014 and 2018-2019. She was part of the group that performed at Carnegie Hall for the TOFA-NY Awards in October 2015.

Ophelia Nombrado Sampang

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