Fresh from her Riverdale appearance, AC Bonifacio is gaining momentum, and if she keeps doing what she does best &mdash; whether that&rsquo;s dancing, performing, creating online content, or going viral on the internet &mdash; there&rsquo;s no doubt that she&rsquo;ll be performing on a bigger stage soon.

PHOTOGRAPHY Renzo Navarro STYLING Yanna Lopez

<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@andreebonifacioo?source=h5_t">AC Bonifacio</a> can&rsquo;t stop moving. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if I consider myself a workaholic,&rdquo; she tells me over Zoom, sporting oversized glasses, a lavender top, and short, freshly cropped hair. Bonifacio&rsquo;s smile comes easily when she speaks, regardless of a gloomy Wednesday afternoon and rumors of yet another stricter lockdown in Metro Manila. &ldquo;I think I just love going out and working. I love getting all glammed up; I love shooting. When I&rsquo;m at home, I have to constantly be doing something, because I don&rsquo;t want to just be scrolling on my phone. Whether it&rsquo;s dancing, playing video games, or just [doing] TikTok, my body needs to be moving.&rdquo;
This comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with this 18-year-old, a professional dancer and viral internet sensation recognized for her talent for performance. Before the millions of views on her YouTube and TikTok dance videos, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgXv9aQO4yQ">a 12-year-old Bonifacio kickstarted her career after guesting on The Ellen DeGeneres Show with her then-dance partner, Lucky Ancheta</a>. While kids her age were going through the motions of adolescence, Bonifacio found herself eventually starring in ABS-CBN reality competitions, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQr4DD06pyk">dancing with Ariana Grande</a>, hanging out with Charlie Puth, and attending Hollywood events, among other engagements &mdash; a strong start to a promising show business career.
&ldquo;I was so shy as a kid. My parents were doing everything just to get me out of my shell. My mom actually thought I wasn&rsquo;t going to become a dancer, that I couldn&rsquo;t move my body well enough,&rdquo; says Bonifacio, who grew up in Vancouver, Canada, at a house shared with her other Filipino relatives apart from her immediate family. In an effort to remember their roots, her parents decided to immerse her in a Filipino community in Vancouver during her formative years, where she had her first brush with dance. Her initial step into it was learning traditional local dances like the Tinikling and the Cari&ntilde;osa.

knit dress and pants, Rod Malanao

It wasn&rsquo;t until the age of nine that she moved into another dance studio and discovered her love for hip-hop, and eventually, her knack for dancing. &ldquo;People started noticing me after I started to train technically in hip-hop and its different genres. Coaches began adding me into all these different dance groups. That was when I was like &lsquo;oh, kaya ko naman pala!&rsquo; and I could keep going with it as long as I kept on training,&rdquo; Bonifacio says.
When I ask her what kind of artists she liked to listen to, she excitedly mentions older hip-hop classics like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUhRKVIjJtw&amp;list=PLkKaok32A3scn6ar7W3ubl1Q392eVj26V">Biggie Smalls</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41qC3w3UUkU">Tupac</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uikJTnmtgw">Jay-Z</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vwNcNOTVzY">Kanye West</a>, despite her young age. &ldquo;I love Biggie. Being in hip-hop, this is what I grew up listening to,&rdquo; she gushes. &ldquo;A lot of people find it very weird. When they look at my music, they&rsquo;re like, &lsquo;AC, ano &lsquo;tong playlist mo?!&rsquo;&rdquo;
Throughout Bonifacio&rsquo;s teen years, she went on to be part of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2heK1PD_stQ">ABS-CBN&rsquo;s Dance Kids </a>(which she won the grand prize for) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQxgD316QQY">Your Face Sounds Familiar: Kids</a>, got signed onto Star Magic, released singles, and did occasional acting gigs on the same network. Bonifacio was also choreographing and training dancers all throughout the Philippines as early as 15. Life&rsquo;s pace seemed to be picking up quickly until Bonifacio, like everyone else, found herself in the face of a global pandemic in 2020. During quarantine, she moved back to Vancouver and stayed there for most of the year.
&ldquo;[My family and I] would just find little things to do together,&rdquo; Bonifacio reminisces. With her younger brother, she played video games after he had taught her how to play Fortnite. Lazy days were then spent learning how to paint while watching Bob Ross online. Bonifacio and her mother would attempt cooking trends seen on TikTok. In the meantime, she and her cousin, apart from going through online classes, would create choreography and shoot YouTube and TikTok videos.

knit top and pants, Rod Malanao crochet tank top, Skein Studios lace-up platform sandals, Josanna

"I love how [TikTok] created such a big platform for all of us to just enjoy, have fun, and become one. Rather than us being separated into different groups, anybody can join in nowadays.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Bonifacio had already been harboring a steady following on both YouTube and TikTok during the past few years, but it was during the pandemic that she&rsquo;d found good leverage thanks to TikTok&rsquo;s growing popularity among her age group. When more users started going on the social media platform in 2020, with around <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/07/07/what-the-rise-of-tiktok-says-about-generation-z/?sh=575db8806549">60% of them being part of Generation Z</a>, Bonifacio was consistently posting dance videos and challenges, and at the same time updating her YouTube account on a regular basis. Her K-pop dance covers had gained more traction over quarantine, with her &ldquo;How You Like That&rdquo; video bagging second place in an official BLACKPINK dance cover contest.
As of writing, she holds an impressive 2 million followers on YouTube and 4.4 million followers on TikTok, surpassing the showbiz peers she had frequently collaborated and danced with in the past. It&rsquo;s easy to tell that Bonifacio, no stranger to virality, possesses the same tenacity and drive her fellow Gen Z members have, solidifying herself as a confident and forceful online personality to keep on watching. On Gen Z and their place on the internet, Bonifacio expresses how creating content simply comes naturally to them, and how strong their sense of digital community is.
&nbsp;&ldquo;I think Gen Z has so much potential. We&rsquo;ve been exposed to so much, as we were born in a time where technology is being used for pretty much everything. Gen Z, we love creating, and we&rsquo;re more out there.&nbsp; Because we were born in the digital years, it&rsquo;s so easy to take a selfie and share parts of ourselves online, whereas other [generations] are a bit more private. We grew up in this social media world where we&rsquo;re all just constantly sharing,&rdquo; she says enthusiastically.
&nbsp;

top, Skein Studios shorts, Yeen sandals, Andante

Dance challenges are one of the most popular types of videos seen on TikTok, and Bonifacio thinks the platform has made it even easier for people who don&rsquo;t normally dance to just try it out for the sake of simple enjoyment. &ldquo;I say this all the time, but dance is just a universal language. I&rsquo;ve gone to countries where they can&rsquo;t speak English, but the minute we start dancing together, everyone understands each other. It&rsquo;s kind of the same with TikTok. Someone just has to create choreography and you can make a whole video out of that, and people can just relate. I love how it created such a big platform for all of us to just enjoy, have fun, and become one. Rather than us being separated into different groups, anybody can join in nowadays.&rdquo;&nbsp;
More recently, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gm6SXBL-po">Bonifacio made headlines and set social media abuzz for her cameo on The CW series Riverdale, where she played a high school cheerleader going head-to-head with Cheryl Blossom (portrayed by Madelaine Petsch) through a dance showdown</a>. Contrary to popular belief, Bonifacio auditioned for the role and managed to successfully bag it during a time when she wasn&rsquo;t booking any jobs.
&ldquo;I'm a normal teenager who gets sad when I don't get the part. And then when Riverdale came in, my mom almost declined it because she could tell I was getting so sad, with me not getting all the parts that I was auditioning for. But I sent in a tape anyway with no expectations at all. A few days later, my agent called me and was like &lsquo;You booked it!&rsquo; My mom and I were jumping for joy,&rdquo; she laughs. &ldquo;It was the craziest dream come true. AC, five years ago, was watching Riverdale on her bed and now I can watch it and see myself there, even if it&rsquo;s just a little dance battle.&rdquo;

top, Yeen maillot, Sundae pants, Rod Malanao lace-up sandals, Josanna

&ldquo;I say this all the time, but dance is just a universal language. I&rsquo;ve gone to countries where they can&rsquo;t speak English, but the minute we start dancing together, everyone understands each other."

Having just come back to Manila in February of this year, Bonifacio has been steadily rejoining local showbiz, regularly taping for ASAP while balancing her vlog and other online content. Although the young performer has no specific plans for what comes next for her, she remains optimistic and open for more exciting projects that may come her way.
&ldquo;Dream collabs?&rdquo; I quickly ask before wrapping up the interview with 10 minutes to spare. &ldquo;Oh gosh, there&rsquo;s so many of them. Locally, I&rsquo;ve been wanting to work with SB19,&rdquo; Bonifacio mentions eagerly. &ldquo;And internationally, I mean, if it&rsquo;s even possible, then definitely BLACKPINK, BTS, and Bruno Mars. In my dreams, if anything.&rdquo;
&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve already danced with Ariana Grande, and you were on Riverdale. I&rsquo;m sure these are equally possible,&rdquo; I say. Bonifacio laughs and shrugs, ring light glimmering against the lenses of her glasses. &ldquo;Maybe. We&rsquo;ll see. I&rsquo;m just going to keep doing what I&rsquo;m doing right now.&rdquo;

knit top and skirt, Kenzo sandals, Le Scarpe

PRODUCERS Yanna Lopez and Loris Pe&ntilde;a CREATIVE DIRECTION Loris Pe&ntilde;a MAKEUP Carell Garcia HAIR Mong Amado VIDEO DIRECTOR MV Isip

The Rise and Rhythm of AC Bonifacio

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