For Filipino Canadian entrepreneur Axel Villamil, becoming a creative technologist meant bringing together parts of himself that once seemed to belong in different worlds.
Dance, computer science and his Filipino roots have shaped a career that has taken Villamil from performing onstage to building StageKeep, a Toronto-based technology company creating tools for performers and creatives.
Long before technology became part of that journey, creativity gave Villamil a sense of belonging.
His introduction to dance came unexpectedly in the basement of a church while he was staying with relatives during a difficult period in his childhood.
Villamil remembers his older cousin inviting him into a dance circle.
“When Kuya says go in the circle or lets you into his group of friends, it’s like a big deal,” Villamil said. “Ever since then, I just loved creativity, the arts, music.”
That moment grew into a career in the performing arts.
Villamil appeared in musical theatre at the Stratford Festival, danced professionally and even opened for artists including T-Pain and Busta Rhymes.
He later choreographed for Filipino artists visiting Canada, including Gary Valenciano, Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil.
But Villamil was also discovering another creative outlet.
Growing up with the expectation that dance might not provide a lifelong career, he began exploring digital media before studying computer science at the University of Toronto.
Learning code to create art
Rather than seeing computer science as the opposite of art, Villamil saw another medium.
“The black screen was like my canvas as well, in my opinion,” he said. “You just have to learn how to code to create art.”
That combination would eventually become central to how Villamil describes himself today: a creative technologist.
His experience in both fields allowed him to recognize a problem while competing for Canada at an international dance competition in Austria.
Dancers back home were sending him photographs of paper diagrams and objects showing where he needed to stand in different formations.
Villamil knew the process as a performer. His technology background allowed him to imagine something different.
“Why don’t we just digitize this?” he recalled thinking.
The idea eventually became StageKeep, a software that allowed choreographers and performers to visualize formations digitally.
Villamil said the platform has since grown to more than 20,000 users, demonstrating what could happen when the creative and technology worlds were brought together.
“It was also proof to show that the arts belong in tech,” he said.
Strong Filipino roots
Villamil’s Filipino roots have remained another constant across those worlds.
His mother made an effort to keep him connected to the Philippines while he was growing up in Canada, saving money to take him on repeated trips to the country.
One childhood memory came from visiting family near Cadiz City in Negros Occidental.
When heavy rain began falling, Villamil watched his cousins run outside to play. Initially hesitant, he eventually joined them.
“It was beautiful to see the things that I didn’t have, which was that simplicity,” he said.
Those experiences gave Villamil a connection to Filipino culture that he has carried into his creative and entrepreneurial work.
He said dance also provided a community at a time when Filipino representation was less visible to him growing up in Canada.
“I found a lot of community in dance,” he said. “I found a lot of community in people around me and my family.”
Years later, Villamil brought that identity into one of Canada’s largest technology conferences.
While presenting StageKeep at Collision in Toronto, he chose to wear a barong instead of the conventional suit and tie.
After stepping offstage, Filipinas approached him and asked whether he was wearing a barong. When he confirmed that he was, they thanked him.
“They’re like, ‘It’s nice to be represented,’” Villamil recalled.
The interaction resonated with him because he remembered seeing few Filipinos in technology while growing up.
“I never really saw Filipinos in tech, so I wanted to just show that,” he said.
Villamil is now taking his creative-technologist approach beyond StageKeep’s original dance tools with Lisa by StageKeep.
An AI assistant intended to handle administrative work so creatives can spend more time on their craft.
As his work continues to evolve, Villamil said the connection to where he came from remains an important part of who he is.
“If I was asked to do life over again and they gave me the option to be whatever,” Villamil said, “I will be Filipino in every lifetime over and over again.”
