First experience with dancesports
I AM in Davao City right now for an event that I will be covering for the first time in my sportswriting life.
Dubbed as the “Davao Battle of Champions”, it is by far the biggest dance sport competition in Mindanao with around 900 entries, more than double last year’s 400 participants, some coming as far as Luzon and the Visayas.
I will be representing too Philippibe Sports Commission (PSC) Commissioner Fritz Gaston, who is still in Paris for the Olympics.
This sport falls under his oversight and I want to know and understand more about this event.
The invitation was extended by the organizers, the Tibungco Dance Sport Team, one of the most active clubs in the region, even boasting of its own grassroots program in coordination and sanctioned by the Philippine Dance Sport Federation( PDSF).
Right from my arrival at the airport early yesterday morning, I was already being oriented by Oliver Tangare, oresident of the association of parents whose kids are in this sport, and at the hotel, we had breakfast with a couple of ladies from Manila, Imelda Sarile and Yolanda Pataueg, friends of this local club who helps out the club members whenever they compete in Manila.
I learned from these two ladies that under the modern/standard category, ballroom dancing to some, the dances are waltz, tango, foxtrot, quick step, and Venice, while for the Latin category, you will discover cha cha, rhunba, jive or boogie of old, samba, and paso doble.
Ballroom events provide the grace and artistry, dance sport the athleticism, that was how it is described.
There is a 3rd category actually, relatively new, breaking, which debuted in the Paris Olympics which the NSA now wants to develop.
Later yesterday, I visited the venue, the gym of the University of Southern Philippines where participants were practicing their routines under the watchful eyes of coaches and parents, and believe me, it was an impressive sight with most of the participants on the young side.
I also met transplanted English lady, Julie Flintham, a dance sport trainer and a coach in Davao but based in Manila.
But I spent a lot of time with Loloy Rendon, the Sports Director of the PDSF, he has been involved a long time with the sport since its birth around mid 90’s, and he certainly had a lot of stories to share.
An interesting one was the fact that during the pandemic, they were able to sustain the spirt by doing virtual competition that some other South East Asian countries were asking them for assistance in organizing in their own countries.
Ater the pandemic, there was a resurgence of interest that now, Loloy was telling me that there are now hundreds of thousands of dance sport adherents easily nation wide, citing a lot of major cities in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
In 2005, the sport debuted in the SEA with Cebu as host province.
We swept all four gold medals at stake, according to Loloy.
In 2019, here again in the cou in the SEAG ntry, the sport contributed 10 gold medals, and six in the Vietnam SEAG two years later.
Too bad it was not included in Cambodia after, nor in Thailand next year .
When Loloy introduced his program in 2019 to develop dance sport, his focus was on producing and training coaches first and I guess the massive growth of the sport was influenced by that program.
Now the NSA even has its own Philippine Dance Sport Academy which trains dance sport athletes, at the same time that it is the vehicle its grassroots program.
Loloy says the griwth can even be bigger in the provinces if the LGU’s provide more support to the sport and I agree with him on the role if LGU’s when it comes to grassroots sports.
Today, Sunday, I will personally witness my first ever dance sport competition, my special thanks too to Benny Lao for awaking my interest in this sport.
