Dancing: a serious sport

The image painted of ballroom dancing here in the Philippines is a sad one: a lonely, well-to-do matron finding solace and warmth in the arms of a younger, well-dressed and often financially needy dance instructor. Unfortunately, this is not an accurate picture of dancing at all.

Dance Sport is serious business, no less serious than gymnastics or figure skating, physically demanding and requiring supreme commitment. For example, learning how to walk properly for competition alone takes weeks. Drills leave one aching from the waist down, and your feet are the hardest hit, especially for women, who don’t have the luxury of wearing closed shoes that men do.

This serious sport is under the guardianship of The Philippine Professional Dance Sport Association Inc., an independent group of professionals that is a member of the International Dance Organization or IDO. The IDO was established on September 18, 1981, with Italy, Switzerland, Germany and France as its initial members. Its main goal was to provide World and Continental championships to amateur and professional dancers not covered by the World Dance and Dance Sport Council (WD&DSC) and the World Rock ‘n Roll Association.

Today, the IDO is an affiliate of the WD&DSC and boasts of more than 60 members from six continents. The major disciplines are divided into dozens of styles.

Here in the Philippines, the PPDSA is a growing group of dancers who take their craft seriously. They sweat and toil in an open, non-airconditioned rooftop on Kamias Road in Quezon City.

"We love to see choreography and fancy movements, but that’s easy to do," says Alberto Dimarucut, PPDSA chairman and Philippine representative to various World Championships. "It may seem nice to look at, but not necessarily the right moves. Technically, we still have a lot of work to do."

But the PPDSA has been making great progress. In April, we sent a team to the Super Hong Kong International Ballroom Dancing Championships. Roberto and Nadja Limen placed seventh in the International Match, despite the fact that they were competing against countries with decades-long history of participation.

The surprise of the competition, though, was in the juvenile pair of eleven-year old Eric Yumul and eight-year old Eunice Reyes from Bulacan, whom Alberto has been painstakingly training for just over a year. The children placed first in Junior Standard and second in Junior Latin.

On Wednesday, June 26 at the Riverbanks Complex in Marikina, the PPDSA will be showcasing its representatives to the 2002 Singapore Superstar International Dancesport Championship. The team has been trained by Stanley Alexander, a licensed trainor from Australia, who has decided to base himself here after much faster progress teaching Filipino dancers.

"Filipinos have such an uncanny ability to learn, and their gift for dance is natural," Alexander told The STAR. "What takes people five years to learn in other countries, it takes much less time for Filipinos to learn. And they love to dance."

In Australia, ballroom dancing is considered a formal, elegant competition that demands the best from its participants, and has been organized there for over half a century. Still, Alexander foresees that the next five years may create Filipinos who are truly world class.

On July 13th, the PPDSA will conduct its first Theatre Arts Exhibition World Selections at the Gameworx complex at the Festival Supermall in Alabang. The winners will be the Philippine representatives to the IDO World Theater Arts Exhibition Dance Sport Championships to be held in Miami on September 6. Theatre Arts is an open category, wherein the couple can perform to their own choice of music, with a time limit of two and a half minutes to two minutes and forty-five seconds.

On July 14th at the same venue, the PPDSA will conduct its first Hip-Hop World Selections. The winners will fly to Bremen, Germany, as the country’s contingent to the IDO World Hip-Hop Dance Sport Championships.

With regards to ballroom dancing becoming an Olympic sport, PPDSA officials believe it will be difficult, because of the culture. There are two groups in ballroom dancing, amateurs and professionals. The professionals have no real interest in participating in the Olympics, which is considered an amateur competition.

For more information on the PPDSA, you can e-mail [email protected].