Cebu's record-breaking dancesport miracle

CEBU CITY, Philippines – The national dancesport championships may be in Metro Manila, but Cebu’s continuing dominance of the sport has its roots here, in the simple passion shared by a couple whose desire to share has resulted in a Guinness world record, and then some.

Edward and Eleanor Hayco first fell in love with dancesport about 10 years ago, and wanted to do it the right way. This meant hiring foreign professionals to learn the technical aspects of the 10 competitive dances, not just the social dancing that self-taught local “dance instructors” or D.I.’s proliferate.

“It started to get extravagant,” said the mild-mannered Edward, a well-loved businessman in this city. “Imagine paying about $100 or $150 for 45 minutes.” But we decided to share what we knew, and it made us feel better. If you teach 100 people, then that comes out to $1 per person. Not so extravagant.”

That principle of “cascading” is the backbone of Dancesport Team Cebu City, one of a handful of sports supported by the city government, headed by Mayor Tomas Osmeña. Their number one policy, politics and intrigue are unwanted. Even the best dancers get the boot if they make trouble.

“We are more after the character of the person than the skill of the dancer,” Hayco explained. “We don’t want politics here.”

That policy paid off in spades, as the teachers they had cascaded their knowledge to for free also gave freely of their time and talent to benefit the poor and neglected communities throughout the province.

Since 2002, the team’s outreach program has benefited more than 20,000 children and young adults. Even dancers as young as six also teach those who know less, often kids older than them. In 2005, Cebu again put the country on the map, hosting the SEA Games dancesport competition, and winning both gold medals even before the opening ceremonies. This touched off a torrid run at the overall top spot by the Philippines.

Early this year, Dancesport Team Cebu City heard that Hungary was claiming the world record for largest dance class, over 2,000 students. But they had already broken that record with over 3,000 students in their summer workshops last year. Guinness just didn’t know about it. It became a rallying point for them. Schools got involved, as did the city government, Department of Tourism and private sponsors. The number of participants hit 7,770. But truth be told, they had over 10,000 dancers at their disposal.

“We had rehearsals in batches, then one general rehearsal before the actual attempt. We needed them to be dancing continuously for 10 minutes,” Hayco explained. “But during the joint rehearsal, we saw that some clusters were not doing so well, so we took them out. It was a choice between getting the numbers and having the group look good.”

In a massively-documented attempt, Dance- sport Team Cebu City obliterated the existing mark on June 27 of this year. Mere weeks later, with equal expediency, Guinness World Records sent them their certificate, which proudly hangs framed outside the wall of their studio at Cebu Sports Center, the very venue of the record-breaking attempt.

But now, the focus of Dancesport Team Cebu City is their outreach program, which targets every barangay with a weekly competition, inclusive of trophies and prizes, until April of next year. Every week, young people get to shine.

“If you could only see them before they started dance, you would be amazed,” Hayco smiles proudly. “They are children of fishermen and farmers, members of gang, and so on. Now, some have finished schooling, others pay their way through school by dancing, and get the chance to travel and even win medals for the country.”

To help them fulfill their mission of transforming the youth through dance, the city government and the Kaohsiung, Taiwan, donated a bus, now covered with photos of their world record-breaking accomplishments. The bus is a giant reminder to what they accomplished, simply by insisting that sharing knowledge is the only way to go.

“Even I am amazed at the transformation in the children,” a humbled Hayco admits. “We are so blessed. Our children have so much greatness in them, and we see it coming out.”

Other sports should take the cue from Dancesport Team Cebu City. They dominate with kindness.