World Latin dance champions due

Three-time World Latin Professional champions Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko are coming to the Philippines to perform for a good cause. Riccardo and Yulia, also the undefeated five-time USA national champion and Professional South American champions, will be headlining “Passion with a Purpose” at the ballroom of the Solaire Resort and Casino on Nov. 12. The event is a fund-raiser for 18 children who will be competing in the Batang Pinoy national games in Bacolod in the third week of November.

The children are being trained and sponsored by Belinda Adora, a multi-titled Filipina international competitor, coach, judge and adjudicator who has spent much of her 24-year career giving back to the sport. A former resident of Antipolo, Adora saw the opportunity for street children there to focus on dance as a way of keeping them away from vices and as a tool for having a better future. In 2006, she formed the group Belinda Adora Step Kids, a play on words connoting dance and her role as a mother figure to the children. Since then, the Step Kids have groomed champions on television dance competitions on programs like “Showtime” and “Talentadong Pinoy”, as well as the National Commission on Culture and the Arts’ Sayaw Pinoy, the Palarong Pambansa and dozens of dancesport competitions.

Comprised of children ranging in age from 7 to 16, the Step Kids compete in the three age categories in dancesport: Juvenile, Junior and Youth; and they have earned medals in all three categories nationwide. Their “stepmother” Adora uses the training not only to hone their talents, but also their discipline, responsibility and sense of community. Aside from earning a supplementary income for their families, some of the children have also earned scholarships, which have guaranteed their education. Adora and her “step-kids” will be the front act at “Passion with a Purpose”.

“Filipino dancesport athletes have won medals in the SEA Games, Asian Indoor Games and several dancesport competitions around the world, especially in Asia,” explains Adora, who is herself a licensed adjudicator of both the World Dancesport Council and World Dancesport Federation. “But we are still very limited as to opportunities to train since these are often abroad and entail a hefty budget. Having visiting champions such as Riccardo and Yulia in Manila brings the opportunity to more dancers.”

Adora, who rose through the ranks in folk dance, jazz, ballet and finally, dancesport, trained with Cocchi and Zagoruychenko in 2009 and 2011, often traveling to Europe at her own expense. Her struggles caught the attention of National Geographic Channel, which juxtaposed her financial challenges with the situation of a rich Japanese ballroom enthusiast in the international documentary â€œStrictly Asian Ballroom”. A crew followed her around for a year, and the documentary climaxes with her captaining the Philippines to a sweep of the dancesport gold medals in the sport’s debut in the 2005 Southeast Asian Games in Cebu and Manila. The twin victories, accomplished even before the Games formally opened, helped propel the country to its best finish in the biennial competition. Adora has also been featured on The 700 Club and ABS-CBN programs â€œAstig”, “Bandila,” “Ako ang Simula” and â€œI Dare You.”

“My experiences and accomplishments enable me to assume major responsibilities in dance education – from formulating the dance syllabus and curriculum to teaching the students,” Adora says. “Dance has made a big difference in my life, and now I am in a position to use it to help children see a better life. I take that responsibility very seriously.”

In 2011, Adora and international dancesport champion couple Jerswin and Anne Poloyapoy established Pilipinas Dancesport, the formal aggrupation of dance professionals in the Philippines, and made it the first dancesport group in the country to be registered with the Games and Amusements Board (GAB). Since then, the organization has impacted the sport with competitions, clinics and coaching around the country. Pilipinas Dancesport has also established clubs in large universities in Metro Manila with the aim of having nationwide collegiate competitions.

After “Passion With a Purpose”, Cocchi and Zagoruychenko will hold a Dance Congress the next day at Savannah Moon Dance Studio in Libis, Quezon City to give local dancesport athletes and dance aficionados the opportunity to learn from the world’s best so as to make them more competitive in dancesport. Interested parties who wish to support the dancing street children may contact 0915-3942162.

* * *

It has been a year since Sandro Reyes, then 12 years old, was recruited to train with FC Barcelona’s legendary escola for three years. The football prodigy, who started playing the sport at age four, has adjusted well to life in Spain, says his father.

“He’s doing fine, thank you for asking,” reports a proud Atty. Edmund Reyes. “His desire is as strong as ever and the competition is tough! Two vital ingredients that have to be a constant if one is to have any iota of a chance to make it to the upper echelons of European football!”

Sandro left the country in September of 2012 after being noticed by the club’s coaches at a camp in Singapore. He was subsequently invited to a tryout involving over 2,400 kids in Spain, and was called back for a final round. From that massive batch, FC Barcelona only selected Reyes and one other boy from his age group, which started with a field of over 400 applicants. It is rare that the club recruits players from outside Catalan, but they have had experience with Filipino greatness before. In 1912, Paulino Alcantara suited up for FC Barcelona until 1927 and established formidable records that still stand today.