ADSC posing during RIB

So yesterday evening Me along with most of the masters of the Ateneo DanceSports Club (ADSC) performed infront of the large crowd at the Henry Lee Irwin Theater as a guest performer for the CADS Rhythm-in-Blue: Culture Shock competition.

I’ve already performed in front of crowds in high school while I was still doing theater with the Teatro Baguntao also during the past two Orsems and various small shows (for MACA, JSP Week to name a few) but nothing really compares to being on that big stage in a real theater.

It felt amazing hearing the crowd applause as Tonio Mendoza and Iya Joson introduced us (and gave one of the best introduction spiels I’ve heard for us) and hearing them scream again when we started performing stunts (the now titled “Circle of Life” trick)  and lifts.

Even more than the personal feeling of accomplishment, is the great feeling knowing that ADSC, DanceSport and ballroom was recognized, enjoyed and well received by our home community. I’m so happy that the dance, though it may not be the current “in-trend” thing was appreciated and understood (I got a rush hearing the audience scream during the cannon part of our routine)

There is no doubt that we have amazing dancers who’ve been recognized in many different ways (Philippine Star Ball, DSCP National Competitions, IDSF competitions and even performing in CCP) and I guess even respected by people outside the Ateneo, it has always been a sad fact that within the fences of the university not many people know about us at all.

If I had the time (actually I did during those poses ) but I would have actually cried hearing people actually scream for us hahahaha.

From the bottom of my heart and my bruised soles, thank you so much CADS for letting us perform this year, it was a great pleasure. Thank you as well to our Stage Mother/Manager Danella for making our costumes, choreographing and blockquoting Waka waka for our performance. Thank you so much Savannah Moon and Fabric Warehouse for inspiring our costumes and thank you Shakira for making such an infectious song.

Dance as a sport

I just came home (its 9pm), I have a reading to finish and a Keynote presentation to finish but I’m extremely tired. I came home from both training for Nationals (as I’m using the same routine) and rehearsing for a show we’re having this Thursday for Japanese Studies Week.

I probably burned more than 300 calories today (though I’m not counting as I am not really on any special diet), sweated my ass off and pushed my body to fatigue, for a sport which many don’t recognize as a sport.

I realized recently that one reason why people don’t realize the sport of dance is because they don’t really know anything about Dancesport. I’m starting a set of posts that will detail fast, easy to know facts about the sport that is dancesport and I’m going to start it with an introduction.

What is Dancesport?

Dancesport is the term that denotes competitive ballroom dancing. This is different from social dancing that it has its definitive rules, operations, techniques (very important) that is measured and compared with other competitors instead of dancing it just purely out of leisure.

The term Dancesport was coined to help in recognizing the sport of competitive ballroom dancing by the Olympic committee and is enjoyed by many countries such as Japan, Russia, The United Kingdom and the USA.

It can be defined as a team sport as it is in essentiality a team of two people (a man and woman, or in certain competitions, a man and man or a woman and a woman) dancing, together showing technique, floor craft and showmanship to produce a high quality performance.

How do you compete in something like dance?

First of all you need a partner, the essence of dancesport as said by Karen Hardy is of two people dancing together as one.

Competitions in dancesports may sound odd but they are all highly organized events, some even take a year to plan out. In the Philippines we have the annual Philippine Star Ball which is an international event that many foreign dancesport athletes compete in and we also have the National Ranking competitions by the DSCP (DanceSport Council of the Philippines) which are held at different times during the year (quarterly, mid-year etc.).

Competitions are usually organized by age group and there are two main Disciplines. The two disciplines (Latin and Standard) dictate the manner of training the couple went through and the dances they are required and trained to dance. There are five dances under each discipline and dancesport athletes train and study these dances for competition. For Latin they are the Samba, Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, Paso Doble and Jive. For Standard they are the Slow Waltz, the Tango, the Slow Foxtrot, the Viennese Waltz and the Quickstep.

Learning these dances are not just a matter of knowing step patterns but dancesport has very specific techniques assigned to each dance and each step of the dance. This makes it more codified and competitive.

In a competition couples are called into the floor sometimes 12 at a time. They will perform a set of dances (the number of dances depends on the grade category of the event, sometimes it is a Grade E or one 1 dance event or a Grade A where all five dances of a discipline are danced). Around the floor are set of Adjudicators (usually around 6) who judge each couple on their mastery of technique, connection, athleticism, artistry and showmanship. They do this by essentially casting votes. Each judge will only say two things, they either say Yes to a couple (meaning they want them to pass to the next round and check their number on their papers) or No (meaning they aren’t good enough). At the end of each round the number of Yes votes are tallied and the top or 12 or 24 (depends on how many competitors are there) will move on to the next round. They will do this until the final round where they will be asked to rank the couples 1 to 6 and again, the couple with the highest number of number 1 votes wins (and so on and so forth).

Is it just an art or a sport?

This is a much debated issue even within the dance world. Scientifically dancesport is comparable to basketball, or running. According to Blanksby & Reidy Dancers perform at 80% of their oxygen consumption level and burning up to 300 calories per hour. This considering that dancesport athletes usually dance for hours on end during competitions support the athleticism involved in dancesport.

In terms of art and comparison to other sports, Dancesport is a lot like figure skating in that there is technique and discipline involved within the sport while it is also judged in aspects of artistry and a means of self expression. No one complains about figure skating not being a sport? (right?)

In my own experience, the level of discipline dancing really requires you to train your body in ways that are not that far off from any other athlete. There is technique involved that requires you to really study and master to be able to execute and achieve the desired outcomes. You really have to look and train yourself specially with the stamina involved in competing, most competitions have more than three rounds with each round requiring you to dance 4 or 5 dances (dances which can be extremely fast or extremely slow) consecutively.

The technical element also elevates it to more than just showing creative new choreography as creativity is just one part of the mixture. Judges will very rarely pass or choose a couple purely out of flashy creative choreography if they find that the couple lacks fundamental technique (this is especially true in the professional divisions)

The artistic aspect of it also helps the sport evolve in such a way that we’re always looking for that something that is new, extra special or better essentially the olympic idea of Faster (footwork and such), Higher (we have jumps heard of a Tour Jete into kneel), Stronger (most routines require some sort of stunt work though not necessarily lifts but these do require body strength).

I don’t really have a lot to say for this blog except I started my semester with this:

Thats Me and Aila, Tara and Migna, Say and Mea dancing during orsem

This was the toughest and at the same time most eye-opening summer term I’ve had since my freshman year of college. I will bow down to Ma’am Rallonza (my political Science professor) and Ma’am Hofilena (my Philippine History professor) for opening my eyes and making it worthwhile to attend classes in this heat.

It wasn’t an easy time to have classes, and the classes we’re not easy at all. Right now I will thank the various things that made it bearable.

Wonderful wonderful dance with an epic message about Breast cancer. There is little I can say about it, you just have to watch it.

In the afternoon I have probably the only boring subject I have, statistics (but my professor seems really good) and Philosophy 101 with another really young cool teacher.

An interesting thing happened today while I was stalking dance celebrities in multiply. I was looking at some of the videos that we’re posted and tagged with Yulia Zagoruychenko and saw they we’re also tagged with Eugene Katsevman. I then (out of curiosity) clicked the add contact button and it just so happens Eugene was online at that time and accepted me to be his contact! We actually chatted a little bit after that and he was really nice though a bit short spoken (lol what an adjective)

Stefano and Anna's last competition together in Blackpool

Every competitive dancer awaits the last week of May for the Blackpool Dance Festival. This is where the biggest and the best fight it out on the dancefloor for the coveted British Open Championship title. With Carmen and Bryan retiring last year before blackpool, Michael Malitowski and Joanna Leunis have become the couple to defeat when they won last year’s Blackpool Professional Latin Championship.

Well the polish couple (in an expected outcome) defended their titles becoming Blackpool champions for the 2nd time around. Riccardo Cocci and Yulia Zagorouitchenko is again at number 2 over all but placing first during the Jive Round (GO RULIA!). With Peter and Kristine Stokkebroe taking a leave of absence from the dancing world as Kristina expects their first baby, Franco Formica and Oxana Lebedew have replaced them in the bronze position. I was afraid that Sergey and Melia would take the third this time without them (I’m sorry I really dont like Melia, she has the worst technique I swear just my opinion). Crowd favorites when they we’re amateurs, Maurizio Vescovo and Melinda Törökgyorgy are at number 5. Sadly Eugene Katsevman and Maria Manusova didn’t make it to any of the Finals this year (they made it to the Jive finals last time), their still my favorite couple though.

In the Amateur Category, my idols, Stefano Di Filippo and Anna Melnikova won the Amateur Latin title by winning in all 5 dances (god this couple is unbeatable). What was unexpected though was the tie between Croatian couple Zoran Phlol &  Tatsiana Lavinovich and Alexei Silde and Anna Firstova from Russia. Special rules we’re used to determine the 2nd place and it eventually went to Zoran and Tatsiana. Personally I’ve always liked this couple  though their routines tend to have to many tricks and not enough basic figures but I think its about time judges gave them a higher ranking (I wonder when will they ever turn pro).

In a twisted turn of events, after winning the Amateur Latin championship title, Stefano and Anna announced the end of their partnership (WHY OH WHY) and Anna announced she would be dancing with a new partner (could she be Slavik’s new partner?). I really hate it when absolutely great partnerships end at the top of their prime, Stefano and Anna won every major competition they went to in 2008 including the coveted IDSF World Latin Championships in Australia (making them number 1 in the world). Its sad specially when I was just about to make a fanlisting/shrine to them -_-.

I’m planning on sending a sponsorship letter to Supadance though I’m quite doubtful they’ll respond but I’ll keep trying though!

It’s not just the ADSC that needs sponsors, ACTM as well. Specifically, wired our magazine needs sponsors so we can have money for printing. Life is just so hard now.

So to anyone who might be reading who’s from a large company, if you have any gill or zenny to spare please contact me

The club didn’t train for the entire week because of our finals (thank god) and I was really missing the dance floor so I was quite thankful that we decided to push through with last Friday’s training even if there were only three couples there. Danella and I have been trying to mix and match the samba routines we learned since we doubt we’ll be able to compete in syllabus events anymore and I think we’ve almost got an open routine, we just need some highlights and have Coach Belinda make it (as she says) “Fabulous”. Dancing really feels so much better when you don’t have to worry about Communication 12 projects or Industry Studies.

I have to say the final round for that dancesport final exam was one of the best, every couple dancing on that floor was really good and it was probably really hard for the judges to choose from those six couples. Reinier and his partner Camille we’re really bringing milking out all the dancing they could on that floor, Gian and Ianna we’re really trying to keep a competitive edge while showing they we’re having fun. Surprisingly, RK and Katrina we’re really pushing the pedal last night which is surprising in some way cause I find that though they have great framework and Katrina creates absolutely great lines they usually dance very soft but they we’re really trying their best on that floor and it showed in their rankings. My other favorites we’re couple number 27 (the gentleman, Gem Apostol could really lead well) and number 12 (the lasy, Mea Pangan is also ballet trained and has good posture).

I’m hoping most of them join the dancesport club next year!