Palarong Pambansa dancesport: Central Visayas bags 9 gold medals

Central Visayas Team displays the medals they earned during the dancesport competition.| Josh Almonte

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Central Visayas bagged 18 medals including 9 golds in the Dancesport Competition of the Palarong Pambansa 2024 at the Gmall of Cebu on Thursday evening.

The Region 7 dancesport dancers also added 7 silvers, and 2 bronze medals, in the event that was held as a medal sport for the first time in Palaro history,

Mitchloni Dinauanao (17) and Francis Dave Sombal (18) of the University of Cebu won six gold medals in Junior Latin.

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Dinauanao said they were happy with the results as they maintained their previous record in last year’s Palarong Pambansa in Marikina, City. 

However, despite being the power couple last year, Dinauanao didn’t fully expect to grab the gold this year since there were also several tough competitors from other regions.

Sombal and Dinauanao have been competing in dancesport competitions for 5 years. 

Sombal competed in Palaro for 3 years while Dinuanao competed for 5 years.

Mitchloni Dinauanao (17) and Francis Dave Sombal (18) of the University of Cebu won six gold medals in Junior Latin Category. | Josh Almonte

He said that there was no secret formula for winning all events in the Latin Category, all they did was give their all during the competition. 

“Amo ra jud ge enjoy tanan gikan sa kasing-kasing, gikan sa among soul, gi enjoy namo tanan,” Sombal told  CDN Digital.

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(We just enjoyed all coming from our heart, coming from our soul, we enjoyed it all.)

Central Visayas coach and a teacher of Guadalupe Elementary School, Richard Ilustrisimo, told CDN Digital that Cebu City had a monthly grassroots competition which helped them in preparing for this event.

“As they joined the event, they (were) already preparing (for) this event also, mao nang andam kaayu sila (that is why they were ready) to compete today,” Ilustrisimo said.

Ilustrimo added that they had been practicing six days a week, every after-school hour practice dancesport. 

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Aside from practice, they also instill the value of discipline not only in their dance but also in their attitude. 

Meanwhile, From being a demo sport, dancesport is now considered a ‘regular sport’ in Palarong Pambansa 2024.

In fact, a total of 24 medals are up for grabs in the elementary and secondary division from both the standard and Latin categories.

“Finally, now that it has been [made] a regular sport, now we are looking forward to getting more and more competitors nationwide because some of them are holding back because they are not a regular sport,” said Lowell Tan, a national adjudicator of the Philippine DanceSport Federation.

Tan said it took them three years to lobby to make dancesport a regular sport in the national meet and all their efforts had finally paid off.

He also expects to see the sport grow bigger in the coming years.

Meanwhile, Tan said that judging dancesport performances would be based on four components: technical quality, movement to music, choreography and presentation, and partnering skills.

Tan said that technical quality would be the most critical because it would consist of 12 subcomponents for both standard and Latin.