Christian Jade Yngayo, 10, pays it forward by teaching other kids who want to learn ballroom dancing. (CDN Photo/Doris C. Bongcac)
Eight-year-old Meygan Verano is teaching other kids how to dance the cha-cha, jive and samba this summer in City Central School.
The city-sponsored program is free of charge.
“I’m happy when I dance,” said Meygan, the youngest of eight children and one of the youngest performers in the dancesport program of the Cebu City Sports Commission.
Her mother encouraged her to join the grassroots training program for summer in April last year.
The fast learner is now among the youngest performers in Team Cebu City and assists in teaching other kids in the dancesport program which started April 21 and goes on to May 27.
“Nag lisud ko unsaun pag sulti kay dugay sila kasabot. Amo na lang gi sayaw aron makasabot sila (I have a hard time explaining our lessons to students. I end up dancing to show them what I mean),” she told Cebu Daily News.
Discipline
Tapping youth athletes from the Department of Education (DepEd) and CCSC athletes as trainors is a way of paying forward and instills in them discipline and responsibility.
“We ask them to teach others so they will mature fast and appreciate what they were taught. This is part of teaching them discipline,” said Edward Hayco, sports commission chairman.
Hayco compared the athlete-trainers to caddies who tag along with golfers and learn a lot from them.
Sports commissioner Bernard Ricablanca said requiring athletes to share what they know is one way of paying forward after the city government sponsored them in competitions.
Meygan, a resident of sitio Banawa, barangay Guadalupe, said she dreams of winning championship medals in dancesport.
Happy
A shy girl who bites her nails when she’s bored, Meygan transfors into a confident dancer when the music plays.
She held her own with older dancers in their Sinulog 2014 intermission dance last January which featured Hayco and his wife Eleanor on stage at the Cebu City Sports Center.
A fellow dancer and summer instructor 10-year-old Christian Jade Yngayo of F. Ramos Street demonstrated the cha-cha during an interview with CDN.
Christian said he no longer has time to play because dancesport practices at the CCSC studio are held after classes and sometimes end at 8 p.m. at City Central School.
Enjoyable
Despite this, Christian maintained a high grade average of 84 to 91 in Grade 4.
“Kapoy sad mag sayaw sayaw pero okay ra man kay malingaw man ko (It’s tiring to dance but it’s okay because I enjoy it),” he said.
The sports commission’s summer grassroots program also offers basketball, arnis, archery, boxing, badminton, chess, karatedo, soccer, softball, taekwando, table tennis, track and field, volleyball, and weightlifting at no charge.
The program is open to Cebu City children from seven to 14 years old.
No payment is required.
Training is handled by volunteer athletes from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. every Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays of the week in 16 public elementary school gyms around the city.
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