Central Visayas dominates floor in dancesport’s Palaro 2024 debut

CEBU, Philippines – High schoolers Mitchloni Dinauanao and Francis Dave Sombal from Cebu City brought home the bacon as the most bemedalled couple for the dancesport competition in the Palarong Pambansa 2024 on Thursday, July 11.

During the official debut of dancesport as a Palaro regular sport, Dinauanao and Sombal wowed audiences by bagging a total of six gold medals, contributing to the region’s overall dancesport haul of nine gold, seven silver and two bronze medals.

Out of 17 contingents, the pair won single dance samba, single dance chacha, single dance rumba, Ssngle dance paso doble, single dance jive, and the five dance Latin categories.

“We enjoyed this, we didn’t think about technique, everything, we let it all flow, we enjoyed it all,” Sombal said in Cebuano during an interview.

Both dancers have been participating in dancesport competitions for around five years. It is Sombal’s third time in the Palaro, while it is the fifth for Dinauanao when it was just a demo sport.

Dinauanao said they were very satisfied with the consistency of their dance quality since their previous stint as a competing duo.

Their victory also makes them the first pair to win the awards since the event was declared a medal sport, putting them in the front row of the “Palaro dancesport hall of fame.”

Aside from the medals, dancesport’s first staging as a regular event marked a huge step forward for the dance community.

For Lowell Tan of the Philippine DanceSport Federation, dancesport competitors have long hoped that the Palarong Pambansa would see the event more than just a demo sport.

“Finally, it had come to a reality that it would become a medal sport and add to the points of our [region],” Tan said in a mix of English and Filipino. – Rappler.com