By Marivir R. Montebon
New York City
The year 2013 opened with a dance party at the Astoria World Manor with Cebu’s dance sport champions electrifying New York. “Dance the Night Away” brought the house down, with six dancing champions fresh from Cebu and select guests.
Dance sport veteran Ricca Alix and the newly created group AKCreatives, LLC, led by Fred and Cynthia Canete, who are from Cebu City, put the show debut event up on what is to be year of spectacular ballroom dancing in America’s east and west coasts.
The dancers definitely wowed the audience that night.
Jessa Mae Briones is a competitor in 5 dance Latin and 5 Dance standard. She was the Champion in the Youth Open Standard at the Nevada Starball Championship in Las Vegas in August 2011.
Also performing were the top three in the Latin Open of Philippine National Dancesport Championship.
Anselmo Estillore Jr. is a 5 dance Latin competitor and champion in the Latin Rising Star of the Nevada Star Ball Championship in Las Vegas in August 2011.
Christopher Albert Corro and Hanna Jane Diluvio were both competitors in Standard and Latin and were champions in the Pre-champ category
in Latin also at the Nevada Star Ball Championship in 2011. The pair also won the Standard competition in the Empire State Dancesport Championship in 2011 and in 2010, they were champions in the Pre-Championships of the Philippine Dancesport Nationals.
Dance couple Renante Saldua and Ricca Alix are 5 dance competitors in Standard and were grand slam Philippine National champions in Special events in 2010. They were champions in the Senior 5 dance Standard at the Nevada Starball Championships in 2011. They were champions in Senior standard in Philadelphia in April 2012.
Dance the Night Away also featured dance presentations by special guests Dr. Dalmy and Baby Francisco, Dr. Tito Tan and Ms. Claire Vogt and dance couple Luciano and Vanda.
Ricca is the one of the founders and pillars of the Dancesport Team Cebu City and the organizer of the AKCreatives in New York City.
These athlete dancers have honed their talents through the outreach program of the Dancesport Team Cebu City. When they become successful in the field of dancing, they give back what they learned from the team by giving free dance lessons to young children in the grassroot programs for the poor villages of Cebu City.
The Dancesport Team Cebu City won the Book of Guinness synchronized dancing as the larggest dance class in the world in 2009 with 7,7770 participants at the Cebu City Sports Center.
After the huge success of the debut show, Ricca and Cynthia said they are excited to book shows in different cities in the US.
