Sports

Latin lovers

By Suwitcha Chaiyong

Thai dancers step up

Most people probably think of dance as just a form of fun entertainment. But dance is in fact an official category in many international sport competitions, including the SEA Games, Asian Games and the Olympic Games.

• Did you know •

In 2003, 1,539 couples from 54 different countries participated in the Blackpool Dance Festival.

The dynamic duo of ML Warapa Jumbala (Tem), 24, and Watcharakorn Suasuebpun (New), 24, have won the Latin Dance category of the Thailand championship seven years in a row. In 2007, they grabbed four gold medals at the SEA Games, and last April they came 16th at the Moscow Open in Russia. 

Student Weekly recently caught up with Tem and New to get a rundown on their lively times on the dance floor.

STUDENT WEEKLY: When did you first become interested in Latin dance?

Tem: When I was 12, my mom convinced me to take Latin dance classes with her. I became seriously interested in it when I was 14. I entered a competition in Singapore, and I saw a professional couple dancing beautifully there. They inspired me to become a good dancer like them.
New:  I've enjoyed dancing since I was 8. I joined a dance club at my primary school. I decided to learn Latin dance because it's fast and fun.

STUDENT WEEKLY: How much time do you spend practising each day?

Tem: Two or three hours every day. If there's an upcoming sports event, we have to rehearse six hours a day for two months in advance.

We're both fourth year university students, so sometimes we have to skip rehearsal when we have too much work.

STUDENT WEEKLY: Do you have a favourite Latin dance style?

New:   There are five main styles - cha cha, samba, rumba, paso doble and jive. I like all of them. Each style has its own character and emotion.
Tem:  My favourite is rumba, because it's a slow routine. You can show lots of detail when you dance. It's a dance of love, so you have to perform as if you're in love with your partner.

STUDENT WEEKLY: Do you guys ever fight when you're dancing?

New:   Finding a dance partner is more difficult than finding a girlfriend because we have to be able to communicate with each other. The most important thing is that we both love dancing. We practise more often than a lot of other couples, so we can always talk about things when we have a problem.

STUDENT WEEKLY: Tem, is it true that you have to make your skin tanned before a competition?

Tem:  Yes. I have to put a special cream on two days before a competition to make my skin darker. Tanned skin makes me look a bit more Latin, and my muscles can be seen more clearly.

STUDENT WEEKLY:  Which competition has been your favourite so far?

Tem:  The 2007 SEA Games in Thailand. We won four gold medals. The Thai audience cheered so much that it really made us want to do our best.
New:   It was in our own country, so we felt very proud.

STUDENT WEEKLY:  How do you deal with it when you don't win?

Tem:  I cried the first time we lost. But then I realised that everybody has good and bad days.

I still feel stressed before a competition, but once we've performed, I'm happy to just wait for the results.
New:   If we ever did really badly, we'd watch a DVD of our performance and work out ways to improve.

STUDENT WEEKLY:  What are your hopes for the upcoming Blackpool Dance Festival in England?

Tem:  We've been there a few times, but we've only made it into the third round. I'd like to enter the fourth round, but it's very difficult because there are hundreds pairs in

the competition.
New:  There will be incredible dancers from all around the world. I just want to enjoy the competition and see some advanced dance techniques.

	category (n): a group of people or things with particular features in common dynamic (adj): forceful and having a lot of energy rundown (n): an explanation or a description of something lively (adj): full of energy and life; active and enthusiastic convince (v): to persuade somebody to do something skip (v): to not do something that you usually do or should do rehearsal (n): time that is spent practising a play, a piece of music, a dance, etc. in preparation for a public performance emotion (n): a strong feeling such as love, fear, anger, etc. routine (n): a series of movements that are part of a performance tanned (adj): having a brown skin colour as a result of being in the sun muscle (n): a piece of body tissue that you tighten and relax in order to move a particular part of the body incredible (adj): extremely good

IDIOM
in a row: happening one after the other in the same way each time, with nothing different happening in between