LOCAL dance crew “Team Diversity” is set to represent the Philippines in an international dance competition on Saturday, February 25, 2023.
The homegrown dance team, founded by Daryl Castro in 2015, will be the only crew from Cebu joining the Body Rock Asia Dance Competition that will be held at The Theatre-Solaire Resort & Casino in Manila.
Castro told SunStar Cebu that it is the group’s first time to compete in what is dubbed globally as the “Superbowl of the Dance Community.”
“When I submitted our application, wala ko gahuna-huna nga masud mi. Grabe ang selection committee nila ba (I did not expect that we can make it because their selection committee is so strict). It’s our first time. Luckily, we got our shot to represent this year,” he said.
Castro added that after roughly two months of preparation, the team, represented by 14 members, is just about 70 to 80 percent ready to compete before they are set to fly to Manila on Thursday, February 23.
“There are actually balances that we still need to meet before we fly. But rest assured, routine wise, we’re just polishing the routine and we’re so ready and excited to represent Cebu and the Philippines in an international stage,” he said.
Castro said that his first vision for creating Team Diversity in 2015 was to form a dance crew that would be recognized in Cebu City. Now that he has achieved that, his group’s remaining goal is to uplift each Cebuano dance artist, particularly in the hip hop scene, that they can be really great in the south.
Body Rock is one of the longest running and biggest urban dance competitions in the world. This year, it returns to Asia for the second time after the 2020 staging, bringing together over 30 Asian dance crews from the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan on a renowned international stage. (Jenika Gi-An C. Nero, STC intern)