Cubanisimo brings home the gold

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This article was published 01/02/2016 (3763 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Judges of an international Latin dance competition are singing the praises of a Winnipeg dance company.

Cubanisimo Dance Company recently secured several championship titles at the World Latin Dance Cup held in Miami Beach, Fla. from Dec. 14 to 20. The international competition brings together over 1,000 of the top dancers from 40 countries.

Directors Regan Hirose and Harold Rancano took the top spot in the professional bachata cabaret division and are among the top six in the professional salsa division.

“It’s almost overwhelming,” Hirose, a River Heights resident, said. “We not only brought home gold in a professional division, which is a dream, but bringing our team out there and having them exposed to competition and to amazing dancers all over the world, and compete against them, and also bring another four gold trophies home, is amazing.”

“We are so proud to be bringing home the cup as the WLDC Professional Bachata Cabaret champions,” Rancano, who lives in East Kildonan, added. “A lot of hard work has paid off for us.”

Other Cubanisimo members also brought home gold, with Rancano and Shyanne Carriere winning the Pro-Am Bachata division, Jose Rancano and Bennett Murphy winning the Amateur Bachata Couple division, and Paul Redmond and Hirose taking gold in the Limitless division, a fairly new division for people with disabilities.

The Cubanisimo team also placed top 10 in all other amateur divisions including Amateur Bachata Team, Amateur Salsa Team, Over 75 Couple, Amateur Lady Solo, Amateur Male Solo and Junior Girl Solo. It was the first time most of the dancers had competed on the world stage.

Hirose said she was pleasantly surprised about the overall team results because often dancers don’t make it to the finals at the World Cup on their first go around.

“We know they’ve been working hard all year and we had been preparing them well for the worlds,” Hirose said. “The team that came with us showed their commitment and definitively put in the time and the hours and obviously that’s with any type of success — the perfect combination of putting in that time and effort and wanting to do well.”

Amateur bachata champion Murphy said she was shocked to learn she’d won her division. She joined Cubanisimo in spring of 2014 and had focused mainly on hip-hop dance and ballet previously.

“Leading up to the event there was a lot of pressure. Going into it everyone from the team and myself knew that it’s high level competition and you have some of the best dancers from around the world,” Murphy said. “We went in with the mindset of let’s do our best, let’s enjoy this, it’s the last time we’ll do our routine here, and see what comes out of this.”

According to Murphy, participating at worlds and seeing other dancers compete in something they’re passionate about was inspiring.

“It’s pushing us to do better next year because we see how far we can go with it,” she said. “Even more doors are opening from here.”

For more information about Cubanisimo visit cubanisimodance.com or email info@cubanisimo.com

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