VETERAN international dance athlete Judith Anne Melencio never stops jiving and winning.
At 32, Melencio, of San Rafael, Bulacan has been an active dance competitor and trainer at least for the past 25 years—inspiring dancers of all ages to excel in their craft and bring their winning acts on the international dance floor.
Melencio fell in love with dancing when she was only 7 and has competed locally and globally in Latin and Standard. She’s one of the top athletes of the DanceSports Council of the Philippines Inc., the governing body for dancesports in the country.
Her journey as a national dance athlete and certified instructor continued to accelerate after she took a break to start a family and, like everything else, was rendered inactive during the pandemic.
Melencio ruled the Penang Open Championships last September 10 and the Danspiration Open Championships in Kuala Lumpur a day later. She then snatched the Amateur Latin crown in the 10th Singapore Open Dancesports Championships last November.
Melencio and her partner Jumil Edera Bacalso will be rocking anew on the global dance floor when they compete in the Amateur Open Latin of 2023 Asia Open Dance Tour-Asian Open Dance Championships in Tokyo on Sunday where they will face the challenge of 30 other couples.
“I have been in the dance sports competitions since when I was seven,” Melencio said. “I really love this sport. Besides competing, I also teach aspiring dance athletes in different fields—basics and advance.”
“But I still compete internationally, which I love most. I love winning not only for myself but also for our country,” she said. “It’s not just expressing our inner self when we dance, it also shows the proper perfect movement, the grace and how competitive one can be.”
She and Bacalso will also compete in the World Grand Prix Open in Taipei on April 9, before throwing their hat on the dance floor in the Blackpool Dance Festival from May 20 to June 2 at the Winter Gardens Church Street Blackpool in London.
The eldest in a family of dancers, Melencio first got noticed overseas when she swept the Junior Open Standard and Latin categories of the Singapore Millennium International Open DanceSports Championships in 2004.
She also has in her collection the Philippine Juvenile Latin and Standard titles from 1998 to 2000 and the Junior Latin and Standard crowns of the World Superstars Dance Festival in Tokyo, Japan, in 2002.
At the second International Sports Games “Children of Asia” Sports Dancing Event Junior 1 Latin American Discipline in Yakutsk, Russia, in 2000, she wound up ninth among hundreds of participants.
Melencio has trained and produced dozens of competitive pairs since 2007 when she was just 17—including rising amateur star Judilyn Melencio, her sister, and Benny Co.
“It’s a great feeling to share your knowledge in dancesports but I still compete and win,” she said.