Story by Wendy Rivera

I was receiving treatment by Cheryl Virgo of Virgos Natural Therapies when the conversation of my participation in Latin Dancing came up. After some discussion, the realisation made evident to me by Cheryl Virgo, of competing at a professional level in Latin Dance ended as a dream that day and became a reality!

In order for me to compete there had to be a competition, on the Net I went and discovered the Australian Latin Dance Championships which are held annually in Sydney. The idea of competing Samba to me was incredibly appealing although being a mother of two young teenagers and working full time, it seemed more than the challenge that I imagined.

Cheryl to the rescue! Cheryl became my Dream Coach Event Planner and together we made it happen. Our first idea was fund-raising as there was a lot of expense to competing on the professional circuit even at the Amateur level, so we set out in search of venues to host our first Fund-raising Event. Thankfully the lovely Management at the Bays Water/Oceans Bar and Bistro were more than happy to jump on board. With great success and a beautiful variety of prizes donated by local businesses to raffle off, the night set us off on a very positive road towards several more Fund-raising fun nights and walks later, we had the Australian Latin Dance Championships in clear sight. The Hervey Bay Community has been very kind and has supported me throughout my journey with which I am extremely grateful for, while local businesses continued to generously donate prizes for the raffles for each event.

I have been training solidly for 17 months with a daily schedule of Dance training, Strength training at Physique Fitness Gym, and Running three days a week. The competition is held on 15th & 16th July 2017 at Paddington Town Hall, Paddington Sydney NSW.

I have danced all my life and fell in love with Latin Dancing almost 10 years ago. Realising that it was possible to compete at 47 years old was exciting and the thought that my challenge could encourage, and inspire someone else to get out of their comfort zone and challenge themselves is what drives me and fires my passion even more to achieve.