Fil-Canadian dance duo Lucky Aces comes home victorious

Filipino-Canadian hip-hop duo Lucky Aces has competed and won in international dance competitions representing the Philippines. But they remained relatively unknown to their kababayan in the country — until they joined ABS-CBN’s talent-reality competition Dance Kids.

And last Feb. 7, Lucky Aces’ Lucky Ancheta and AC Bonifacio did not only get to share their talent with Filipinos, but have earned their respect and admiration when the pair was declared the first-ever grand champion of Dance Kids.

Lucky Aces garnered 42.69 percent of the viewers’ votes, beating dubstep dancer Dhao Mac (29.62 percent) and dance sport duo Step Kids (27.69 percent).

AC, who teared up after they were announced the winner, said, “It feels amazing because we’ve always been dreaming to be recognized here in the Philippines. And now we have some of our best friends in Dance Kids. It’s an amazing feeling.”

“We’re just so happy after all these performances for Dance Kids. We’re just super happy,” shared Lucky.

They won P2M, a house and lot, a family trip to Hong Kong, a shopping spree worth P300,000 and a Star Magic contract.

The pair has been an early crowd favorite since the program’s Try Outs stage, where they quickly earned the three “stomps” from Dance Masters Georcelle Dapat-Sy, Andy Alviz and Vhong Navarro needed to get into the competition.

They are also a hit online. Their Try Outs video racked up the highest number of views among all the dance artists in the show ­— now at 1.6 million — and since then has given electrifying performances lauded by the Dance Masters for their precision and sharpness.

For their final performance, Lucky Aces took the stage with Teacher Georcelle and Enrique Gil on the first night of the Final Showdown last Feb. 6 and with hip-hop group A-Team on Sunday.

Second placer Dhao Mac, meanwhile, teamed up with Vhong and Rayver Cruz. Step Kids, on the other hand, performed with Andy and Maja Salvador. Dhao Mac and Step Kids both received P100,000 each.

Lucky and AC have expressed passion for dancing since they were three years old and have toured the world to participate in prestigious dance contests. But watching them triumph in a Filipino dance show was even more special, especially to their parents.

“I did not really expect it because they were all great, so I just kept praying. And when they were announced the winner, hindi ko na alam ang pakiramdam ko,” shared Cherry, AC’s mom.

After winning Dance Kids, Lucky and AC said they are open to staying in the Philippines and even joining showbiz.

AC added, “It will be a great opportunity and will be opening more doors for us. I’ve done some commercials in Canada, but I think it will be even more fun here and do some bit of acting.”

AC, who has shared clips of her covering popular songs on her social media accounts, also wants to try acting. She said, “I sing a bit, but not as much as dancing though. I don’t really know how to act, but I really want to learn how to act. I always watch teleseryes.”

Viewers nationwide watched Lucky and AC make their dreams come true, as Dance Kids’ two-night final showdown, hosted by Robi Domingo and Alex Gonzaga, garnered a national TV rating of 35.9 percent on Saturday and 34.6 percent on Sunday.