It all started with just a passion for dance from the young age and she attained the greatest height in the biggest dance reality show of India, DID (Dance India Dance) Super Mom. Cecille reached on second place in ZEE TV’s reality show D-I-D – SUPER MOM dancing competition. That was the moment of proud for Goa and Goans since people in Goa love dancing but not many reached to the height she did. It was sheer passion and commitment that took her so high in the field of dancing. Today Cecille runs a dance academy and she is multi-tasking between her Zumba training to consultation and back to training the young children in schools. Like many others, Cecille too wants to do a lot of things in her life.
Cecille is a persona with full of life, I met her first time and realized that I have never met such a passionate and talented and bubbly person before. She is perhaps the first person I came across who despite having dozens of opportunities to achieve the name and fame in the industry does not want to run after it. “I do not like to run after the name and fame ever, DID Super Mom I did to pursue my passion and not for achieving any fame,” says Cecille.
According to Cecille it all the started at the age of 12, the dance became her love of life. “I started dancing at the age of 12. I was in the convent then, St. Theresa School Vasco and we formed a group there. We started doing stage shows and traveling to different places in Goa. One of our parents used to accompany us every time. And when I was in 9th Class we made the group official by christening it as “Scorpion” and that how the journey started,” Cecille narrated giggling.
The art creativity runs the in a family of Cecille but she is the only one who chose dancing as her passion. “I have a lot of creative people in my family. My uncle plays guitar and my cousins are also into the music but amongst the all I’m the only person in the family who opted for dancing and the journey started from there,” she said.
Cecille had been on the reality show DID-Super Mom by ZEE TV and according to her going for the reality show is not a easy task and one need lot of support from family and friends. “Let me tell you that it is an expensive business. I feel that when there is a reality show and there is an opportunity everyone should give it a shot. But here the backing of family & friends is most important. Even if someone can help financially it is still better since it is very expensive affair. Alone the talent does not help here but you need financial backup too. Initially nothing is given to you for free. You have to do your travel expense, you have to stay somewhere, and you have to commute up and down, go for the auditions. Now for this DID super Mom they had a pre auditions wherein they were doing a study to see if there were moms who would be interested in participating. They started getting in touch with all the DID dancers and through them they connected to dancing mothers in the other cities,” narrated Cecille.
“In my case, one of the dancers from Margao and another from Arpora got in touch with me as they had been contacted by the DID team to find out if there is any such talent is there in Goa. It was to my surprise when one of the dancers called up saying ‘Hey Cecille, the DID people are inquiring and they are planning to have DID Supermom from Goa’ I burst into a laugh and said please don’t joke. That was season two of DID and the auditions were in Goa where I was the only one who got selected from Goa,” she added. Later the DID team contacted Cecille asking her to prove them with the clips of Latin Style of dancing. “They told me to send them the link of my Latin style of dancing since I was good in Latin style I got selected,” said Cecille.
You may feel that since Cecille is a good dancer and she is dancing right from the age of 12 it was very easy for to get selected for this competition. But let me tell you one thing here that we are taking about the national platform and not the regional one. Getting on the stage of DID is not a joke. The standards are very high and you need to compete with the people from all over the India and there is a huge amount of talented people in India. A similar thing happened with Cecille.
This was the second time Cecille appeared for the DID auditions, the first time she was rejected by DID team. “For the 1st time I dint get selected coz I was working that time,” she said adding “I got selected in the Goa auditions and then I went to Bombay and cleared the second round but the 3rd round I fell out coz my chorography was not up to the mark and that time I was working so I dint have enough of time, but I was happy that I gave it a shot.”
Cecille had appeared for the DID season 2 and She got rejected in her first try but then the story did not end here and that was the spirit due to which finally Cecille came out as a winner. “It was for DID season 2, I was still working for Kingfisher Airlines then. I remember I had taken leave to go for an audition. I was married then but I had not had a child. The “DID Super Mom” came much after that, may be around 3 years after that in which I finally got selected,” said Cecille.
Standing second at the national level is not a joke how many Goans even tried reaching that high? It was the determination and commitment of Cecille that made her the winner at the end. Nevertheless, continuing our story further let’s take a look at the journey of Cecille to “DID Super Mom”. In the second try Cecille got selected but the struggle did not end here but the new journey of struggle began. “Once I get through the Goa auditions the real struggle started. I had to travel to from Mumbai regularly for further auditions in Mumbai. I did that struggle all alone on my own. I used to travel by flight to reach back on the same day to be with my son who was very small then. In this journey of mine my parents stood by me as a pillar of support. My parents moved in with me when my son was born. Initially mom didn’t agree but then I convinced her that this is something very important for me. Later on when my parents saw me on the TV performing before the huge audience they appreciated the same. I was the only funky mom and the Latin dancer in DID Supermom Season,” said Cecille.
Cecille feels that she is lucky to have such supportive parents and they stood by her till the end of her “DID” journey. “For me winning the show was not important, my dream was to reach out there and perform which I did successfully and I am really happy for that,” she said.
Although Cecille achieved so much from DID platform. The name and fame came to her easily and if she wanted to take up the new career in Mumbai and become the professional choreographer in the Bollywood she could have easily attained but she did not go for it. According to Cecille, she did not wanted to run after the money and success. Her dream was to reach on the DID platform that she had achieved it already. “I dint want to stay back in Mumbai, although I could have easily got an opportunities there but my dream was not to succeed in my life there, I’m a typical Goan girl who does not like to move out of Goa. I have my family, my friends and my son who needs me here in Goa. People struggle to achieve financial freedom, name and fame but I am not after all that. I am financially well off. I work hard every day and that is enough for me,” said Cecille.
According to Cecille, the dancing was not given that much importance earlier but now parents are encouraging their children to take up the dancing as one of their subjects in school. They are sending children for the dance classes and helping them to start their own dance academy. “My Zumba Fitness Center is coming up soon. Presently I provide the dance education to the school children. I do not do any stage shows since I avoid the late night and in stage shows, there are lots of commitments,” she said.
Presently Cecille is also acting in one of the movie that will be released in the month of July. According to her she has got very special role in that movie which she does not want to disclose the details at this stage since it will amount into the revealing the suspense of the movie. “Yes I am playing a role in the movie but I won’t disclose much about my role in that since I want you all to and watch the movie and decide if I have done the good work. It is the Konkani movie but produced by the people from Bangalore. In fact this opportunity also came to my doorstep and I decided to give it a shot. I am not an actor but I am getting lot of support from my co-stars and production team. I am a very fast learner and I can pick up things faster. First thing I asked the director was whether you are sure that you really need me for this role and they said yes since you are a good dancer and knows aerobics and gymnastics you will be best suited for the role. Luckily everything is going as planned. Although I had never planned something like this but after 3 years the opportunity came to me. I never went out searching for work but it came searching for me,” Cecille narrated with full confidence in her eyes.
According to Cecille she never believed in running after making a name and getting fame or that sort of things. She always pursued her dream and the success came running after her. “It’s not about waiting for work to come to you. I am already working. I have my dance classes; I have my school training seasons. I am very happy that I am self-contained. I made my name and my dream was not to become famous, right from the beginning I wanted to do something different where Goa would recognize me. I never pushed myself by passing my bio-data everywhere because it’s easy for a man to move out but not for a Woman,” said Cecille.
“My job is to make people fit, I m into dance fitness, plus I’m starting new venture where I can promote jive dancing wherein I will organize a Jive show free season where all the Jivers can come and perform in the house. I would do a free jive workshop where I can contribute to the Society so that the basic knowledge is passed on which is important, plus I do dance program in Don Bosco School for students of KG to 10 of Green Rosary School, Our Lady of Health School in Ribandar. In the evening I teach them the gymnastics I got a gymnastics instructor. In my dance classes I focus on stretching, flexibility and core strength,” she added.
Cecille has many plans and many dreams that she is fulfilling one by one. Very soon she will be opening a café at Mapusa with another two friends of her. “It will be basically going to be an Arts café. Any musician wants to come and play or practice will be allowed to do so,” she said.
When I asked Cecille if anyone else besides her managed to reach at “DID” platform, she said, No one. According to her people in Goa do not have time to pursue their passion. “In the first place mothers don’t have time to come and train, secondly only when there is a new season is approaches at that time they start training themselves and I don’t have time for that, and if you see I don’t have regular classes in dancing, it is like every individual mother needs to take an initiative in this. I can help them out in workshops but that never happens since mothers do not like to come from far places. It’s like how I kept my passion alive they also need to do the same if they want to reach on that platform. I think I am really lucky and that God has been very good to me. According to me the success comes to the people that have a clean heart. Your motive towards the goal needs to be clean. If is not then you will never achieve the success no matter how hard you try. Mumbai is a place where you can make it or break it. I cannot force people, it has to come out from within themselves,” said Cecille.
In Mumbai, one need to train very hard said Cecille. “I used to work out to keep myself fit. I also used to go for the dance practices and I could dance with any partner,” she said. Cecille could not manage to go further into that since she had a small son to take care of but if she was not married then she said that she would have surely gone ahead with her career in Mumbai. “Yes, if I was single I would have gone,” she said adding that “As a mother, one has to do a lot of sacrifices. While I was in Mumbai for five months I remember how much I struggled there. I used to cry every night. The stress level was very high. I used to get only two hours of sleep and continuous practice.”
Cecille also had plans of starting something on the local TV channel but the budget is a problem here. “Channel people here in Goa do not support they ask for an investment. It’s like if you are starting a program then you need to spend from your pocket. They straight away ask how much you are ready to put,” she said.
According to Cecille, till date, she has not been felicitated by the Goa government after achieving the top level at DID show. “I have not been officially felicitated by the Government of Goa. My friends did all the arrangements, the media had come, Parrikar spoke few words, so that day I went and met everyone I went to my schools had a warm welcome there went on line with RJ big FM 91.9 FM,” she said.
According to Cecille, “Life always gives a lot of opportunities to you; it all depends upon you as how much you want to push yourself. There are lots to learn, coz when u learn you grab and unless to try different things in life you cannot succeed in your life. You have one life to live and lots to learn it’s not for me reaching heights. That Fame word is a very dirty name I m not doing anything for fame it’s just my liking that I m doing,” with these words she concluded.
Cecille is the Trend Setter in the field of dance and fitness in Goa. Despite being a mother she pursued her dreams and achieved it. If you wish to achieve something in your life then there is nothing that can stop you from doing it. Just follow your dreams and pursue it and one day you will also be the winner like Cecille.
