After 12 years of married life, Ieong Su-kan and Wong Sut-kuai still smile at each other across the dance floor and in each other's arms. Macau's first couple of ballroom dancing are still besotted - with the idea of winning a medal when this sport makes its toe-tapping debut at a multi-sports games.
Sequins and smiles will dazzle spectators at a sold-out indoor theatre inside the cavernous Dome on November 5 when competitors from six countries vie for 10 gold medals in categories from the cha-cha-cha to the quickstep.
Although new to the East Asian Games, dancing is widely popular in Macau. Casino mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sun, is a graceful practitioner of the stately Viennese waltz and is known to indulge in this passion. His fourth wife, Angela Leong On-kei, is also the president of the Macau Dance Sport Federation (MDSF).
No wonder then that of 17 sports at the EAG, dance sport was the first to put up the full-house sign. Those 1,800 lucky spectators are in for a treat when the competitors go through the moves in the two styles: ballroom and Latin American.
'Dancing is popular in Macau,' says Ieong before leading his wife out on to the polished floor during a recent test-run of the facilities. 'We have lots of people who are involved in the sport and we hope that we can make them all proud by winning a medal,'
Envy wells up as we watch them move gracefully across the floor. Teenage memories of holding back while your more adventurous buddies spirited the girl on to the dance floor come rushing back. Just imagine if we had been able to shake our booties like these Travoltas? But then again, is this really sport?
The cynic might snort at that idea. They might, in turn, laugh at the idea that men in tuxedos or sequined shirts opened almost to the navel, and women in diaphanous ball-gowns and revealing skirts, can be called athletes. But for Ieong and company, it is strictly sport and strictly ballroom.