Nine-year-old Terrance Wang has become quite the young entertainer, having his audience literally on a string.
The Grade 4 student at DeBeck elementary has been wowing people with his ability to command a yo-yo to perform an intricate series of loops, flips and spins. It`s a skill he picked up and developed when a school friend introduced him to a yo-yo three years ago. And Terrance hasn’t looked back.
Soon, he was pulling off relatively simple tricks such as walking the dog where the yo-yo spins forward across the floor like a dog tugging on its master`s leash. Then there was the Eiffel Tower, where the twirling yo-yo’s string is quickly weaved into the familiar lattice work of the Parisian landmark.
Last month, he bagged a pair of first place medals at the Pacific Northwest Regional Yo-Yo Championship in Seattle. One medal came in the Novice/Junior Open Division and the other was for first place in the Overall Champion of Sports Ladder Divison with the highest score. That meant he beat everyone, regardless of age.
It’s a feat his parents, Nicole and Edmund, are extremely proud of, not merely because Terrance was a success, but due to the transformation performing with a yo-yo has on their son.
“Terrance and our daughter, Michelle, both of them are pretty shy kids. But when Terrance has a yo-yo in his hand and people watching him, he becomes another person,” Edmund said. “He loses all of his shyness and turns into a real performer.”
And perform Terrance has, pretty much at every opportunity. He’s been front and centre at school talent shows and gatherings with family and friends, fashioning intricate patterns as he makes his yo-yo dance and bob along its string and around his fingers, hand and arms.
One of the most satisfying parts about his recent, medal-winning trip to Seattle was the chance to meet one of his yo-yo idols – 2014 world champion Gentry Stein from Chico, California. But young Terrance wasn’t just happy to meet Stein, he performed for him.
“Terrance started doing the tricks that Gentry was known for, right in front of him,” Edmund said. “And when then Gentry saw Terrance’s own tricks, he started video taping him and then began copying Terrance’s moves. It was pretty special.”
