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Philadelphia Festival 2017

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Great Celebrations at Philadelphia Dancesport Championships

This year the Philadelphia Dancesport Championships finished with excellent professional heats and a tremendous celebration for Mr. Chuck Danza’s birthday.

Most of you do not know but the National Dance Council awards the competitions their dates by weekends and so not every year your competition will be on the same day. This year the Philadelphia Dancesport Championships date landed on the organizer’s birthday and so last night he was treated to a few surprises: a video of his dance life was played, Happy Birthday was sung by all and a huge birthday cake was delivered. This brought the Philadelphia Dancesport Festival to a fantastic finish.

The professional events were also excellent with good dancing in all finals. The night began with the Professional Showdance and this went to Travis & Jaimee Tuft who gave a faultless performance. Second went to Clyde Harris & Summer Elkin leaving third to Ivan Kudashov & Ksenia Sokolova.

It was a double win for Travis & Jaimee, they also won the Professional Smooth with first in all dances. Second in this division went to Sergey & Maria Barsukov, leaving third to Vladimir Kosarev & Vera Chervin. Enzo Zappia & Stephanie Betts took fourth overall 4,4,4,5, Ilya Abdullin & Tara Barakov were fifth 6,6,5,4, and Morten Jensen & Ashley Mokris placed sixth 5,5,6,6.

In the Professional Ballroom, Andrew Begunov & Anna Demidova took first overall but not in all dances 1,1,2,1,2. The winners of the VW, and tango were Igor Mikushov & Ekaterina Romanshkina who placed second overall 2,2,1,2,1. Third went to Emanuele & Francesca Pappacena who took third in all dances. Fourth place was awarded to Lukas Chockuba & Angelina Oh who took all fourths and fifth went to Christopher Debiak & Kate Woolfe.

The Professional International Latin was also a terrific heat and here Artur Tarnavskyy & Anastasia Danilova won overall 1,2,1,2,1. Second in three dances and first in two dances went to Nikita & Nadezda Malakhov. Third were Vlad Astafiev & Annie He Xiao, fourth went to Ivan Kudashov & Ksenia Sokolova. Fifth place was awarded to Francesco Arieta & Rosario Vivone and they placed fifth in all dances, it is so impressive that Francesco could dance nearly every pro-am heat all day and still have the power to dance the professional open. In sixth place were Howard Wang & Doris Hsieh.

The Open Professional Rhythm was also an excellent heat and here Ilya Velednistky & Mariya Ilchenko who won all dances. Second in in all dances went to Ilya Andullin & Tara Barakov and third was awarded to Kristian Sese & Mae Lozada but here with a few fourth placed marks in a few dances 4,3,3,4,3. It must have been a disappointing result for Andrei Svirydzenka & Yuliya Zubova 3,4,4,3,4, who in the past have been placed much higher and above some of the other couples but on this night placed fourth overall. Fifth place was awarded to Joe Hasson & Natalia Honkonen 6,5,6,5,5, leaving sixth place to Luis Grijalva & Larisa Mikryukova 5,6,5,6,6.

There was a terrific Amateur Latin event it was small but of fantastic quality. First in this heat went to Austin Joson & Nino Dzneladze placing first in all dances, second places in four dances and third in the jive went to Artem Zhychuk & Klaudia Petriti and last but not least in third place were Taras Savitskyy & Yuliya Steshenko 3,3,3,3,2.

The competition concluded with one of the best features of the Philadelphia Dancesport festival and that is their closing party. As always the Latin band was fantastic and many of us danced until our feet could not take it any more. Congratulations to Chuck Danza it was a terrific event!

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