Last night at the Emerald Ball DanceSport Championships, Victor Fung & Anastasia Muravyeva, one of our brighter stars in the world of ballroom dancing, competed in the Open Professional Ballroom and as expected won every dance with perfect scores from every judge.
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We were a little disappointed by the unexpected withdrawal from the competition by Oscar Pedrinelli & Lenka Kovalcikova, who withdrew due to injury. After the event was over we spoke to Oscar and he said that Lenka had nearly fainted, we don’t know when or how but all we know is that at one point we saw her with her head slightly tilted down holding her neck when they abruptly stopped in one of their dances. We hope this to not be a major injury and we do hope for her to recover and look forward to seeing them on the floor again very soon.
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4th spot, with very mixed scores, went to Oreste Alitto & Valeriia Belozerova 3,2,5,4,6. It is rare to see such a mix of placements in an Open Amateur division. 5th were Ruslan Kaliuzhyni & Elena Dovgan 5,5,3,5,4; 6th Artur Nabok & Michelle Yiu 6,6,6,6,5; 7th Tony Cooperman & Rickie Taylor 7,7,7,7,7.
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For the pro-ams it was Latin all day long culminating in the Open Scholarships.
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Rock me Baby!
“Rock me all night long…… I want you to rock me like my back ain’t got no bone!”
Last night for us was about earthiness in the Latin and seeing some great ladies’ vertebrae dance like they ain’t got no bones. Even in the Smooth there were some interesting and exciting back action and in the process some might have even broken a bone!
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The one that nearly broke their head bones were Nathaniel Brouwer & Dena Anne Weiner who did some amazing lifts, but towards the end when they were about to do the most risky moves with her facing down in an overhead lift, the balance went and he nearly “plop” her on the head. Lucky for her she managed to land on her two feet with a “thump” that made all take loud breaths of relief and the podium shake. From then on it was “scary” until the bitter end that we are sure the judges wished would come sooner than later.
The Professional Latin started a bit slowly with an unexciting semifinal. We actually spotted a few people yawning in the bleachers, but if you went home you missed it all. This sleepy semifinal turned into the event of the night, with two or three incredible dancers that kept us rocking all night long.
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For the pro-ams it was day when the Ballroom divisions were completed, meaning we finished the afternoon session with the Open Scholarships and these were the best attended of all the Open Scholarships so far with the Open C beginning with 27 couples.
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The evening session began with 2 very strong Youth division in Ballroom and Latin, sponsored by the Fordney Foundation.
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The Latin began with a quarter-final and this time Erik & shelly moved up to 1st place, winning all 5 dances, 3 of them with a majority of 1st places. 2nd this time went to Kristers & Elizabeth who placed 2,2,3,2,3 and 3rd went to D'Angelo Castro & Kyla Dzhaniashvili 4,3,2,3,2.
What a night for Oleksiy & Natalie!
Last night was phenomenal for Oleksiy Pigotskyy & Natalie Crandall as they won both the Rhythm and Smooth in the Professional Rising Star divisions.
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The Pro-Am Open Smooth Scholarships ended the matinee session and we felt they were especially strong in all age divisions.
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In tomorrow’s report look out for the Open Pro-Am Ballroom Scholarships and Professional divisions in Cabaret, Smooth and Latin!
Be sure to watch highlights from Emerald Ball in our video section!
Emerald Green!
Green is a color pervasive in the natural environment that says “renewing, refreshing and generating.”
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For the last two days here at the Emerald Ball we have focused on the American style of dancing, Rhythm and Smooth in the pro/am divisions. Last night the Open American Rhythm Scholarships took place and they were well attended with great quality of dancing in all heats.
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Nancy Lam w/Sean Tamashiro placed second overall but not in all dances - 3,2,2,3,2, as you see Nancy took third in the cha cha and bolero. We must also note that Nancy took a variety of marks in all dances some of the marks even down to sixth place. Third overall went to Marcy Garson w/Ilya Reyzin with these marks 2,4,3,2,4. Joan Goddard w/Aaron Talbert were fourth overall 4,3,4,4,3. Fifth down to seventh place got a little more settled, Beth Waltz w/Steven Davis were fifth overall 5,5,5,6,5; sixth went to Charlene Proctor w/Mikhail Zharinov with these scores 6,6,6,5,6, and seventh in all dances went to Monica Broch w/Kris Suakjian.
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Today we will see the Open American Smooth Scholarships and all of the Professional Rising Star divisions. Stay tuned!