This magnificent fiery event along with a terrific Under 21 Latin made this cha cha night an unforgettable experience.
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The second in charge, Troels Bager & Ina Jeliazkova were also in attendance and they too got a great reception from the audience and from our perspective were as equally brilliant in their artistry. When we looked at the marks we were not surprise to see that these two couples mentioned had swept out all the top marks there was not a single first or second for the taking Ricado & Yulia had perfect scores and Troels & Ina took every single second available, so it truly was a 1….2….Cha cha cha!
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With this the Embassy Ball 2019 came to an end.
Comme Si, Comme Ca!
Last night at the Embassy Ball, as always, was about dancing, dancing, and more incredible dancing.
However, one of the signatures of this competition year after year, has been the Professional Ballroom Championship, Saturday Night, sometimes so good you could hear a pin drop when watching the couples do a foxtrot or a beautiful waltz, and we have to say that although there was some excellent talent on the floor, for us the Professional World Rhythm possibly stole some of their thunder and light!
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Fourth overall were Rudy Homm & Katia Kanevskaya who for us were hard to find in the earlier rounds. Once we spotted them we really liked her new look with her golden hair and all. As we just said we found this very talented couple a little on the quiet side last night, we had not seen them dance since they had to pull out of the competition circuit due to health, but it is very encouraging to see them dancing again and we are sure they will take the floor by storm as they were just before their time off. Their marks were 4,3,4,4,3. Fifth in all dances were Vladishlav Shakhov & Ekaterina Popova. And it was a tremendous surprise to us when they called Andres & Veronika End as last and sixth in all dances. We say surprised because for us they were the only couple that were possibly having fun on the floor and performing for us all, while maintaining the quality of work that this very special final here at the Embassy Ball requires.
Well there you have it, the Ballroom was as always full of great quality but perhaps missing some of the emotion, musicality and brilliant performances that has always made our hearts melt at the sight of this heat. Speaking to a Ballroom Icon here at the same competition, we were talking about people that have perfect top lines and feet and he said to us, “do you know what that translates into?” A little puzzled we shrugged our shoulders to indicate we didn’t have a clue and he said, “boring!” Well we think there was possibly a little of that on that floor in this ballroom field last night from all the couples.
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The breath of truly fresh air was the incredible and playful performance of Andrew Escolme & Amy Baker who placed fourth overall. What a fantastic performance, it got us out of our seats and fully watching. Here we had incredible quality of work with some very playful an almost mischievous performance, embodying what we consider the essence of Rhythm dancing, just let your imagination go, just dances and do what you feel! We were a little surprised to see them place this low because for us they could have easily captured second or third, and we would not have batted an eye. It is true that they are new to this style and could perhaps have a few more competitions under their belt, so we can’t pin this one on the judges, but we are certain to see some more incredible, unique and interesting work from this couple on future outings, and we can see with couples like this the American Style Rhythm is setting up into an excellent arena of interesting development. Andrew & Amy took this marks 4,5,4,4,4.
Another very talented couple, Oleksiy Pigotskyy & Natalie Crandall placed fifth overall. This is usually a very charismatic couple with tremendous talent and we were a little surprised to see them take a back seat to Andrew & Amy as well as everyone else in the top four places in this competition. They did place fourth in the rumba but were awarded fifth in the other four dances. Ryan Lockhart & Danelle Newman were sixth in four dances and tied for sixth in the mambo with Kristian Sese & Mae Lozada, they placed seventh in all dances and tied for sixth in this one dance in question the mambo.
The Open Amateur Latin was possibly the biggest heat of the night but perhaps also not the. best we have seen. Tal Livshitz & Ilana Keselman won the Championship and won all dances with a majority of firsts. From first go there was not question in our mind that they were not going to win the Championship, they were playful, correct and in some instances took some chances and that is what perhaps it’s all about. Second in all dances was awarded to Alexander Chermositov & Arina Grishina, and we have to point out that they took the most firsts from Tal & Ileana in this final, they also gave a terrific performance.
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Speaking of talent, we must also point out how impressed we were with Max Firestein & Nicole Renee’s performance last night. It nearly made our heads spin the improvement and maturity of work from this couple now is tremendous. Our congratulation on making this excellent final and on their hard work, because it certainly is paying off now and on the floor last night. Max & Nicole placed fourth with these marks 5,4,4,5,4. Nikolai Tarasov & Sara Nolan were fifth 4,6,5.5,4,5, and Yevgenii Orlov & Maryna Yerina were sixth 6,5,5.5,6,6.
US Champions, Austin Joson & Nino Dzedneladze, danced the first 2 rounds but withdrew before the semifinal.
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The Pro/Am World Latin Championships like the Ballroom were well attended and had like the Ballroom tremendous quality and talent.
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The War of the (Smooth) Worlds!
Last night at the Embassy Ball, we had a war of the Smooth in the Open Professional Championship, possibly the top six Smooth couples in the world were in attendance and the competition was fierce.
Once again as expected, there was a top dog competition for first place between Nick Cheremukhin & Viktorija Barashina and Max Sinitsa & Tatiana Seleverstrova and this is what we saw from the sidelines and how the judges had it.
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We totally enjoyed the emotional content and musicality of Max & Tatiana, however, in the waltzes and foxtrot it was almost too much to the point where it got a little congested in the upper body leaving us feeling a little constipated to say the least. On the other hand, Nick & Viktorija keep things flowing a little more and allowed us to take a breath of two and enjoy their journey. As we just mentioned it was all in the eyes of the beholder and what they like or dislike, whatever it is this major battle so near the US Championships makes you stop and wonder what will happen next?
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Tonight we have more open professional events and more exiting competition.
In a World of Smooth
Yesterday at Embassy Ballroom Championships we were in a world of Smooth.
The World Pro-Am Smooth Championships were decided last night in some large and well-contested divisions that ended with the Open divisions.
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Pro/Am Rhythm Best!
Yesterday at the Embassy Ball it was all day Pro/Am competitions in the Rhythm divisions.
The day concluded with the very exiting World Pro/Am Open Rhythm Scholarships, and they were perhaps some of the best Pro/Am World Rhythm Championships we have seen in all levels to date.
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As we mentioned before we have not seen such a great caliber of Pro/Am Rhythm events in a long time. It was very exciting until the end. Today we are working on the Smooth Categories and we hope for them to be of the same quality.