The pro-am ballroom was quite well supported and produced some large and highly contested heats. The Open B Scholarship was won by Laura Shooks w/ Alexander Voskalchuk who won all dances losing very few 1st place marks and actually with perfect scores in tango and quickstep. Careen Friedland w/ Slava Kostianets was the runner-up 2,2,3,2,2, Kristine Riemer w/ Erik Pali took 3rd 3,3,2,3,3; 4th Patricia Chai w/ Sergey Bolotnikov 5,4,5,4,4; 5th Laura Boniello w/ Igor Gayenko 4,5,4,5,5.
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Following the completion of the pro-am divisions, the amateurs took to the floor. The standard of dance in the Youth and U/21 was especially high in both ballroom and Latin styles. Interestingly both styles had the same winners in both age groups.
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It Takes a Village!
Before we report on the goings on from last night and the Smooth Pro/Am day here at the DBDC, we must first thank the entire team that makes the DBDC a tremendous success from the runners, judges, chairman of judges and even to the bartenders in the hospitality suites.
But rather than composing a note with a bunch of thanks and forgetting half the crew, we give you a message the organizers received yesterday from a prominent Pro/Am competitor who had this to say.
“In case I don’t see you I wanted you to know that this comp should be top of everyone’s list. The ballroom is beautiful, the hotel is wonderful it has a bar and food, also Starbucks and it’s clean and serviced. It’s in the heart of the best part of Boston as someone who lived here. The music was fabulous! We will hope to return next year doing all 3 styles! Cheers to you!”
Last night was the last evening session at the DBDC and the atmosphere as well as the competitors were out of this world. The usual gala dinner honoring a prominent person of our industry took place but this time because the organizers did not have enough time to honor a particular person we did a recap of the DBDC and its honorees from the beginning. It was an emotional video that perhaps touched us all more than usual, because this was a celebration of life itself.
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Fifth in this Rhythm final was awarded to Artem Shiller & Ginny Ray Shiller, another couple with great potential but consistency of work needs to be a little more apparent. Sixth went to Nicolas Rodriguez & Paulina Struk in all dances. We also feel that this couple has made significant improvement over the last year.
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For the pro-ams it was a full day of Smooth heats that culminated with some good competitions in the Open Scholarships.
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The Competition & the INN at the DBDC!
The DBDC got its kick off this year in Lexington, Massachusetts where the first shots were fired for the independence of the United States of America.
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Thursday morning we were all ready for the Boston Park Plaza, the nightclub extravaganza and the most beautiful ballroom for dancing.
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Friday we got underway with the Rhythm and Latin competitions for pro-ams and it was fully packed day of Pro/Am dancing. At night the professional events began and the professional Latin had the most interesting challenges among some of the best Latin dancers in the USA.
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For the pro-ams Friday was a very busy day of competition with two styles of dance – Rhythm & Latin. Rhythm was up first with some keenly contested Open Scholarships.
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In the Latin Divisions we also saw some strong open scholarship divisions.
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Melissa Putnam w/ Jani Bogre took the Open B Latin Scholarship.