The Emerald Ball was a very exciting competition as usual. I commend Wayne and Donna Eng for maintaining such an elegant atmosphere and attracting such a high level of dancing all these years; students and professionals alike.

On to the American Rhythm competition. The event started with a quarter-final. The final 6 were pretty clear in the callbacks. The 1st and 2nd place couples were definite in their results but 3rd and 4th ; 5th and 6th were very close. I have to say this was no surprise. All the couples did seem to have some fabulous moments but when I would compare and look back to a couple, the consistency was lacking. A few of the couples seemed to run out of gas by the third dance.

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What a fun and fabulous time we had at Ballroom Beach Bash in San Diego hosted by Toni Redpath, Michael Mead and Jonathan Roberts!! This threesome has created one of the most entertaining and unique competitions of the year. The playful and relaxed atmosphere attracted many people to the beach of San Diego this year, and as judges, we were treated to some fantastic dancing! We would like to congratulate Toni, Michael and Jonathan on an exceptional job with this very enjoyable competition. Paul and I were asked to provide the write-up for the very exciting Professional Ballroom Division.

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Changes in the Ballroom!

As most of you know our industry is more or less about consistency, once you have settled a spot it is very difficult to move up or down from it, especially in the professional level.

If you wanted to see every event of this year’s Emerald Ball, you basically had to check into the LAX Hilton on Monday April 26th and check out Monday May 1st. That’s right a full week of dancesport competition! Emerald Ball, run by Wayne & Donna Eng for the past 27 years, is certainly one of the USA’s largest competitions and the largest on the West Coast. This year, more time was added to the schedule with an earlier start on Tuesday and this made everyone a little less stressed and allowed some downtime for competitors and officials alike. It is certainly the trend of competitions to become longer and longer nowadays, but as entries continue to increase for many, there is little option.

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San Diego Ballroom Beach Bash 2016: Professional Latin 

Report by Eugene Katsevman

Photography by Stephen Marino

What a pleasure it is for me to comment on the Professional Latin at the Ballroom Beach Bash in San Diego! As a new organizer, I travel the world experiencing our wonderful industry in a completely new way — paying attention to details, and appreciating the tremendous amount of work that goes into organizing a dance competition. Every organizer tries to find a niche for their comp, something special that sets it apart from the rest. Beach Bash pulled this off with flying colors! A beach vacation theme with a relaxed, casual atmosphere was kept up though the whole event. Light, fun and spontaneous mood was a perfect reflection of the organizers’ personalities, which made the whole thing feel organic and never forced. But don’t be fooled by the fun theme: the entries were huge and the pro events were all serious business and highly contested!

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