Bumper Year for Nashville Starz

Report by K. Todd
Action photos by Park West

With over 6,000 entries, this was certainly a bumper year for David Hamilton’s Nashville Starz, held, of course, in Nashville, TN over the weekend of January 15th. 

Yet there was certainly a major challenge – the venue.  Originally scheduled for the Downtown Sheraton, David was forced to switch venues quite late in 2013 as the Sheraton announced they could no longer accommodate him, due to renovations. 

You are not a member. Please subscribe Here and Now!

Open UK Professional Ballroom Championship

Report by Loraine Barry
Photos by Andrew Miller www.dancefotoman.co.uk

Wednesday the 22nd January in the BIC, Bournemouth , England was the 2014 UK Professional Ballroom Competition.  In the early rounds the couples danced to recorded music and then in the evening when the top 25 couples dance the quarter final, the Orchestra of Ross Mitchell plays.  

Starting from the early morning all couples were present to produce their performances to a panel of adjudicators that consisted of 12 men and 1 lady.  Ballroom dancing is executed by a man and a woman, so therefore I would have thought that a panel consisting of both male and female adjudicators would be more balanced.  I felt that this was a little one-sided.

You are not a member. Please subscribe Here and Now!

World-Class Ballroom Spectacular Comes to Haiti

Report & Photos by Patrice Tanaka
 
The dazzling “Ballroom Spectacular,” on February 1st featuring performances by U.S. and World ballroom champions at the beautiful Karibe Hotel & Convention Center in Petionville, Haiti was a “first” for the country. 

This first-ever showcase of ballroom champions was organized by World Rhythm Champion Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine, a native of Haiti, and was attended by 600+ members of the country’s social elite, including top government officials. 

You are not a member. Please subscribe Here and Now!

Snowed out!  But electrifying finish for Superstars! The last night at the Superstars Championships was terrific with great dancing. The Professional Latin was run and the winners, Ivan Mulyavka & Loreta Krisciukaityte, won all dances but the cha cha.  The cha cha was taken by China’s Ray Zhang & Rosa Ren who were very clean in their approach.  The Professional Smooth was also a great event with excellent couples, but here, Peter & Alexandra Perzhu took all dances and in our eyes were the best of the group. The Showdance and Cabaret was also a fierce event.  Five couples took to the floor but here the honor of being the best went to Shane & Shannon Jensen who took all first places but one from the judging panel. "We dance around in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows"

As you can see, the competition was excellent throughout the night but the closing event the “Anything Goes Showdown” was excellent showcasing all the champions from the Open Professional competition throughout the weekend of dance. And in a rare occurrence there was an unbreakable tie between Shane & Shannon from the Cabaret and the winners of the Open professional Rhythm Emanule Pierre-Antoine & Liana Churilova.  The third place honor, in this case there was no second place, went to Ivan & Loreta the Open Latin champoions.  Fourth was awarded to the Smooth Champions, Peter & Alexandra and fifth went to the Open Professional Ballroom Champions, Alexander Voskalchuk & Veronika Egorova. "Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything than isn't music."

As always and as you can see by some of the pictures, the ballroom was decorated beautifully in the style of Mr. Chapman, the leading force at the Superstars. It was unfortunate that over 1000 entries had to be scratched or withdrawn due to the snowstorm that swept across the northeast before and during the Superstars. However, the organizers spared no expense to make you feel at home and to make sure that everyone was entertained. It was also great luck that Delyan Terziev & Boriana Delcheva, the featured act at this year’s Superstars, managed to catch one of the last flights out of New York and gave us two wonderful shows, Friday & Saturday. "Opportunity dances with those already on the dance floor" New Partnership Takes RS Rhythm at Superstars The new partnership of Maksym Lototsky & Sarah Hayworth were the clear winners of the RS Rhythm.   From the semi into the final, they showed a great sense of musicality and awareness for each  other and went on to win all dances.  The competition was a little tougher between 2nd and 3rd place.  Shane & Shannon Jensen came in 2nd (4,2,2,2,3) over Stephen Smyth & Victoryia Kleyman (3,3,3,4,4).  In our opinion, Victoriya had an overall stronger presence and that might have swayed some marks in favor of that couple.  Only 1 point made the difference between 3rd and 4th place, Tamas Kardos & Mariya-Khristina Shurupova made their impact by taking 2nd position in CC and Mambo making this a very exciting final to watch. The RS Ballroom had 2 couples enterered.  The winners in all dances were Oscar Pedrinelli & Lenka Kovalcikova over Matt Rivers & Maliwan Diemer.

Some Like it HOT! Report by Tibor Kerekes, Supershag
Video by Supershag
It might be freezing outside but sure enough it is hot inside the ballroom! That's the way that La Classique Du Quebec deals with the weather in Montreal. And of course I wasn't only talking about the temperature. The energy that people create and the atmosphere that is beautifully set in the ballroom with plenty of light and great sound spiked with colorful flowers is a signature for what Meryem Pearson and Daniel Heroux put on for this event. "Wives are people who feel they don't dance enough" It started the weekend with the Pro-Am Smooth division followed with some great amateur dancing. While most competitions hold to the very end to have a show by some of the best couples in the world, here they start out with a big bang. The evening session featured a five-dance show by Sergey Surkov and Melia. I've been at this comp a few times. This time it is very visible to me that pro-am dancing is growing in Canada. Friday was the Rhythm division for them. The evening featured the Amateur Latin Championship that started out with 27 couples. There were no surprises in the results. The judges were clearly agreeing on the marks.
 
6th Adam Hathazi - Morgana Lakatos - Hayward 66666
5th Ron Garber - Liza Garber 55555
4th Daniils Kutuzovs - Maria Shalvarova 44444
3rd Tal Livshitz - Ilana Kesselman 33333
2nd Morten Loewe - Roselina Doneva 22222
1st Troels Bager - Ina Jeliazkova 11111
 
Also Friday night were the Open Professional Rhythm and Standard events. The results:
 
Pro Rhythm
5th Mathieu Casavant - Melanie Martin 55555
4th Dayan Mantecon Roldan - Kyra Kalweit 44444
3rd Egor Shalvarov - Alla Profatilova 33333
2nd Ilya and Mandy Velednitskiy 22222
1st Azamat Evgamukov - Kateryna Angelone 11111
 
Pro Standard
6th Mechyslav Pavlyur - Gemma Arnold 66666
5th Pavel Lebedev - Tatiana Mescheryakova 55555
4th Ronen Zinshtein - Mariam Izmaylova 44444
3rd Richard Tonizzo - Claire Hansen 33333
2nd Anton Lebedev - Anna Borshch 22221
1st Marat Gimaev - Alina Basyuk 11112
 
Now you know why I said that the judges agreed on the marks. Will be back with more info and results soon.