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The Battle Decided!

The (Rhythm) Battle of Hotel San Juan is decided and the victors are Us Champs, Emmanuel Pierre Antoine & Liana Churilova who won all 5 dances.  Emmanuel & Liana had the majority of 1st places in all dances.  The swing was the closest fought however, as the runners-up, Nazar Norov & Irina Kudryashova had 7 1st places to Emmanuel & Liana’s 10.  Nazar & Irina were clear in 2nd spot in all dances.  3rd went to Peter & Alexandra Perzhu and once again it was in all dances.  4th in all fell to Misha Vlasov & Vanda Polyakova, once again a clear finish for them.  5th and 6th spots were a little closer with the result going to Maksim Lototskyy & Sara Haworth 5,5,6,5,6 over Matthew Hauer & Lauren Schelfhaudt 6,6,5,6,5.  Andre & Natalie Paramonov were also slated to compete but unfortunately had to withdraw.

Watch out for Ilya Reyzin’s report on this division in Dance Beat soon.

Matthew & Lauren were the winners in the NDCA sanctioned World Salsa Championship, a title they now add to their US National Mambo title.  They received 16 of the available 17 first places.  2nd in this division went to Eddie Rivera & Meg McNash and 3rd to Rodrigue Edouard & Diana Heilig.

Only 2 couples entered the Professional Showdance and the win went to Travis & Jamie Tuft over Eddie & Meg.

For the pro-ams it was Ballroom day and it proved a good day for Carole Simmons & Serghei Pogonet from Canada.  Carole won the both the Open A & B Scholarships.

Only 2 couples entered the A and Carole won all dances.  Tamuria Thompson w/ David Weise was 2nd.

In the B Carole placed 1,2,2,1,1.  Runner-up was Noriko Kiernan w/ Eric Pali with 2,1,1,2,2.  3rd in all dances was Mary Jane McCarran w/ Basil Issaev;  4th in all Laura White w/ Andrea Faraci and 5th Darcy Adamcyck w/ Garl Dahl.

Lisa Liao w/ Andrea Feraci was the winner in the C placing 1,1,1,1,2.  2nd spot with 2,2,2,2,1 went to Alla Neystadt w/ Basil Issaev.  3rd was Dexter Wang w/ Liane Apale 3,4,3,3,4;  4th Audria Hill-Mitchell w/ Peter Perzhu 4,3,4,4,3;  5th Janet Caruso w/ Edgar Osorio  5,5,5,5,5.

The weather gods were kind in San Juan as the sun shone throughout Saturday afternoon when all competitors had time off to enjoy the beach or pool.

The evening session began with the Gala San Juan, the cocktail hour sponsored by Rums of Puerto Rico.  Music Director, Brent Mills entertained us in his inimitable style on the piano.

For those competitors who stayed an extra day and were on the extended La Vida Loca package it was a day of sailing on the calm Caribbean Sea for lunch and snorkeling on a deserted (except for us) island.

Stars over the Caribbean Sea

Last night at Caribbean Dancesport the stars were out in the ballroom if perhaps not over the Caribbean Sea.  Both the Open Professional Smooth and Latin had US finalists attending.

Current US Champions, Peter & Alexandra Perzhu easily won the Smooth taking all 4 dances with a large majority of 1st places and perfect scores in the waltz.  Only judge Diana McDonald placed them 2nd overall.  Clearly 2nd with all the 2nd placements and a couple of 1st placements were Travis & Jaimee Tuft.  Moving up from their 2nd spot in the Rising Star, Leo Mora & Christina Garced overtook the RS winners, Radek Wiatrowski & Denise Sobiewski to place 3rd 3,3,4,3.  Radek & Denise placed 4,4,3,5.  Dave Hannigan & Maggie Toth were 5th 5,5,5,4 and Aaron Talbert & Angela Maughan were 6th.

In the Open Latin it was the turn of Roman Kutskyy & Anna Kovalova to take the trophy and they won all 5 dances with every 1st place from all judges.  Fellow Californians Roman Italyankin & Alexandra Bokova were 2nd in all dances.  They had the majority of 2nd places in all dances, but the cha cha was close as they had 7 to the 6 received by 3rd place recipients, Dmitry Nikishkin & Olena Shvets, who ended up 3rd in all dances.  4th place fell to Vlad Astafiev & Linda Gergye.

The largest event of the night was actually the Pro Rising Star Rhythm that began with a semifinal.  This was quite a tight competition but the win went to Maksym Lototsky & Sarah Haworth 2,1,1,1,1.  They had the majority of 1st places in R,S,B.  With 1,2,2,2,2, Riccardo Papi & Sabrina Moretti were the runners-up.  With all 3rd’s the new pairing of Eddie Rivera & Meg McNash were 3rd.  All the 4’s went to Marco Pizarro & Tamara Richartz;  5th were Jonathan Chen & Nadine Messenger 5,5,5,5,6 and 6th were Rodrigue Edouard & Diana Heilig 6,6,6,6,5.

For the pro-ams it was a full day of Rhythm with the Scholarship and multi-dance divisions at night.  The Open Scholarships produced some good finals.  The winner of the B was Elena Cormio w/ Edwin Torres.  Elean lost very few 1st place scores.  2nd in all dances went to Sophia D’Angelo w/ Ilya Reyzin.  These two were well clear.  3rd went to Eileen Arcilla w/ Golden Parker 3,4,3,5,3.  4th was Angela Morrison w/ Peter Santiago 5,3,4,3,4;  5th Ceci Torres w/ Eddie Rivera 4,5,5,4,5 and 6th Kimberley Taylor w/ Misha Vlasov.

The Open A went to Katia Diamond w/ Nazar Norov 1,2,1,1,1.  The runner-up was Alison Schill w/ Emanuel Pierre-Antoine 2,1,2,2,3.  In her 2nd open final of the night, Ceci Torres w/ Eddie Rivera was 3rd, 3,3,3,3,2.  4th place in all dances fell to Tanuja Tharani w/ Adrian Persad and 5th was Tamuria Thompson w/ David Weise.

With perfect scores Joan Goddard w/ Aaron Talbert won the Open C.  2nd spot went to Daniel Haims w/ Natalie Paramonov 3,2,2,2,3.  3rd was Liz Velazquez w/ Eddie Rivera 2,3,3,3,2;  4th Deborah Davey w/ Joseph Smith 4,4,4,6,6;  5th Deborah Liguori w/ Rodrigue Edouard 5,5,6,4,4 and 6th Patrice Tanaka w/ Emanuel Pierre-Antoine 6,6,5,5,5.

After the competition the dancing moved to the famous El San Juan lobby, the party capital of the Caribbean.  We think the competitors danced more there than they did in the actual competition!  But what's 3 AM between friends?

Tonight promises a true Battle of the Hotel San Juan with most of the current US Finalists competing in the Open Rhythm.  Check back tomorrow for the outcome!

Only in the Caribbean

Caribbean Dancesport 2014 is underway in the El San Juan Hotel, Puerto Rico.

Early arrivals enjoyed a night out at a Condado Beachfront restaurant in a private space with dancing and a buffet.  The next day it was off to Old San Juan for a tour of this historic walled city and of course a few rum cocktails for those who don’t mind a midday tipple.

Wednesday night  saw the inauguration of the “True Nightclub Experience.”  Following welcome cocktails the nightclub and Caribbean dances (salsa, bachata, wc swing, stc.) took place in a true nightclub space with lightning and a blasting sound system.  (Back up singing by MC Mark Brock, DJ Brent Mills and a few trills from Chairman, Richard Booth).  It was time to get loud and get happy.

Yesterday was Smooth and Latin day or the pro-ams with the smooth attracting the larger entries both in the single dances and in the multi dances.  Joann Smith w/ Sharon Levitt from Canada was the big winners in the Open Smooth Scholarships as she won both the Open A and Open B divisions, taking all dances. 

The C was the larger, beginning with 14 couples and here the winner was Alla Neystadt w/ WEric Pali 1,1,1,1.

2nd in the A went to Keiko Matsumoto w/ Dave Hannigan 2,2,2,2 and 3rd was Tamuria Thompson w/ David Weise.  2nd in the B , Sophia D’Angelo w/ Michael Choi 2,2,2,2 3rd, Keiko w/ Dave, 3,3,3,3.  In the C the runners-up were Janet Smith w/ David Weise 2,2,2,2 and 3rd was Michael Schmidt w/ Michelle Hudson 3,5,4,3.

The Pro-Am Latin was danced in the evening.  Winning the Open Scholarship in the A divisions was Jacqueline Soccodato w/ Delyan Terziev 1,1,1,1.  The runner up with 2,2,2,3,2 was Cindy Mishlove w/ Vartan Zakhariants and 3rd was Patria Mui w/ Alex Samusevich 3,3,3,2,3.

7 couples entered the B, the largest of the Open Latin Scholarships.  The winner in all dances was Marina Svyatets w/ Aleksandar Vukosavljevic.  Once again 2nd, but this time in all dances was Cindy Mishlove w/ Vartan Zakhariants and 3rd was Melinda Santos w/ Vaidas Skimelas 5,4,3,3,4.

Lisa Liao w/ Roman Kustkyy won the C with Michaela Puno w/ Slava Sergiev the runner-up

The Pro Rising Star Smooth produced one of the closest races we have ever seen involving both a Rule 11 and Rule 10 tiebreak.  The winners were the new partnership of Radek Wiatrowski & Denise  Sobiewski and they placed 1,3,1,3.  On the other half of the Rule 11 were Leo Mora & Christina Garced placing 3,1,3,1.  Confused yet?  Placing 2nd in all dances but after a Rule 10 decision winning an overall 3rd place were Dave Hannigan & Maggie Toth.  Aaron Talbert & Angela Maughan were 4th in all dances but certainly picked a fair share of higher scores.  A veryinteresting result indeed!

Today the pro-ams dance Rhythm and at night there are some strong open professional divisions in Latin and Smooth plus rising star.  Check back tomorrow for the updates.

The Paramount USDC!

Report by Didio Barrera
Action photos by Mary Tweeddale

Why Paramount? For me this year the United States Dancesport Championships had unprecedented events with greatly challenging competitions.

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2014 WINDY CITY OPEN RHYTHM             

Report by Ray Rivers
Photos by Alliance Consulting

The winners and champions of this Rhythm Final were Erwin & Iwona Rybczynski. 

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Miami Spice!

Miami lived up to it’s Latin heritage last night at Grand Nationals as the Professional Rhythm was the best professional competition of the week.

Nazar Norov & Irina Kudryashova were the undisputed champions, receiving perfect scores in all 5 dances.  The competition was really from there down and it was tight!  Runners-up were Maksym Lototsky & Sarah Haworth and they placed 2,3,2,2,2 but had the majority of 2nds in only cha cha.  In fact they took 2nd in mambo despite having only two 2nd places in that dance.  That gives you some idea about how varied everyone’s marks were.  3rd with 3,2,3,3,3 were Tamas Kardos & Mariya-Khristina Shuropova.  4th in all dances were the new partnership of Eddie Rivera & Meg McNash.  We were a little surprised with the 5th place finish of Shandor Shtefil & Aleksandra Barsukov.  We saw them higher in this final.  They were 5th in all dances.  Closing the final were Jhondarr Lopez & Amber Osborn from Texas, the only non-Floridian couple in the final.

Also on tonight was the Pro Ballroom.  This attracted only 3 entries but all were of a high level.  The winners were Alexander Voskalchuk & Veronica Ergorova.  They won all dances with only two judges, Shirley Johnson and Alexander Mueller, placing them lower.  2nd in all dances went to Vlad Shahov & Ekaterina Popova and 3rd to the new pairing of  Marta & Anastasia Kazmina representing Italy.

5 couples contested the Showdance and it was the usual mix of cabaret and more traditional showdance routines.  Cabaret won the day as Clifton Sepulveda & Mar Martinez won the day with an adagio routine that had some interesting and fast paced liftwork.  They received 7 or the 9 first places.  Vlad Shahov & Ekaterina Popova gave a showdance style routine and they took 2nd.  3rd were Slava Panakshev & Datia Cebotaru;  4th Alfred Perratta & Sloan Cobb and 5th Richard Ortiz & Hannah Pickard.

Keep checking Dance Beat for reports on these professional divisions from former US Champions, Bill Sparks, Shirley Johnson and Susie Thompson and former World Champion, Wolfgang Opitz.

The pro-ams danced two styles today – smooth and Latin.  In the Open C Smooth Scholarship Beverly Marsh w/ Sergey Barsukov was the winner 2,1,1,1.  2nd went to Renee Kuwahara w/ Ilya Reyzin 1,12,3,2 and 3rd to Dee Iannone w/ Markus Cannon 3,3,2,3.  Chris Wilson w/ Emilia Goldberg won the Open B Smooth 1,1T,2,1 with another gentleman, Terry Anderson w/ Olga Bogdanov taking 2nd, 2,1T,1,2.  3rd was Anna Trull w/ John Abrams.

Astrid Rush w/ Radim Lanik won the Open B Latin, winning all dances.  2nd in all went to Lisa McKee w/ Clement Joly and 3rd in all to Alice Lekht w/ Igor Derimov.

Throughout the day the audience was vastly entertained by the young dancers from Dance Town in Miami, mostly partnered by professional, Ivan Mulyavka.

Dancing Through the Ages!

As many of you may know, The Grand Nationals Dancesport Championships is one of the longest continuing running competitions in the USA – celebrating, we believe, 47 years in 2014. 

Last night we were amazed to see gentlemen professional competitors in the Open Pro-Am Rhythm C Scholarship who have been finalists in the Rhythm and other styles, representing almost every decade of those years including current finalists.  We’ll spare their modesty and not say who represented each decade – but guys!  You all looked great!  Here are the results:

1st, Renee Kuwahara w/ Ilya Reyzin (1,1,1,1,1);  2nd Janet Brutell w/ Michael Neil (3,4,2,2,2);  3rd Becky Kirby w/ John Abrams;  4th Beverly Marsh w/ Nazar Norov;  5th Dee Iannone w/ Markus Cannon (6,5,5,5,5);  6th Linda Marcus w/ Brian Smith (5,6,6,7,6);  7th Kathy Williams w/ Alan Williams (7,7,7,6,7);  8th Sharon Albert w/ Darren Cupp (8,8,8,8,8).

Another good Open Scholarship last night was the Open C Ballroom that began with a semifinal.  The winner here was April Haims w/ Ruslan Meskkov (1,1,1,1,1).  2nd went to Rosann Bonotto w/ Alain Doucet (2,2,2,2,3);  3rd Frances Yu w/ Paolo DiLorenzo (3,3,3,3,2);  4th Diana McDonald w/ Alex Koulik (4,5,5,4,4);  5th Yusuf Mihaylov w/ Elena Simonova (5,4,4,5,5);  6th Annina Nosei w/ Lina Korieva (6,6,6,6,6).

There were 2 open professional divisions also danced last night and the Smooth produced a very tight race decided in fact by a Rule 11 tiebreak.  Taking the title with 1,1,2,2 were Kirill Gorjatsev & Daria Zotova.  They won their two dances with the majority of 1st places from the judges.  They received mainly 1st and 2nd placements with only 2 judges, Alexander Mueller and Ron Troy marking them further down the field.  The runners-up with 2,2,1,1, were Mark Short & Alyssa Kark.  They had the majority of 1st places in the VW and for them too it was mostly 1st and 2nd places from the judges except Wolfgang Opitz and Oksana Zolotarevskaya.  3rd in all dances were William Proper & Jennifer Elliott;  4th in all Martin Pickering & Natalie Botes;  5th Vadim & Karla Boldirev.

For us and the judges the Latin was more clearcut with Dmitry Nikishkin & Oleans Shvets winning all dances.  We were surprised, however, to see a few 3rd places in their marks column.  They did receive perfect scores in the jive.  2nd were Dmitry Zavialov & Ashley Sanchez 2,3,2,2,3;  3rd Aleksey Alekseev & Ekaterina Dareleva 3,2,3,3,2;  4th in all dances, Srdjan Mikuljan & Carolina Avila;  5th Hector Quiles & Maria Balashova.

The current venue for the Grand Nationals is the splendid Ritz Carlton on Key Biscayne in Miami.  This area and the hotel is beautiful almost with the feel of a tropical island while being basically in Miami.  As one would expect the service and hotel amenities are superb.  

The ballroom décor is also superb with the showcase LED programmable light backdrop always adding so much to the ambiance.

Embassy Ball – Pro-Am World Championships

Report by Keith Todd
Action photos by Park West

Once again the Embassy Ball hosted the World Pro-Am Championships as sanctioned by the NDCA.  World Championships were held in all levels but this report is limited to the Open level events – A, B, C and Senior.

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