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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Emerald Ball 2016: Professional Ballroom 

By Beth Knoll

Photography by Mary Tweeddale 

Congratulations to Wayne and Donna Eng and their entire team for presenting yet another fabulous Emerald Ball.  This is the first time I’ve had the privilege of judging, and all I can say is WOW, what a spectacle.  The entire week was filled with amazing dancing at every level in every style. The Professional Ballroom was an excellent event featuring familiar faces, returning faces and new shining stars. The style is perched on the brink of exploding, something it’s needed to do for some time.

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