Video by SuperShag - click here

As we mentioned there is no reason for some of these men to look as if they have little stumps for legs instead of an elongated extremities when they make a dance line. We think that perhaps having an undefined band on the waist and huge bell bottoms that touch the floor, hiding the shoes and feet makes the legs appear rooted to the floor and not detached, giving the leg line an uncomplimentary short look (think of it as a long dress spreading on the ground, like Morticia from the Adam’s Family). This of course has nothing to do with dancing but like the ladies on the floor, anything that compliments the body would enhance or detract from your dancing and the judges 5 to 10 seconds they can spend on each couple. Plus, it is time that men also get a little picked on for wearing bad leg line outfits.

• Amateur Latin all on cha cha Amateur Latin all on cha cha
• Amateur Latin Amateur Latin
•  

Here, here!! Now that we got the “short legs” problem out of the way, we must get down to the business of Latin American dancing. This Amateur event was fantastic we think all due to the camaraderie of the organizers, Eugene Katsevman and Maria Manusova who more than anyone nowadays know the sacrifices we must make in order to get to the very top (including having the proper pants, just kidding we think Eugene always had good pants). The surprising winner here in the USA was Austin Joson & Nino Dzneladze who placed first in three dances and second in the paso and jive. We said “surprising” because even though they do really well overseas they at times tend to be snubbed here in the USA. For us Nino is possibly one the best, if not the best, lady on the floor today including the professional and Rhythm fields combined and not to be insulting to Mr. Joson – “but you truly have a world class act in your hand!” We were glad to see that last night the judges did not ignore this.

Second overall went to Tal Livshitz & Ilona Keselman who won the paso and the jive and who placed second in the other three dances. On this night for us Tal & Ilona did not do much either way. We found their performance very correct and natural but would have loved to see a little more sparkle from their actions. Third overall went to another couple that we can honestly say are not always correct but do tend to get our attention, Pasha Stepanchuk & Gabriella Sabler 4,3,3,3,3. Perhaps here is the opposite, at times we think they are working too hard. Sometimes you need to step back and say, “I’m going to spend only this much energy on this movement!” Some people call it light and shade. You can be subtle at times and creative and at other times you need to explore ways of communicating without having to be “punchy” all the time.

• Austin Joson & Nino Dzednaladze Austin Joson & Nino Dzednaladze
• Pasha Stepanchuk & Gabriela Sabler Pasha Stepanchuk & Gabriela Sabler
• Tal Livshitz & Ilana Keselman Tal Livshitz & Ilana Keselman
•  

Fourth overall went to Slava Visnakovs & Tereza Kizlo from Latvia, 3,4,4,4,4, and we have very little to say about this couple, except that from a “European” couple we were not especially impressed. Fifth was awarded to Alexey & Vlada Karaulov 5,5,5,5,6. We totally see maturity in this couple’s dancing but it’s not always in a good way. For us sometimes they look like the top dog, then the next they look too casual and almost slightly “haggard” an British expression for “tired.” With more consistency this couple can find themselves on the very top but we can’t have to many of this ups and downs. Sixth in this excellent final were Adam Hathazi & Morgana Lakatos-Hayward 6,6,6,6,5. We were a little disappointed with the judges on this decision. We know Adam & Morgana are very young, but their maturity and their quality of performance and Latin action rivaled some of the couples just mentioned. The lady is amazing and this gentleman, although also very young, was perhaps the best in the group! We must try to look beyond the youthfulness and concentrate on just performance. We have seen these couple in not such great light due to some simple issues, however, their performance last night was top notch al round.

In another note we were surprise to see that Pasha Pashkov & Daniele Karragach and Denis Drozdyuk & Antonina Skobina who all reside somewhere here up in the northeast missed this great opportunity to compete with some of America’s best. Perhaps as I mention about another couple this week, they had other shows and prior engagements they could not miss, but it would have been interesting to see at this quality of an event how well they would have measured up!

• Top 2 couples Pro Ballroom Top 2 couples Pro Ballroom
• Oscar Pedronelli & Lenka Kovalcikova Oscar Pedronelli & Lenka Kovalcikova
• Pro Ballroom Pro Ballroom
•  

The Professional Ballroom also was a great event but in a more subtle way, and we were glad to see unlike the day before, more couples giving us more than just “a top line on a stick.” The winners, Marat Gimaev & Alina Basyuk, for example were unlike on previous occasions super musical and not just correct. In fact they engulfed our music selections and made them their own, almost as if they had been rehearsing to those tunes for a very long time. We must also point out that Marat & Alina won three dances the VW,F,Q with perfect scores, not one judge awarded them anything less than a first. In the waltz we were surprised to see that their perfect scores were ruined by one judge, David Elkin, who awarded them a fourth in this dance. Their tango was also ruined by the same judge, who thought their tango deserved a second place win. As we said on previous occasions this is obviously not a critic on the judges but just pointing the facts.

Andrey Begunov & Anna Demidova were also a perfect example of an excellent performance here at the NYDF. To Andrey on a personal level we most say “Die Mickey” lol, (a personal joke). This gentleman has a great sense of humor off the floor and on the floor is a perfect gentleman. Third went to Igor Mikushov & Ekaterina Romashkina, here to we saw some excellent floor craft considering these are two very tall people that can cover the floor in only a few steps, but we were totally impressed with their “driving” methods.

Fourth went to another excellent couple, Oscar Pedrinelli & Lenka Kovalci 4,3,3,4,3 here we are talking about great musicality, total embodiment of music on the floor. Fifth were Vladishlav Shakhov & Ekaterina Popova 5,6,5,5,5. Perhaps they were expecting a little better following their great success at the UK Open last month. Sixth went to Emanuel Pappacena & Francesca Lazzari 6,5,6,6,6. All these couples had a terrific night, we are not sure how the judges were able to come to an agreement but on paper they did.

The Professional Rhythm was a slight disappointment with the unexpected pull out of the “game” of one of America’s Rhythm best, Nazar Norov who dances with Irina Kudriashova. He was quite ill and could not even dance with his students in the afternoon. It is nice to see great sportsmanship from other competitors and peers, another professional danced with Nazar’s students during the day so they could still be a part of the festival. It is great to see such sportsmanship still exists in our world of ballroom dancing.

• Pro Rhythm Pro Rhythm
•  

Winning this Open professional Rhythm event was Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine & Liana Churilova who also almost won with perfect scores, but every dance was spoiled by Paul Pellicoro who awarded them 2nd in the Cha, 3rd in the rumba, 2nd in the swing, third in the bolero. However, in the mambo they had a clear sweep. Second tonight went to Danas Jaksevicious & Yuki Haraguchi with 2,2,2,3,2. Third overall was awarded to Shane & Shannon Jensen with the scores of 3,3,3,2,3 who earlier in these weekend of dance won the Cabaret. Fourth went to Shandor Shtefil & Aleksandra Barsukov who placed fourth in every dance, fifth was awarded to Ilya Abdullin & Tara Barakov and they tied for 5th in the cha with Andrey Svirydzenka & Yulia Zubova who were sixth overall, they took fifth in the R,SW,B and sixth in the mambo. Svirydzenka/Zubova tied with the last couple mentioned as we said in the cha, sixth in the R,SW,B and fifth in the mambo.

• Junior 1 Ballroom Junior 1 Ballroom
• Junior 2 Ballroom Junior 2 Ballroom
• Tyler Li & Anjelica Lowe Tyler Li & Anjelica Lowe
• Kinsley Lin & Michelle Yiu Kinsley Lin & Michelle Yiu
• Yusif Amsatr & Naomi Specktor Yusif Amsatr & Naomi Specktor
•  

The juniors and youth dancers switched to ballroom tonight and were again sponsored by CBZ Foundation. Yusif Amsatr & Naomi Specktor made it a “double weekend” adding a win in the J2 Ballroom to their Latin win from the day before. They won all dances. 2nd in all went to Erik Linder & Rickie Taylor. With 4,3,3,3,3 Daniel Melnik & Maria Volski took 3rd; 4th were Dennis Mateev & Shelly Meshkausk 3,4,5,4,5; 5th Kristers Smits & Sophie Shvartsman 6,5,6,5,4; 6th Tyler Li & Anjelica Lowe 5,6,6,6,6; 7th Jonas Terleckas & Ruby Castro 7,7,7,7,7.

Tyler & Anjelica moved up to first in the J1 winning all dances and Jonas & Ruby were 2nd in all. 3rd in all were Jacob Young & Sophie Kouznetsov. In 4th place were Matthew Zoladkiewicz & Abby Portnoy 4,4,4,5,4; 5th were Kiril Budagovskiy & Galit Zilbervarg 5,5,5,4,5; 6th in all were Joshua Ginzburg & Elizabeth Frumkin and 7th in all Anthony Mattos & Eva Zinchenko.

Kinsley Lin & Michelle Yiu were the winners in the Youth Ballroom scoring 1,1,2,1,1. Yusif & Naomi were the runners-up 2,2,1,2,2 this time. The Latin Youth winners, Mike Monokandilos & Sophia Brodsky were 3rd 3,3,4,3,3; 4th went to Erik Linder & Rickie Taylor 4,4,3,4,4; 5th Denis Smotrov & Karina Mirochnik 5,5,5,5,5; 6th Robert Guitelman & Klinta Smite 6,6,6,6,6; 7th Kristers Smitts & Sophie Shvartsman 7,7,7,7,7.

• Open A Latin Open A Latin
• Open B Latin Open B Latin
• Open C Latin Open C Latin
•  

In what turned out to be a tightly packed schedule, the pro-ams finished off their weekend with Latin. The Open Scholarships were some of the best of the whole event and the judges’ scores were remarkably varied and the results were as follows:

Open A
1. Vera Xu w/ Jakub Zegler 2,2,4,1,1
2. Gracie Anderson w/ Artur Tarnavsky 1,4,2,2,2
3. Angelina Evseeva w/ Ivan Mulyavka 3,3,3,3,3 (R10)
4. Joanna Wa w/ Plamen Danailov 5,1,1,4,4 (R10)
5. Sabrine Strasser w/ Stanislav Kochergin 4,5,5,5,5
6. Nicole Pierzchalski w/ Vlad Astafiev 6,6,6,6,6

Open B
1. Jacqueline Soccodato w/ Delyan Terziev 3,2,1,1,1
2. Christine Stanko w/ Jean Paul 1,3,2,2,3 (R11)
3. Maria Seragou w/ Dmitrios Damalas 2,1,3,3,2 (R11)
4. Jelena Sevaljevic w/ Stanisla Kochergin 4,5,4,4,6 (R10)
5. Arkady Bilenko w/ Tatiana Banko 5,4,5,5,4 (R10)
6. Matthias Kirwald w/ Leanne Aranza 6,6,7,6,5
7. Faye Diamandtoudi w/ Stephane Champagne 7,7,6,7,7

Open C
1. Lorraine Peoples w/ Andrei Gavriline 1,1,1,1,1
2. Sally He w/ Enzo Zappia 2,2,2,3,2
3. Marina Svyatets w/ Aleksander Vokosavljevics 3,3,3,2,3
4. Anna Chui w/ Bas Van Der Zanten 4,5,4,4,7
5. Astrid Rush w/ Ivan Mulyavka 6,4,6,5,4
6. Sola Wong w/ Andrei Kazlouski 5,6,5,6,5
7. Ibis Wu w/ Mykhailio Bylapukov 7,7,7,7,6

You can see more results & photos provided by SuperShag - click here

 

Amazing Night for NYDF!

Last night at the beautiful and charming ballroom of the “Roosevelt Hotel,” it was an amazing night for the New York Dance Festival. All styles and categories featured this evening were fantastic, and the top four were totally “amazing.”

Video by SuperShag - click here

We hate to say it because as we said most events were “Amazing” but the Professional Smooth had an edge overall. A seven-couple final was called but that was not the most important feature, the quality of the dancing of every couple could only be described as “amazing,” and each couple fought to maintain their position in every dance. Mazen Hamza & Izabella won the competition and every dance, but in every dance they had a number of “not too favorite” scores. In the waltz for example they had three 4th’s, the judges varied with the exception of Rufus Dustin who awarded them three fourth place marks and one third in the VW. Second place overall went to Nick Cheremukhin & Victorija but not in every dance, they were awarded 3rd in the tango and second in the other three dances. Nick & Victorija were probably a little disappointed with their result and I’m sure they would have loved to win over Mazen & Izabella since in the past they had had some results where they where they were closer to them, but it was not to be this night.

• Sergey & Maria Barsukhov Sergey & Maria Barsukhov
• Mazen Hamza & Izabella Jundzill Mazen Hamza & Izabella Jundzill
• Pro Smooth in progress Pro Smooth in progress
• Pro Smooth Pro Smooth
• Max Sinitsa & Tatiana Seliverstova Max Sinitsa & Tatiana Seliverstova
•  

The flavor of the month continues to be Max Sinitza & Tatiana Seliverstova who placed third overall but only third in the VW. They managed to get ahead of Nick & Victorija in the tango but were 4th in the other two dances. However, when their name was called for this placement, there sounded to be a little disagreement between the “judges” and the “audience” who whistled and sounded their displeasure. At this Tatiana stopped to acknowledge the audience but seemed to be wanting to make it more than a bow. However, Max a veteran of the field of competition, edged her on for the presenters. We appreciated Max’s maturity in this case.

We are sure it was a very disappointing fourth place finish overall for Travis & Jaimie Tuft who placed 3rd in waltz and foxtrot and fourth in the other two dances. We are totally a fan of this gracious couple, however, considering the other couples’ performances we thought on the night it was a well-deserved placement for them at this “amazing” competition. With 5th in every dance, the well-sccomplished duo of Kyle & Allie Spinder looked fully at home in this final. Sixth on this night in every dance was awarded to Jean Paul & Lana Rossi and here too we thought this to be a well-placed award by the judges. In a surprising seventh place finish was Mr. & Mrs. Barsukov whom we have not seen dance in a long time but who as you can see had a wonderful comeback. In a footnote we were very surprised to see that Yegor Novikov & Anastasia Smirnova were not present, it would have been nice to see where in the scheme of things they would have landed.

• Pro Latin in progress Pro Latin in progress
• Mykhailo Bilopuknov& Anastasia Shchypilina Mykhailo Bilopuknov& Anastasia Shchypilina
• Nikolai Voronovich & Maria Nikolishina Nikolai Voronovich & Maria Nikolishina
• Pro Latin Pro Latin
•  

The Professional Latin is on our list as a second place finish on this amazing night for more than one reason. “A” it was a full quarter with everyone present but the US Champions and Justus Dukauskas & Anna Kovolova and “B” it also had its twists and turns like the Smooth as you will see now when you read the results. The overall winners in this case were Nikolai Voronovich & Maria Nikolishina who placed second in the cha and jive and won the other three dances and when looking at the marks they only managed to win the paso with a clear majority of firsts, 8. The rumba and samba they won with “first or better” marks. However, call us old fashioned, but as they say here in America when we looked at them we could tell the “men” from the “boys.” Don’t get us “wrong” we are not putting the other five wonderful couples down, they were all extremely cutting edge in creativity and full of personal interpretation, but we still should have strong basics to support all this creativity and here we think the other couples “wobbled” slightly, while Nikolai & Maria walked away with it!

Second place finish went to Mykhailo Bilopuknov& Anastasia Shchypilina. Here is a perfect example of what we are talking about, you cannot get more creative and musical than this couple and their basic work is quite good too, but not with a strong enough “presence” to walk over Nikolai & Maria and steal their prize. Third overall was awarded to Kamil Studenny & Anna Pelypenko. We totally have to agree with the judges in the cha cha decision of first place but after that they were down the hill for us, we couldn’t even find them in the samba and some of the other dances. Our third place finish overall would have gone to Tarnavskyy & Danilova, who totally got our attention last night and placed fourth overall. When we first saw them on the professional scene a few competitions back, we had no time for their unorthodox approach to Latin dancing. However, on this outing and as audience members our eyes kept going back to them and although we are still not quite sure what their approach “is” to the style, lets just say that “we are beginning to see the light” of possibly a “ray” that will consume us all very soon “if not later”.

A hard and sad fifth place finish went to possibly one of our favorite couples who like Nick & Maria produced strong clean “Latin American” dancing, Dmitri Nikishkin & Olena Shvets-Nikishkin. Dmitry & Olena’s basic work is to be admired, however, in the environment of creativity and personal unique approach to Latin, they are slightly behind. For us this couple has to go out of their comfort zone a little and not be afraid to go out and find your own way, but hopefully a way we have not seen before but as we said unique to their own. Sixth in this parade of “amazing” Latin dancers was Ilya Maletin & Polina Maiev. This is a couple that we must have missed at the Classique Du Quebeque just a week ago or perhaps they did not enter, but on this night no one could miss them, they were on fire! Congratulations what a tremendous leap of improvement you have made.

• Pro Cabaret Pro Cabaret
• Shane & Shannon Jensen Shane & Shannon Jensen
•  

The Professional Cabaret also took place last night, it is almost a shame that it took place so early, because all five couples entered were fabulous. For us it was a very close call between Shane & Shanon Jensen and Travis & Jaimee Tuft, both their routines were fantastic in content, however, we had to agree with the judges on this one Jensen & Jensen routine was perfection at work. Travis & Jaimee did what we thought was a new number and it was brilliant but did not hit a home run, just qualified. When looking at the marks we could see that the majority of the judges felt the same as we did and Shane & shannon won by a majority of firsts in this one-dance competition, second was awarded to Travis & Jaimmie. Third in this event was Mykhailio Azarov & Tetyana Makarenko with an amazing bird routine. Unfortunately as we see it, we have had plenty of “birds” before all with great conclusions and at times this “phoenix” seemed to not. Fourth were Kyle & Allie Spinder and fifth were Trevor & Emily Guthrie.

• Amateur Ballroom Amateur Ballroom
• Oskar Wojciechewski & Karolina Holody Oskar Wojciechewski & Karolina Holody
•  

The Amateur Ballroom was also a great competition with not one but two brilliantly talented couples in it. Oskar Wojciechewski & Karolina Holody who placed first overall in every dance and Patryk Ploszaj & Anna Kaczmarski who took all seconds. When looking at the marks it was no different, both couples won their perspective position with the majority of first or seconds. However, when we were looking at all the marks we stopped to wonder if Ms. Karen Hardy from “England” was looking at the same event we were looking a. In the Open Amateur Ballroom she awarded Wojciechewski & Holody all fourth place marks. We can honestly see Ploszaj & Kaczmarski taking a mark or so from a judge here and there but “4th” in every dance? We most totally acknowledge our respect for Ms. Hardy as a World Class adjudicator and her credential have been proven in the highest “arenas” the world of ballroom dance have to offer, but we most disagree on this decision just “once,” Ms. Hardy.

Third place went to Stanislav Pavlov & Sandra Spernashka 3,3,3,3,3, fourth went to Ira Pollock & Noelle Sun 5,4,4,5,4, fifth was awarded to Daniel Vesnovskiy & Emily Thorpe 4,5,5,4,6, and sixth were Brenton Mitchell & Alexandra Sevastianova 6,6,6,6,5.

Having done this we must now ask a question of those high-ranking experts out there in the world of Ballroom dancing, “Is it just about top line and neck line these days?” It used to be that when watching a good Amateur or Professional Ballroom event you would want to be taken over by their musicality and interesting interpretation of each dance with a man holding a lady close. Take for example world renowned “Andrew Sinkinsen & Loraine Barry,” “Paulo Bosco & Sylvia Pitton” (when Amateurs) It was not just about topline, it was always about feeling and musicality and interpretation. I don’t want to put such pressure on such lovely, incredible young dancers but all we got last night was a topline on a “stick.” We are talking about our US Best Amateurs and “WDC” World Best Amateur Ballroom dancers, should we ask for more or is that musicality a thing of the past? We don’t know and frankly as we usually say we don’t want to know, but we still want to be inspired even at our older age of “26” talking about “Dance Beat” here not the editors.

• J2 Latin J2 Latin
• J1 Latin J1 Latin
• Jonas Terlekas & Ruby Castro Jonas Terlekas & Ruby Castro
• Mike Monokandilos & Sophia Brodsky Mike Monokandilos & Sophia Brodsky
• Youth Latin Youth Latin
• Yusif Amsatr & Naomi Specktor Yusif Amsatr & Naomi Specktor
•  

Junior and youth competitors also played a large part in this marathon night and their events were sponsored by the CBZ Foundation. We saw Latin events in J1, J2 and Youth divisions all with high quality entries. The results were as follows:

Youth
1. Mike Monokandilos & Sophia Brodsky 2,1,1,1,1
2. Mitchel Itkin & Natasha Shevchenko 1,3,2,3,2
3. Aleksandr Mitronin & Olivia Agranovich 3,2,3,4,3

J2
1. Yusif Amsatr & Naomi Specktor 1,1,1,2,1
2. Kristers Smitts & Sophie Shvartsman 2,2,2,1,3
3. Eric Linder & Rickie Taylor 4,4,3,3,2

J1
1. Jonas Terlekas & Ruby Castro 1,1,1,1,1
2. Tyler Li & Anjelica Lowe 2,2,2,2,2
3. Sasha Zhukov & Shelly Umansky 3,3,3,3,3

Another highlight of the night was the splendid wheelchair demonstration by Len Lacina, a US Veteran with Jamie Nyemchek. This showed us that when you don’t accept limits, anything is possible!

• B Ballroom Scholarship B Ballroom Scholarship
• C Ballroom Scholarship C Ballroom Scholarship
• Celia Chou w/ Erminio Stefano Celia Chou w/ Erminio Stefano
• Hye-Kyong Park w/ Linas Korieva Hye-Kyong Park w/ Linas Korieva
•  

For the pro-am dancers it was a Ballroom day that concluded with Open Scholarships in the B and C age groups – both good divisions. Results were:

B
1. Celia Chou w/ Erminio Stefano 1,1,1,1,1
2. Elizabeth Yu w/ Igor Mikuhshov 3,3,2,2,2
3. Karina Morawska w/ Michael Burton 2,2,3,3,3

C
1. Hye-Kyong Park w/ Linas Korieva 1,1,1,1,1
2. Lisa Lowery w/ Peter Perzhu 2,2,2,3,2
3. Sally He w/ Enzo Zappia 3,3,3,2,3

You can see more results & photos provided by SuperShag - click here

 

“Size Matters!”
NYDF Friday

Does size matter? If it does, we saw some of the best Pro RS divisions so far this year at NYDF last night. 3 began with quarterfinals, only the Ballroom couples were shy and gave us only a final. In addition there were some good amateur divisions.

Video by SuperShag - click here

First up last night was the RS Rhythm. Easy winners here in all dances were Jean Paul & Lana Rossi. They had clear majorities of 1st places including 14 out of 15 in swing. 2nd went to the fast rising Ilya Abdoulin & Tara Barakov 2,2,2,2,3. From California, 3rd place went to Ricardo Papi & Sabrina Moretti 3,3,3,3,2. 4th were Ernesto Parma & Nina Back 4,5,5,4,4; 5th Kurt Roberts & Annaliese Velasoco 5,4,4,5,5 and 6th Joe Hasson & Natalie Honkonon.

• Stefano DiBrino & Bianka Zubrowska Stefano DiBrino & Bianka Zubrowska
• RS Ballroom RS Ballroom
• RS Rhythm RS Rhythm
• Jean Paul & Lana Rossi Jean Paul & Lana Rossi
•  

The RS Ballroom was a straight final and the winners were Stefano DiBrino & Bianka Zubrowska. They won all dances with a majority of 1st places but the quickstep was a close one – they had 8 first places and the runners-up 7. Those runners-up were Radu Sterban & Xenia Cletova and they places 3,2,2,2,2. With 4,3,3,3,3, Anatolli Repliuk & Ruslana Mamaysur were 3rd. The elusive 2nd place in waltz went to 4th placed Serhiy Averkov & Olena Barna 2,4,4,4,4. 5th were Dmitry Solomakha & Gabriella Sevillano and 6th, Anton Bilozorov & Oleksandra Basko.

The RS Smooth was an excellent and closely fought match. The win went to Canada’s Dmitry Ilushenov & Kateryna Stytsenko. They won 3 dances and placed 2nd in waltz. They didn’t receive a majority of first places in any dance, however and in fact received 4 sixth places from judge David Elkin. 2nd went to Slava Kostaniets & Valeriya Kostaniets and they placed 1,2,2,2 and did actually receive the majority of first places in the waltz. They also had a judge marking them 6th in all dances, Meryem Pearson. With 3,3,4,3 Shandor Shtefil & Aleksandra Barsukov were 3rd; John Campbell & Jackie Brockman were 4th 4,4,3,4; Dave Hannigan & Maggie Toth were 5th 5,5,6,5 and Ilya Abdoulin & Tara Barakov were 6th 6,6,5,6.

• Dmitry Ilushenov & Kateryna Stytsenko Dmitry Ilushenov & Kateryna Stytsenko
• Nikita Malakov & Nadezda Vlasova Nikita Malakov & Nadezda Vlasova
• RS Latin RS Latin
• RS Smooth RS Smooth
•  

The RS Latin was equally strong and from where we stood a very close race. We did agree with the judges on the winners, Nikita Malakov & Nadezda Vlasova. They won all dances with a slim majority of 1st places and we thought they deserved the win. 2nd tonight were Ilya Maletin & Polina Maiev. We thought they were on form tonight following some rather more indifferent performances of late. They placed 2,2,2,3,2. Riccardo Pacini & Sonia Spadoni were 3rd 3,3,3,2,3. 4th in all dances went to David Riegler & Ksenia Makhortova, an attractive couple from Germany. For us the most improved couple tonight were 5th placed Alexey Alexeev & Ekaterina Derevleva in 5th place with 5,6,5,6,5. 6th were Francesco Arietta & Rosaria Vivone 6,5,6,5,6.

• U/21 Latin U/21 Latin
• U/21 Ballroom U/21 Ballroom
•  

There were 2 excellent U/21 Amateur divisions. The Ballroom was a straight final and the winn went easily to Patrick Plozaj & Anna Kazmarski who won all dances, the foxtrot with perfect scores. 2nd in all dances went to Samuel Hacke & Katerina Hermanova and 3rd to TJ Stanton & Samanta Filip 4,3,3,3,3. The Latin began with a semifinal. This was quite a tight one. The winners were Vladislav Kvartin & Anna Maria 1,1,1,1,2. They had the majority of 1st places in the first 2 dances only. Winning jive and taking 2nd in the other 4 dances were Ryan Raffloer & Hanna Sverdlov and 3rd in all were Mitchel Itkin & Natasha Shevchenko. All couples had a wide variety of scores.

We also saw the Open Amateur divisions in the American Styles. The Smooth was the larger and better of the divisions. Winning tonight were Charlie Roberts & Emily Roberts 2,1,1,1. 2nd went to Colin Williams & Ashley Nixon 1,2,2,2 and 3rd to Matthew Holden & Devri Ray 3,3,3,3.

For the pro-ams it was a full day of Smooth with some very high quality dancing on display. In the Open Scholarships the results were as follows:

B Division
1. Aiyesah Dey w/ Mayo Alanen
2. Selena Steelman w/ Travis Tuft
3. Joanna Tatem w/ Mariusz Zakrewski

• Open B Smooth Open B Smooth
• Open C Smooth Open C Smooth
• Aiyesha Dey w/ Mayo Alanen Aiyesha Dey w/ Mayo Alanen
• Lynn Shanhan w/ Darius Mosteika Lynn Shanhan w/ Darius Mosteika
•  

C Division
1. Lynn Shanahan w/ Darius Mosteika
2. Alla Neystadt w/ Eric Pali
3. Helena Kostik w/ Mazen Hamza

A Gala Night – NEW YORK style!

Last night here at the New York Dance Festival, we began what may become a new tradition – a gala night of dinner and dancing.

To introduce themselves as the new organizers of NYDF, Eugene Katsevman & Maria Manusova, threw an incredible “Gala” night in the classic ballroom of the Roosevelt Hotel – the venue for the whole of NYDF.  Previous organizer, Edward Simon, was also in attendance and Eugene & Maria called him on to the floor in thanks.

• Eugene Katsevman Eugene Katsevman
• A happy crowd A happy crowd
• Maria Manusova Maria Manusova
• Maria, Edward Simon, Eugene Maria, Edward Simon, Eugene
•  

It was an unusual scheduling move as the competition for the pro-ams began during the day, but last night was given over completely to fun – no competitions last night!

The Gala Dinner was sold out and everyone enjoyed a night of social dancing to recorded music at first and then to the wonderful Bronx Horns band.

• The show and the band The show and the band
• Eugene & Maria- Samba Eugene & Maria- Samba
• Eugene & Maria Samba Eugene & Maria Samba
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But that was not the only time we saw the band perform on this night. Eugene & Maria also performed for us all using the live band for backing. Is was a great throwback to the old days of couples demonstrating to the actual band music something we haven’t seen since the 1960’s! Eugene & Maria received a standing ovation from this crowd and showed a more relaxed demeanor in their dancing – it really was a party and they really seemed to enjoy themselves!

• Open A Rhythm Open A Rhythm
• Open B Rhythm Open B Rhythm
• Open C Rhythm Open C Rhythm
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The daytime competition sessions concluded with Open Scholarships in the Rhythm style. All three age categories were strongly contested with the following results:

A: 1. Maoli/Balasanyan
    2. Snaw/Tran
    3. Albert/DeCamps

B. 1. Lusher/DeCamps
    2. Tatem/Zakrewski
    3. Tharani/Persad

C. 1. Caracciolo/Norov
    2. Goddard/Talbert
    3. Marre/Danailov