• Star Tour final outcome Star Tour final outcome
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The KK was the 4th official leg of the Star International Latin Tour and the Open Professional Latin Competition attracted a full quarter-final. Only 4 of the eligible 7 couples elected to perform a solo, and they are all couples definitely in the running for some big prize money. But with big money down to 12th place in the Tour, there is definitely still time for couples to place well and win big in the remaining tour stops! Let’s work on those show routines guys!

• Dmitry Nikishkin & Shirley Ballas Dmitry Nikishkin & Shirley Ballas
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The winners of this leg were Dmitry & Olena Nikishkin. This win leaves them in 2nd place on the overall leader board but narrows the gap considerably to less than 3 points. This promises to be a nail-biter to the conclusion in the Tour at City Lights Open in January. Their win here over the three scores came with a strong 3rd place showing in the freestyle 3,4,6,3,3T, earning them 15.5 points, a 1st place in the Solo with 91.43 and 2nd place in the audience vote with 16 points.

The current overall leaders, Hayk Balasanyan & Emilia Poghosyan were 2nd overall here. They did not place in the top 6 of the Freestyle but were the audience wildcard selection (earning them 3 points), they were 2nd in the Solo with 85.71 but once again were the audience’s winner with a score of 23.5.

3rd spot here and maintaining their 3rd ranking overall were Artur Tarnavskyy & Anastasia Danilova. They were 6th in the Freestyle with 6,5,3,6,5, earning them 10 points. They were 3rd in the solo with 82.14. Their weakness was in the Audience vote where they scored 6 points.

4th spot tonight, and still 4th overall, were Francesco Bertini & Sabrina Manzi. They placed 5th in the Freestyle with 5,6,5,5,3T, earning them 10.5 points, just slightly ahead of Artur & Anastasia. In the solo they were 4th with 78.86. They also had a weakness with the audience, scoring 4 points. This was only their 2nd tour stop, so there is definitely time to place in the top 6 overall and win some big money (plus remember there are cash prizes down to 12th place, but you must be present at City Lights Ball to win).

• Ivan Mulyavka & Karin Rooba Ivan Mulyavka & Karin Rooba
• Open Pro Latin Open Pro Latin
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Although not all couples competed in the solo division, others picked up points in the Tour in the super exciting Freestyle Latin division. The winners were the exciting new team of Ivan Mulyavka & Karin Rooba. They placed 1,1,2,2,1. The scoring overall in this final was incredibly mixed. No couple received a majority of 1st places in any dance and in fact in most dances every couple in the final received at least one 1st place. We really liked Ivan & Karin tonight. Andrey Tarasov & Yulia Kuznetsova were 2nd 2,2,1,1,2 and were very unlucky. They had the most 1st places of any couple in the final, but always fell short of the majority and with a few judges scoring them in the lower half of the final they were unable to secure first place. 3rd as mentioned above, were Dmitry & Olena. 4th went to Ilya Maletin & Polina Maier with 4,3,4,4,6. This was a great result for them. They initially elected to dance a solo, but withdrew at the last moment. Francesco & Sabrina were 5th and Artur & Anastasia took the 6th spot.

• Mazen Hamza & Izabella Jundzill Mazen Hamza & Izabella Jundzill
• Open Pro Smooth Open Pro Smooth
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Mazen Hamza & Izabella Jundzill won the Open Pro Smooth. They won all dances and had the majority of 1st places in them all. The closest dance was foxtrot which they won by 8 first places to 6 over runners-up, Yegor Novikov & Sasha Smirnova, who were 2nd in all dances. 3rd in all went to Roman Malkhasyan & Kat Wagner. 4th Mykyta Serdyuk & Anna Krasnashapna 4,5,4,4; 5th Shandor Shtefil & Aleksandra Barsukov 5,4,5,5; 6th Andrei & Elena Rudenco 6,6,6,6.

Some of USA’s Best at KK Friday

Last night we saw some of the USA’s best in three styles here at Killick Klassik.

The featured events were Open Professional Rhythm & Ballroom and Amateur Latin and all had high quality contenders. First up was the largest division, the Pro Rhythm that began with a quarter-final.

• Nazar Norov & Irina Kudryashova Nazar Norov & Irina Kudryashova
• Open Pro Rhythm Open Pro Rhythm
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Heirs apparent to the US Title, Nazar Norov & Irina Kudryashova cruised to an easy victory winning all dances and losing exactly 2 first place marks total. They were on form and totally relaxed. 2nd in all dances were Shane & Shannon Jensen. This was a strong result for them, although they had the majority of “2nd or better” scores in only rumba. 3rd were Andrei Abrashin & Mariiya Gavrylova. They were 3rd in all dances and although they took some 2nd places it was never enough to seriously threaten Shane & Shannon. With 4,4,5,5,4, Shandor Shtefil & Aleksandra Barsukov took 4th place over Mykyta Serdiuk & Anna Krasnoshapka with 6,5,4,4,6 in 5th place and Riccardo Papi & Sabrina Moretti in 6th with 5,6,6,6,5. We also noted Kevin Ubillus & Milagros Lareto in the semifinal and thought they were in with a chance of making the final.

• Open Pro Ballroom Open Pro Ballroom
• Marat Gimaev & Alina Basyuk Marat Gimaev & Alina Basyuk
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Marat Gimaev & Alyna Basyuk won the Pro Ballroom that began with a semifinal. They were easy winners, receiving all 1st places except from judges Sarwat Kaluby and Patrick Johnson who placed them in the lower half of the final. We thought they gave a strong performance last night with lots of musical feeling. Easily 2nd in all dances were Alexander Voskalchuk & Veronica Egorova. With 4,3,4,3,3, Oscar Pedrinelli & Lenka Kovalcikova had a good night and a good result to take 3rd and with 3,4,3,4,4, Vladislav Shahov & Ekaterina Popova were 4th. The only West Coast couple in the event, Igor Colac & Roxane Milotti placed 5th 5,6,5,5,6 and closing the final were Emanuele & Francesca Pappacena 6,5,6,6,5.

• Open Amateur Latin Open Amateur Latin
• Pasha Pashkov & Daniella Karagach Pasha Pashkov & Daniella Karagach
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The Amateur Latin was the battle of the “Pashas” as first and second places went to Pasha Pashkov & Daniela Karagach and Pasha Stepanchuk & Gabriella Sabler. We thought it was a pretty close race, but on paper Pasha & Daniela were comfortable winners in all dances with the majority of 1st places in all. Pasha & Gabriella received 1st places in all dances, but never enough to steal the winners’ majorities. Between them, these 2 couples received all the available 1st places. 3rd in all dances went to Kiki Nyemchek & Magda Fialek. 4th were Alan Rudman & Svetlana Lisnaya and they too took 4th in all dances. Nazariy Blagy & Marketa Vikova took 5th 5,5,5,5,6 and Roman Drobotov & Natella Devitskaya were 6th 6,6,6,6,5.

• Professional Cabaret Professional Cabaret
• Shane & Shannon Jensen Shane & Shannon Jensen
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Earlier in the evening there was a 6-couple Professional Cabaret division and this was won by Shane & Shannon Jensen who took 7 of the 9 first places. 2nd place and the two remaining 1st places went to Myhalio Azerov & Makarenko. 3rd were Clifton Sepulveda & Mar Martinez; 4th Trevor & Emily Guthrie; 5th Igor Alferov & Olga Kolesnirova and 6th Germine Amadis & Hannah Pikard.

This evening of dance began with the Open Pro-Am Latin Divisions and the Scholarships were the strongest we’ve seen so far this week. The A Division went to Angelina Evseeva w/ Ivan Mulyavka who won all dances. With 2,2,2,2,3, Liang Ying w/ Yegor Novikov was 2nd and 3rd was Vera Xu w/ Jakub Zeglin 3,4,4,3,2.

• Open A PA Latin Open A PA Latin
• Open B PA Latin Open B PA Latin
• Open C PA Latin Open C PA Latin
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Maria Seragou w/ Dmitrios Damalas won all dances in the Open B. 2nd in all went to Peggy Yiwen Fang w/ Daniele Gozzi and 3rd in all went to Ling Lo w/ Christopher Wayne

The open C began with a semifinal and the winner was Suzanne Saperstein w/ Ricky Bentzen and she won all dances. In a fairly close race in each dance Nora Fox w/ Plame anailov was 2nd in all. Charlene Proctor w/ Hayk Arshakina was 3rd 4,3,3,3,3.

Tonight tune into the Star International Latin Tour. Many of the series leaders will be in the contest! Watch it here!

The Stars Rise at Killick Klassik

Last night at the KK, we saw all the Pro RS divisions, and there was some good competition.

The KK is underway once again at the elegant Boca Raton Resort, right on the Intracoastal Waterway in Boca Raton, Florida. The beautiful ballroom is tastefully decorated to reflect the mood of this Belle Epoque building and the food and service is of course, excellent as always. The organizers once again are Psull Killick and Shirley Ballas.

All four Pro RS divisions took place last night, the largest were the Latin and Rhythm that each had 12 entries and were run as quarter-finals.

• Ilya Maletin & Polina Mier Ilya Maletin & Polina Mier
• Pro RS Latin Pro RS Latin
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The Latin was a relatively close-fought duel between Ilya Maletin & Polina Maier (Canada) and Francesco Bertini & Sabrina Manzi. In the end Ilya & Polina took it 3 dances to 2 1,2,1,1,2 over Francesco & Sabrina’s 2,1,2,2,1. Between them, these 2 couples took most of the 1st and 2nd placements from the judges. The other placements were a little more mixed. Aleksei Alekseev & Katerina Derevleva were 3rd 4,3,3,3,5T. This was a good result for this couple who are now competing 10-dance. 4th were Ryan Lewis & Tessa Marie 3,4,5,4,3; 5th Jonas Kazlauskas & Kathleen Ilo 5,5,4,5,4; 6th Igor Colac & Roxane Milotti 6,6,6,6,5T.

• Pro RS Rhythm Pro RS Rhythm
• Riccardo Papi & Sabina Moretti Riccardo Papi & Sabina Moretti
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The Rhythm gave a straight win to Riccardo Papi & Sabrina Moretti who won all dances with the majority of 1st places from the judges. From there down the judges were a little less sure with scores for each couple up and down the final. 4 couples in the final were from Florida and they placed 2nd through 5th. Dmitrii Zavialov & Mariya-Khristina Shurupova were 2nd 2,3,2,2,2; 3rd Eugene Parkhimovich & Anna Lubashova 3,2,3,3,3; 4th Romney & Brooke Reyes 4,5,4,4,6; 5th Primo Garcia & Fayvin Doucette 5,4,5,6,5; 6th Christopher Wayne & Juanita Simanekova 6,6,6,5,4.

• Pro RS Ballroom Pro RS Ballroom
• Pro RS Smooth Pro RS Smooth
• Roman Malkhasyan & Kat Wagner Roman Malkhasyan & Kat Wagner
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There were 6 entries in the RS Smooth and this was easily won by Roman Malkhasyan & Kat Wagner who won all dances with large majorities of 1st places. 2nd spot was a little more contested but it went to Shandor Shtefil & Aleksandra Barsukov 2,2,3,2 over Mykyta Serdyuk & Anna Krasnoshapka 3,3,2,3. William Proper & Jennifer Elliott were 4th 4,4,5,4; Trevor & Emily Guthrie took 5th 5,5,4,5 and Carlos Matev & Ekaterina Kalmogorova were 6th in all dances.

The Ballroom had only 3 entries and easy winners in Lukas Chockuba & Angelina Oh who won all dances. Aleksandr & Aida Skriptsov were 2nd in all and Alexsei Alekseev & Katerina Derevleva were 3rd.

• Patrick Johnson Patrick Johnson
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An Icon of the US and British ballroom world, Patrick Johnson, was on the adjudicating panel and last night he was celebrating his 70th birthday. Congrats Patrick!

Don’t forget to tune in live to the Killick Klassik on Saturday, beginning at 8:15 Eastern time for leg 4 of the Star International Latin Tour. Remember your votes count!