A perfect example was the Professional Smooth that started with a fantastic quality semifinal and from the word go the excitement could be felt from every corner of the ballroom.

• Max Sinitsa & Tatiana Seliverstova Max Sinitsa & Tatiana Seliverstova
• Nick Cheremukhin & Viktorija Nick Cheremukhin & Viktorija
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The biggest cheers from the crowd came for the presumed two top couples, US Smooth Professional Champions Nick Cheremukhin & Victorija and the runners-up, Max Sinitsa & Tatiana Seliverstova. In the end the marks had Nick & Victorija first and Max & Tatiana second, with Nick & Victorija taking first in all dances. So what was the screaming and cheering all about? If you look at the marks closely you can tell that in many dances Max & Tatiana are putting up a good fight. In the waltz Nick & Victorija took it with a majority of firsts from the judges no question as who was in command of the waltz. However, in the other four dances it was almost to close for comfort, especially in the tango where Nick & Victorija had 7 first place marks to 6 for Max & Tatiana. Not quite so close but certainly would make fans cheer when in the foxtrot Nick & Victoria Had 8 and Max & Tatiana had 5 first place marks. The VW also went to Nick and Victorija but at least 4 judges thought Max & Tatiana should have won this dance.

• Open Pro Smooth Open Pro Smooth
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To understand the audience you have to realize that in our industry once you are champion you are almost always crowned for life or at least until retirement from competition with nearly all first places going to the champions, but here is not the case and we can expect more exciting matches like this from time to time, in fact in a number of events Max & Tatiana have already taken the tango.

Third in this heated match went to Yegor Novikov & Alexandra Smirnova who placed third in all four dances, but closer attention we believe could have been paid to the fourth place couple, Evgeny Malko & Anna Shahbazyan who got plenty of attention good and bad. In a couple of places by accident and ballroom traffic, Evgeny & Anna got tangled up with Nick & Vicktoija and at least on one occasion, Nick held Evgeny not allowing him to come by in some good-natured fun. Evgeny was able to break free and this was more food for the audience who cheered at the spectacle and who we are sure found this competition very exciting.

Fifth place was awarded to the home crowd favorite Mariusz Zakrewski & Lynssay Ray who live in this town and when they were introduced the crowd roared. Sixth place went to Enzo Zappia & Stepanie Betts and seventh position was awarded to Maksim Lototskyy & Sarah Haworth. Perhaps they were not expecting to make this final but as you could see the excitement in their eyes and body action when they were called for the final.

• Open Pro Latin Open Pro Latin
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This should have possibly been the end but the fun continued with the Open Professional Latin that showed also good quality from all couples. The overall winners by placing first in four dances and second in the jive were Justinas Duknauskas & Anna Kovalova. When looking at the marks you can tell that with the exception of the jive this couple were above the rest, winning four dances with a majority of firsts from the judges, but perhaps closer attention should be placed on their jive where they only managed to get 3 firsts out of 13 judges.

Second overall in this heat and winning the jive were Andrei Kazlouski & Asta Sigvaldadottir, who took this jive with 6 first place marks. Third overall was awarded to Francesco Bertini & Sabrina Manzi who brought the house down during the opening dance-ons. Fourth went to Andrei Voloshko & Kateryna Kyrylenko leaving fifth to Simeon Stoynov & Cora Stoynova and sixth for Andrew Escolme & Amy Baker who also competed in the Rhythm this night. In seventh position were Pavel Balykin & Anastasia Levadnia.

• Open Pro Rhythm Open Pro Rhythm
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The Professional Rhythm was also a great event. The obvious winners for all including the fans were Andre & Natalie Parmonov. Second went to a couple that also got the audience very excited, Vard Margaryan & Inga Demetryan and they placed second in every dance. Third position in every dance went to Danas Jaksevicius & Yuki Haraguchi , fourth place was Ivan Dishliev & Marietta Nedyalkova and sixth place went to Maksim Lototskyy & Sarah Hawarth.

The pro-ams finished the competition with their Ballroom categories. In the Open B Scholarship Sabina Zagolin w/ Youriy Kravets was the winner in all dances. 2nd went to Brynda Insley w/ Martin Reinbold 2,4,2,3,3. Lily Chang w/ Andrii Mykhailov was a close 3rd 4,2,3,4,2. 4th was Patricia Schneider w/ Sergey Kiselev 3,5,5,2,5; 5th Ling Ma w/ Edgars Gasjuns 5,3,4,5,4; 6th Monica Sun w/ Iaroslav Bieliel 6,6,6,6,6. Only 3 contested the Open A, but it was a very good match. Winning all dances was Vinnie Miller w/ Denis Kutepov. 2nd in all went to Tina Lam w/ Igor Dogeter and third was Collette Marotto w/ Egor Abashkin. Jill Bradford w/ Andrea Stefano took the Open C 2,1,1,1,1. Ans Stork w/ Pigotskyy won the waltz and was 2nd in the other dances. 3rd in all was Angela Hu w/ Anton Koukareko. 4th went to Annie Chan w/ Christian Radvan 4,4,5,4,4; 5th Lisa Lee w/ Radu Sterban 5,5,4,6,5; 6th Lisa Liao w/ Iaroslav Bieliel 6,6,6,5,6; 7th Kim Nichols w/ Enzo Zappia 7,7,7,7,7.

• Open Amateur Ballroom Open Amateur Ballroom
• Andres & Veronica End Andres & Veronica End
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There were also Open Amateur Divisions. The Ballroom was the best. Andres & Veronica End were the winners and they had the majority of 1st places in all dances. 2nd in all went to Angelo Gaetano & Clarissa Morelli. 3rd in all were Florin Vlad & Natalia O’Connor. 4th Tony Cooperman & Rickie Taylor 4,4,4,4,4; 5th Danya & Anastasia Rubashevsky 5,5,5,5,5; 6th Matthew Horne & Kelsey Weaver 6,6,6,6,6.

• Open Amateur Latin Open Amateur Latin
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Dymtry Dmytrenko & Yelzaveter Gizhko won all dances in the Amateur Latin. Danya & Anastasia Rubashevsky were 2nd overall with 2,2,3,3,2. 3rd Tony Cooperman & Rickie Taylor 3,3,2,2,3; 4th Marcos Martinez & Whitney Hallam 4,4,4,4,4; 5th Tyler Alder & Makayla Bezzant 6,5,5,5,5; 6th Clayton Noyes & Kaila Bradley 5,6,6,6,6.

The after party was in the “Velvet Room” a cozy atmosphere where people had food drink and danced till closing. We want to congratulate Paul Holmes, Maria Hansen, and Miakal Watkins for being such great hosts and putting on such a terrific event in this fun city of Las Vegas!

Four (Five) of a kind for Victor & Anastasia!

Victor Fung & Anastasia Muravyeva won all dances in the Pro Ballroom last night!

• Open Pro Ballroom Open Pro Ballroom
• Victor Fung & Anastasia Muravyeva Victor Fung & Anastasia Muravyeva
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But here in the gambling capital of the USA they came up all trumps – taking every first place in every dance. Definitely 5 of a kind!

The fight for second was a little closer with the 2nd and 3rd places being split mostly between Iaroslav Bieliel & Lydua Gladiuk who got the runner’s up spot 2,3,2,2,2 and Oscar Pedrinelli & Lenka Kovalcikova who were 3rd with 3,2,3,3,3. 4th and 5th places were even closer and were separated by a Rule 11 tiebreak. Andrii Myhailov & Anna Bohachova ended up with the better of it taking 4th with 4,6,5,5,4 over Igor Mikushov & Ekaterina Romashkina who placed 6,5,4,4,5. Closing this final, that began with a quarter-final, were Radu Sterban & Xenia Cletova 5,4,6,6,6.

• Professional Cabaret Professional Cabaret
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Andre & Natalie Paramonov were the easy winners of the Pro Cabaret taking 8 of the 9 first places. 2nd went to Matt Rivers & Maliwan Diemer, 3rd to Andrew Escolme & Amy Baker, 4th to Alejandro & Lucella Falcon and 5th to Aaron & Katelyn Holmes.

• Pro RS Smooth Pro RS Smooth
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2 further Pro RS events were held – Smooth and Rhythm. The Smooth was an impressive quarter-final. Enzo Zappia & Stephanie Betts won all dances in the Smooth. 2nd in all fell to Matt Rivers & Maliwan Diemer and 3rd in all to Max Lototsky & Sarah Haworth. Aaron Talbert & Maggie Toth were 4th 4,4,4,6; Kyle & Christina Campbell were 5th 5,6,5,5 and Kosta Trifunovic & Dinara Khayrulina were 6th 6,5,6,4, the last 2 separated by Rule 10 tiebreak.

• Andrew's birthday Andrew's birthday
• Pro RS Rhythm Pro RS Rhythm
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Andrew Escolme & Amy Baker won the RS Rhythm. They won all dances with strong majorities of 1st places. It was also Andrew's birthday. 2nd went to Daniele Cavallo & Leela Fazzuoli 2,2,3,2,2. 3rd and 4th were very close and separated by a Rule 10. 3rd went to Johnny Bryant & Ksenia Stavrica 3,3,4,3,5 and 4th to Tudor Alexander & Sonya Petkova 4,4,2,5,3. Jhondarr Lopez & Amber Osborn were 5th 6,6,5,4,4 and Ben Seifert & Skylor Sansing were 6th 5,5,6,6,6.

• Lisa Lowery w/ Roman Malkhasyan Lisa Lowery w/ Roman Malkhasyan
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The pro-ams danced 2 styles, Smooth and Latin and it was a good day for Lisa Lowery who added another 2 open scholarship wins, the C Smooth and C Latin.

• 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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Placing 2nd to Lisa in the C Latin was Joan Goddard w/ Andrew Escolme 2,2,2,2,3. 3rd went to Rhonda Lynch w/ Stephen McCann 3,3,3,3,2. Robyn Shreiber w/ Italo Elgueta was 4th 5,5,5,4,4; 5th Lori Brinkmayer w/ Radomir Pashev 6,4,4,5,6; 6th Judy Pedersen w/ Peter Polak 4,6,6,6,5; 7th Jennifer Kay w/ Dimitry Kurakin 7,7,7,7,7 and 8th Rita Lee w/ Oleg Astakov 8,8,8,8,8. Teacher Oleg Astakov has students who won both the A and B Scholarships. JJ Rabone took the A 1,2,1,1,1 over Brennan Hutchinson w/ Hope Jackson 2,1,2,2,2. In the B Vicki Lane was the winner 3,3,1,3,1. Colette Marotto w/ Olyksy Lytvyn was 2nd 4,2,2,1,3; 3rd went to Cindy Mishlove w/ Vartan Zakariants 1,1,4,4,4; 4th was Valeria Chayko w/ Stanislav Kochergin 2,4,3,2,5 and 5th Joyce Lo w/ Guennadi Iakounine 5,5,5,5,2.

• Open A PA Smooth Open A PA Smooth
• Open B PA Smooth Open B PA Smooth
• Open C PA Smooth Open C PA Smooth
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In the C Smooth Lisa again won all dances. 2nd in all went to Darla Davies w/ Jim Maranto and 3rd to Frances Manning w/ Eric Koptke 3,3,3,4. 4th was Fred Schwartz w/ Yana Nelyubov 4,5,4,3; 5th Catherine Gallo w/ David Arnold 5,4,5,5; 6th Mark Eberle w/ Alissa Kark 6,6,6,6 and 7th Darrel Harris w/ Kris Lloyd 7,7,7,7. The Open B was won by Sincha Sinchaeroen w/ Max Sinitisa 1,1,1,1. Runner-up was Thara Salamone w/ Jim Maranto 2,2,2,3. Mona Maerz w/ ChristJohn Batters was 3rd 3,4,4,2 and Cathy Howell w/ Martin Cawston took 4th 4,3,3,4. 5th Dana Miller w/ David Estrada and 6th Beatriz Colon w/ Roman Malkhasyan. Celia Chou w/ Erminio Stefano won the Open A, again taking all dances. Dana Miller w/ Estrada moved up to 2nd place here 2,2,2,2; Genevieve Parker w/ Eric Koptke was 3rd 3,3,3,3 and Frank Yen w/ Anastasia Levadnia was 4th.

Betting on Vegas Open

We’re all here at Vegas Open in the Luxor Resort, guests of organizers, Mikal Watkins, Maria Hansen & Paul Holmes.

• Nightclub night Nightclub night
• DJ Brent Mills - nightclub night DJ Brent Mills - nightclub night
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Two days have already passed in which we’ve seen the nightclub session – danced in an actual nightclub the famed LAX at the Luxor Hotel. How cool is that, to dance you nightclub dances actually in the setting they were meant for!

• Andrii Myhailov & Anna Bohachova Andrii Myhailov & Anna Bohachova
• Pro RS Ballroom Pro RS Ballroom
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Then yesterday was pro-am Rhythm day plus the first of the professional heats. The largest of the pro heats and this was somewhat surprising based on recent trends was the RS Ballroom that began as a semifinal. Winning tonight were Andrii Myhailov & Anna Bohachova with 1,2,1,1,1. Runners-up were Radu Sterban & Xenia Cletova 2,1,2,2,2. Youriy Nartov & Sarika Hudson took all the 3’s and Anatolii Repliuk & Ruslana Mamaysur all the 4’s. 5th went to Tyrone Thiara & Kateryna Iaritenko 6,6,5,5,5 and 6th to Alex & Alina Spencer 5,5,6,6,6.

• RS Pro Latin RS Pro Latin
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Only 3 couples contested the RS Latin but all were of a high standard. The winners were Andre Voloshko & Kateryna Kyrylenko 1,1,1,2,1. 2nd went to Andrew Escolme & Amy Baker 3,2,2,1,2 and 3rd to Pavel Balykin & Anastasia Levadnia 2,3,3,3,3.

• Open A PA Rhythm Open A PA Rhythm
• Open B PA Rhythm Open B PA Rhythm
• Open C PA Rhythm Open C PA Rhythm
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Earlier in the evening the Open Pro-Am Rhythm Scholarships were decided. Only 2 couples contested the A division and the win went to Marinda James-Heskett w/ Jeremy Pillingin all dances. 2nd was Jessica Love w/ Tony Delgado. Lisa Lowery w/ Roman Malkhasyan won the C in all dances. 2nd in all went to Joan Goddard w/ Aaron Talbert and 3rd in all to Darla Davies w/ Jim Maranto. Renee Kuwahara w/ Ilya Reyzin took 4th in all dances and Sandi Carpenter w/ Diego Semprum was 5th. Thara Salamone w/ Jim Maranto won all dances in the B. 2nd fell to Courtney Bugler w/ Rainier Rics 2,3,2,2,2. Mytia McNeal w/ Damir Karaman was 3rd 3,2,3,4,3; Stacy Wojcichowsky w/ Diego Semprum was 4th 5,5,4,3,4; Beatriz Colon w/ Roman Malkhasyan was 5th 4,4,5,5,5.