The open professional competition in all styles was held this night and it was terrific.

• Open Pro Rhythm Open Pro Rhythm
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The first professional event of the evening was the Professional Rhythm and here Dmitry Nikishkin & Olena Shvets Nikishkin placed first in four dances and second in the bolero, wining the majority of the dances they ended up in first place overall. Ilya Abdulin & Tara Barkov were second overall with these marks 2,2,2,1,2, leaving third place to Alberto Cortez & Jessa Mae Briones, placing third in all dances. The new partnership of Mikolay Czarnecki & Lana Rossi were fourth 5,4,5,4,7, Andrew Escolme & Amy Baker took fifth 4,6,4,7,6, Mathew Hauer & Anastasia were sixth 6,7,6,5,5, and Andrei Svirydzenka &Yuliya Zubava were fifth 7,5,7,6,4.

• Open Pro Ballroom Open Pro Ballroom
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In the “World Masters Professional Ballroom” Alexander Voskalchuk & Veronika Egora were the winners in all dances. Second went to Andrey Begunov & Anna Demidova 3,2,2,2,2. Third was Igor Mikushov & Ekaterina Romashkina 2,3,3,3,3. Fourth place was awarded to Nazar Batih & Mariko Cantley 4,4,4,4,4, fifth went to Yuriy Nartov & Sarika Hudson 5,5,5,5,5, and sixth place went to Lukas Chockuba & Angelina Oh.

• Open Pro Latin Open Pro Latin
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The “World Masters Professional Open Latin” was awarded to Pasha Pashkov & Daniella Karagach first in all dances. Valentin Voronov & Alina Imrekova from Russia took second in all dances and third overall was awarded to Nikita Malakhov & Nadezda Vlasova 4,3,3,4,3. Artur Tarnasvskyy & Anasatasia Danilova were fourth 3,4,4,3,4, Dmitry & Olean Nikishkin Placed fifth in all dances and Vlad Astafiev & Annie He Xiao were sixth.

• Open Pro Smooth Open Pro Smooth
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The Open Professional Smooth was won by Mikolay Czarnecki & Lana Rossi. Aaron Talbert & Maggie Toth were second in all four dances and Slawek Roska & Denise Sobiewski were third in all dances. Ilya Abdullin & Tara Barkov were fourth. Marko & Neveda Uroseviv were fifth tying for fifth in the waltz and placing fifth in the other three dances. Charles & Emily Roberts also tied for fifth in the waltz but were sixth in the other three dances.

• Open Pro Cabaret Open Pro Cabaret
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In the Professional Cabaret the winners were Ivan Kudashev & Ksenia Sokolova, second was awarded to Slawek Roszak & Denise Sobiewski, third was Nazar Batih & Mariko Cantley.

• Open Amateur Latin Open Amateur Latin
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The World Masters Amateur Latin was also an excellent event and here Allen Rudman & Svetlanta Lesnaya were first in all dances. Second overall went to Ron Garber & Anastasia Fedoruk 2,2,2,3,2, and third was Marco Tremblay Brosseau & Alice Nuraru.

The Yourth Ballroom was an excellent event and here Yusif Amsatr & Naomi Spektor were the overall winners.

The Yankee was as always an event to be at and the new and exciting lighting gave the competition a terrific feel and the footage for video coverage looked magnificent.

Rising Stars Selected Under Mood Lighting!

Last night at the Yankee Classic 2017, under colorful mood lighting the Professional Rising Stars competitions were decided.

• Aaron Talbert & Maggie Toth Aaron Talbert & Maggie Toth
• Pro RS Smooth Pro RS Smooth
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Aaron Talbert & Maggie Toth were the easy winners placing first in all 4 Smooth dances. Slawek Roszak & Denise Sobiewski took second in all dances and were the runners up and Marko & Neveda Urosevic, placed all thirds in this same heat. Charles & Emily Roberts were fourth, Christian Lightner & Kia Kenney placed fifth, and Alexander Konovalov & Ecaterina Liubenco were sixth.

• Alberto Cortes & Jessa Mae Briones Alberto Cortes & Jessa Mae Briones
• Pro RS Rhythm Pro RS Rhythm
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In the Professional Rising Star American Rhythm a seven-couple final was called back. As you can read this was perhaps a more difficult decision since the chairman had asked for six. In the end Alberto Cortes & Jessa Mae Briones won all five dances, Andrew Escolme & Amy Baker took second also in all dances and Senzo Makhayen & Agnieszka Strojek placed third with these marks 3,3,4,5,5. Romney Reyes & Brook Reyes placed fourth 5,4,5,3,3, Joe Hasson & Natalie Honkonen were fifth 4,5,3,4,4, Alexander Konovalov & Ecaterina Liubenco were awarded sixth 6,6,6,6,7, and finally Marcio DeSouza & Nghi Perry-Tran placed seventh 7,7,7,7,6.

• Pro RS Latin Pro RS Latin
• Vlad Astafiev & Annie He Xiou Vlad Astafiev & Annie He Xiou
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Seven couples took to the floor for the RS Professional Latin and here Vlad Astafiev & Annie He Xiao won all five dances. Nikita Tsernov & Anna Oblakova took second in all dances and Andrew Escolme & Amy Baker took third, also in all dances. Maxim Fomin & Jessie Mineau were fourth, Tomas Vasicek & Vitalija Tyrnova were fifth in all dances, leaving Marcio Pereira & Filipa Gaio sixth position but not in all dances 6,7,6,6,7, and Erik Petrosyan & Margarita Taryan were seventh but also not in all dances 7,6,7,7,6.

• Pro RS Ballroom Pro RS Ballroom
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The Professional Rising Star Ballroom was quite small, with only three couples entered, and here Lukas Chockuba & Angelina Oh won all dances. Aleksandr & Aida Skriptsov placed second in every dance and finally in third position were Ashan Samarasinghe & Eleanor Van Der Zwan who took third place in every dance.

• U/21 Latin U/21 Latin
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There was an excellent Under 21 competition between two couples. The winners Ariel Milshteyn & Simona Vigodner won 4 dances to one with this scores 1,1,2,1,1. The second place couple was Yuriy Markovetskiy & Samanta Bryk and they won the rumba and placed second in the other four dances.

The Paper Moon Dancers did two routines both were very cleverly choreographed using ballroom and modern dance elements. It is difficult to get a group of this size all on the same page but they totally managed, congratulations “Paper Moon” dancers.

In the pro/am categories Jacqueline Soccodato with teacher Delyan Terzeiv won all dances in the “B” Open Latin Scholarship. In the “A” the honors went to Amanda Nguyen w/ Ryan Lewis and in the “C” division, Joan Goddard w/Andrew Escolme took all first places. The senior category went to Joanne Walford w/Jean-Philippe Milot from Canada.

It was a night of atmosphere with a low light mood. This made for a very intimate competition. Tonight we are looking forward to seeing all the Open Professional events and it should be a very challenging evening.