Their newest cabaret routine is to the song “Footprints in the Sand” and they certainly left their footprints on the Crown Jewel of Dancesport by winning the Professional Mary Gill Grand Championships with this routine. Mary’s daughter, Linda, was there to present the grand prize.

• Shane & Shannon Jensen Shane & Shannon Jensen
• Pro Mary Gill Grand Championship Pro Mary Gill Grand Championship
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As with the RS Grand Championship, the contest was judged with open marking. The Jensens scored 99 from a possible 100 and indeed we thought the routine was better performed than on the previous night in the Cabaret. The runners-up, with 96, were the Smooth winners, Roman Malkasyan & Galina Detkina and the Jensens also picked up 3rd spot as the representatives of the Rhythm (the Paramonovs who won the Rhythm were unable to attend).

• Roman Malkhasyan & Galina Detkina Roman Malkhasyan & Galina Detkina
• Open Pro Smooth Open Pro Smooth
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As mentioned above, Malkhasyan/Detkina won the Smooth and did so in fine style, taking every available 1st place in all dances. 2nd in all, and taking the majority of 2nd places in all dances were Dmitry Zavialov & Katt Baumgartner. 3rd in all were Shandor Shtefil & Aleksandra Barsukov. The event was a 7-couple final.

• Open Pro Latin Open Pro Latin
• Open Pro Ballroom Open Pro Ballroom
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It was a good night for US 10-Dance Champions, Jonas Kazlauskas & Kathleen Ilo who won both the Open Ballroom and Open Latin Championships. They lost only the rumba out of the 10 dances. The rumba went to Simeon & Kora Stoynov who were the runners-up, 2,2,1,2,2. The Stoynovs were 3rd in the Ballroom, 3,2T,3,3,3. Runners up in the Ballroom were Sergey Izyumov & Oxana Zaver and 3rd in the Latin were Vitalii Tozik & Angelica Downey.

The evening began with a very elegantly decorated gala dinner in the ballroom. The organizers, Gherman & Iveta, performed a show number during dinner, as did two Tango Argentino couples.

As new organizers, we felt Gherman & Iveta went out of their way to make competitors and officials alike welcome. The Diplomat Beach Resort is fabulous and we wish this event much success for the future!

A Jewel in the Crown of Florida Dancing

This is our first time to attend the Crown Jewel of Dancesport, held this year in the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, FL

• Hotel balcony view Hotel balcony view
• Hotel main lobby Hotel main lobby
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The event is organized by former US & World 10-Dance Champions, Gherman Mustuc & Iveta Lukosuite, purchased by them from Larry & Dianne Dean of Triple Crown fame. This year’s venue is the spectacular Diplomat Resort, well known to dancers as the venue of the US National Championships for several years. It has been totally renovated in recent years and is still a premier resort on the South Florida coastline, offering great restaurants, beach and pool and of course, huge and varied convention facilities.

• Shane & Shannon Jensen Shane & Shannon Jensen
• Andre & Natalie Paramonov Andre & Natalie Paramonov
• Open Pro Rhythm Open Pro Rhythm
• Kevin Ubillus & Milagros Lareto Kevin Ubillus & Milagros Lareto
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So far, 2 days into the competition, the highlight has been the Open Professional Rhythm that concluded last night with a 6-couple final returned from a semifinal. US heirs-apparent, Andre & Natalie Paramonov, were the easy winners taking all 5 dances, but only the rumba with perfect scores. They picked up some seconds in all the other dances and 2 judges, placed them 2nd overall – Steven Dougherty 2,1,2,2,1 and Dennis Rogers 2,1,2,1,2. The runners-up were Shane & Shannon Jensen who scored 2,2,2,2,3. They picked up most of the 1st places not awarded to the Paramonovs except in the mambo, where 3rd places Kevin Ubillius & Milagros Lareto took 3 firsts. Overall they scored 4,4,3,3,2. Anton Tregubov & Ashley Sanchez were 4th 3,3,4,4,4; 5th were Igor & Anastasia Puzhevich 5,5,5,5,5. They had won the RS Rhythm the night before, and 6th, Charles Cunnighma & Eugeniia Elcoro 6,6,6,6,6.

• Open Professional Cabaret Open Professional Cabaret
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The only other Open Pro division decided so far is the Open Cabaret. This had only 2 entries, but what entries they were! Shane & Shannon Jensen were the winners, taking all 11 first place marks. Runners-up were Craig Smith & Andrea Harvey.

• Pro RS Smooth Pro RS Smooth
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The Rising Star Smooth was a 7-couple final, danced tonight and the winners were Dmitrii Zavialov & Katt Baumgartner. They won all dances and had the majority of 1st places in all but Viennese Waltz.

• Pro RS Cabaret Pro RS Cabaret
• Pro RS Rhythm Pro RS Rhythm
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Unusually, there was also a Rising Star Cabaret division and this went to Mykhailo Azerov & Tetyana Makarenko.

• RS Grand Championship RS Grand Championship
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The Rising Star divisions in the International Styles were uncontested, but the 2 couples still got to compete in the Rising Star Grand Championship held tonight. The result of this Grand Championship, that featured open marking from the judges was: 1st Dmitri Zavialov & Katt Baumgartner (Smooth); 2nd Sergey Izyumov & Oxana Zaver (representing Cabaret); 3rd Izyumov/Zaver (Ballroom); 4th Puzhevich/Puzhevich; 5th Vitalii Tozik - Angelica Downey (Latin).