The pro-am ballroom was quite well supported and produced some large and highly contested heats. The Open B Scholarship was won by Laura Shooks w/ Alexander Voskalchuk who won all dances losing very few 1st place marks and actually with perfect scores in tango and quickstep. Careen Friedland w/ Slava Kostianets was the runner-up 2,2,3,2,2, Kristine Riemer w/ Erik Pali took 3rd 3,3,2,3,3; 4th Patricia Chai w/ Sergey Bolotnikov 5,4,5,4,4; 5th Laura Boniello w/ Igor Gayenko 4,5,4,5,5.
Open B PA Ballroom Scholarship
Open B PA Ballroom Scholarship
Laura Shooks w/ Alexander Voskalchuk
Laura Shooks w/ Alexander Voskalchuk
Open C1 PA Ballroom Scholarship
Open C1 PA Ballroom Scholarship
Kathy Stetler w/ Alexander Voskalchuk
Kathy Stetler w/ Alexander Voskalchuk
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId3a27abd79a
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId771aa9d22b
Open C PA Ballroom Scholarship
Open C PA Ballroom Scholarship
Patricia Chai w/ Segey Bolotnikov
Patricia Chai w/ Segey Bolotnikov
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProIda7f2e82e45
Following the completion of the pro-am divisions, the amateurs took to the floor. The standard of dance in the Youth and U/21 was especially high in both ballroom and Latin styles. Interestingly both styles had the same winners in both age groups.
Nickolas Bleykhman & Alissa Joly
Nickolas Bleykhman & Alissa Joly
Youth Ballroom
Youth Ballroom
U/21 Ballroom
U/21 Ballroom
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId25d40e86e5
Vadym Pidhoretskyy & Ruby Castro
Vadym Pidhoretskyy & Ruby Castro
U/21 Latin
U/21 Latin
Youth Latin
Youth Latin
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProIdc27a19e3be
It Takes a Village!
Before we report on the goings on from last night and the Smooth Pro/Am day here at the DBDC, we must first thank the entire team that makes the DBDC a tremendous success from the runners, judges, chairman of judges and even to the bartenders in the hospitality suites.
But rather than composing a note with a bunch of thanks and forgetting half the crew, we give you a message the organizers received yesterday from a prominent Pro/Am competitor who had this to say.
“In case I don’t see you I wanted you to know that this comp should be top of everyone’s list. The ballroom is beautiful, the hotel is wonderful it has a bar and food, also Starbucks and it’s clean and serviced. It’s in the heart of the best part of Boston as someone who lived here. The music was fabulous! We will hope to return next year doing all 3 styles! Cheers to you!”
Last night was the last evening session at the DBDC and the atmosphere as well as the competitors were out of this world. The usual gala dinner honoring a prominent person of our industry took place but this time because the organizers did not have enough time to honor a particular person we did a recap of the DBDC and its honorees from the beginning. It was an emotional video that perhaps touched us all more than usual, because this was a celebration of life itself.
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId1023913617
Serhiy Averkov & Olena Barna
Serhiy Averkov & Olena Barna
Nazar Batih & Mariko Cantley
Nazar Batih & Mariko Cantley
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId61c18bff5a
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId5d1a5972ea
Andrew Escolme & Amy Baker
Andrew Escolme & Amy Baker
Riccardo Papi & Sabrina Moretti
Riccardo Papi & Sabrina Moretti
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProIda538073c65
Fifth in this Rhythm final was awarded to Artem Shiller & Ginny Ray Shiller, another couple with great potential but consistency of work needs to be a little more apparent. Sixth went to Nicolas Rodriguez & Paulina Struk in all dances. We also feel that this couple has made significant improvement over the last year.
Open Amateur Latin
Open Amateur Latin
Alexander Chernositov & Arina Grishanina
Alexander Chernositov & Arina Grishanina
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId1e7fbc28c1
Tagir Mansura & Liza Lakovitsky
Tagir Mansura & Liza Lakovitsky
Max Firestein & Nicole Mtchedlidze
Max Firestein & Nicole Mtchedlidze
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId1e502eb57e
Open Amateur Ballroom
Open Amateur Ballroom
Oleksandr Kalenyuk & Olena Ablitsova
Oleksandr Kalenyuk & Olena Ablitsova
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId78de4b5e62
Andriy & Amanda Besyedin
Andriy & Amanda Besyedin
Dmitrii Zavialov & Arina Sokolova
Dmitrii Zavialov & Arina Sokolova
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId2d6bf1926e
For the pro-ams it was a full day of Smooth heats that culminated with some good competitions in the Open Scholarships.
Open C PA Smooth Scholarship
Open C PA Smooth Scholarship
Sophia D'Angelo w/ Max Sinitsa
Sophia D'Angelo w/ Max Sinitsa
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProIdd9320a7d4b
Open A PA Smooth Scholarship
Open A PA Smooth Scholarship
Amanda Hurd w/ Mazen Hamza
Amanda Hurd w/ Mazen Hamza
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProIdbcf1139064
Robin Kencel w/ Mayo Alanen
Robin Kencel w/ Mayo Alanen
Open PA C1 Smooth Scholarship
Open PA C1 Smooth Scholarship
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId30236ccfec
Open B PA Smooth Scholarship
Open B PA Smooth Scholarship
Jennifer Hoffman w/ Dave Hannigan
Jennifer Hoffman w/ Dave Hannigan
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId0924cc70dc
The Competition & the INN at the DBDC!
The DBDC got its kick off this year in Lexington, Massachusetts where the first shots were fired for the independence of the United States of America.
Inn at Hastings Park
Inn at Hastings Park
Sightseeing Tour
Sightseeing Tour
Sightseeing Tour
Sightseeing Tour
Inn at Hastings Park
Inn at Hastings Park
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProIdfd48382f3a
Wine Tasting
Wine Tasting
Inn at Hastings Park
Inn at Hastings Park
Inn at Hastings Park
Inn at Hastings Park
Wine Tasting
Wine Tasting
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProIdcaeb8287bb
Thursday morning we were all ready for the Boston Park Plaza, the nightclub extravaganza and the most beautiful ballroom for dancing.
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId59cb12d163
Friday we got underway with the Rhythm and Latin competitions for pro-ams and it was fully packed day of Pro/Am dancing. At night the professional events began and the professional Latin had the most interesting challenges among some of the best Latin dancers in the USA.
Bob Medeiros Memorial Medal
Bob Medeiros Memorial Medal
Mykhailo Bilopukhov & Anastasiia Shchypilina
Mykhailo Bilopukhov & Anastasiia Shchypilina
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId59d557d43f
Valentin Voronov & Anna Pelypenko
Valentin Voronov & Anna Pelypenko
Artur Tarnavskyy & Anastasiya Danilova
Artur Tarnavskyy & Anastasiya Danilova
Pasha Stepanchuk & Gabriella Sabler
Pasha Stepanchuk & Gabriella Sabler
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId9fc95f7fe8
Aleksandar Vukosavljevic & Alexandra Smirnova
Aleksandar Vukosavljevic & Alexandra Smirnova
Open Pro Smooth
Open Pro Smooth
Tykhon Zhyvkov & Yana Zhyvkov
Tykhon Zhyvkov & Yana Zhyvkov
Dmitrii Zavialov & Arina Sokolova
Dmitrii Zavialov & Arina Sokolova
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProIdc6bcb2c7ac
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId7405fb0a5c
For the pro-ams Friday was a very busy day of competition with two styles of dance – Rhythm & Latin. Rhythm was up first with some keenly contested Open Scholarships.
Open B PA Rhythm Scholarship
Open B PA Rhythm Scholarship
Gewn Bourque w/ Andrew Escolme
Gewn Bourque w/ Andrew Escolme
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProIdf19f705696
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProIdfd77f00599
Open PA C1 Rhythm Scholarship
Open PA C1 Rhythm Scholarship
Joan Goddard w/ Andrew Escolme
Joan Goddard w/ Andrew Escolme
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProIdb66b2f4d6c
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId3dd15d9495
In the Latin Divisions we also saw some strong open scholarship divisions.
Open C PA Latin Scholarship
Open C PA Latin Scholarship
Loraine Peoples w/ Genya Bartashevich
Loraine Peoples w/ Genya Bartashevich
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId80c0648733
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId2b6d164561
https://dancebeat.com/m-blogs-en/item/1946-dbdc21#sigProId33d1332833
Melissa Putnam w/ Jani Bogre took the Open B Latin Scholarship.