2 Interesting Duels at Maryland, Saturday

Maryland ended yesterday nights with all the Open Pro divisions.  Two of them provided interesting duels. 
The first was the Ballroom that pitted two Italian imports against each other – Gianni Caliandro & Arianna Esposito and Emanuele & Francesca Pappacena.  Today it was Gianni & Arianna who came out on top winning 3 of the dances.  Emanuele & Francesca won waltz and quickstep.  Each of the dances were won with the majority of 1st places.  Both couples are free-moving and exciting and for us it was a close call.  Find out more in the full article coming soon to Dance Beat.  The remainder of the placements mirrored the Rising Star division.  Oleksiy Buravenko & Victoria Karzukhina (3,3,3,3,3);  She-Young & Adele Jang Don (4,4,4,4,4) and Janis Kukanis & Milda Gecaite (5,5,5,5,5).

The second of the interesting divisions was the Rhythm.  This was won by Andrei Svirydzenka & Yuliya Zubova 1,1,2,1,1.  We thought they had a great night, showing great confidence and a lot of soul.  They won their 4 dances with a slim majority of 1st places.  2nd and winning the swing, were Shane & Shannon Jensen (2,2,1,2,2).  They offer a cleaner look than the winners, but for us didn’t really get into the mood tonight.  The remainder of the couples finished in the same position in all dances.  3rd, Stephen Smyth & Viktoriya Kleyman;  4th Romney Reyes & Brooke O’Donnell;  5th Jonathan Green & Carol Ann Miller;  6th Don Beedle & Jenn Christophel.

The Latin also proved and interesting duel between two very different couples.  The winners were the energetic and passionate Dmitry Nikishkin & Oleana Shvets.  They won 4 of the dances, all with the majority of 1st places.  Winning the rumba and taking 2nd in the other 4 were the tall and elegant Rangel Spirov & Veronika Chernyavska.  Very different to the winners both in appearance and style.  10-Dancers Sey-Young & Adele were 3rd in all dances.  A new couple to us, Vladimir Velev & Lily Kolman were 4th in all.  Zsolt Katona & Timea Potys were 5th (5,5,6,6,5) and Denis & Amanda Satonin were 6th.

The most clear cut from the judges’ standpoint was the Smooth.  This went to Kostadin Bidjourov & Erin Marie who easily won all dances.  We also liked the strong movement from runners-up, Morten Jensen & Tonya Martin (3,3,3,3).  In 3rd place was a brand new partnership of two experienced dancers – Chris Germain & Olga Chekhova.  We’re not sure if this was their first competition together, but there is certainly potential here.  They were 3rd in all dances.  4th were 9-Dancers Stephen & Viktoriya (5,5,4,4) and 5th Serge & Yana Nelyubov (4,4,5,5).  Jeffrey Golitiao & Katt were 6th.

The evening ended with an entertaining pro show produced by JT Thomas.  It had a Valentine’s theme and was entitled “Sweet Treats.”  All the numbers had “candy” themed music.  In a great “role reversal” it was the lady adjudicators who ended the show (lately it has always been the men).  Rita Algarra, Polina Pilipenchuk, Amanda Reyzin and Lydia Petrigova strutted their stuff to the enjoyment of all.

It was a really long day of pro-am dancing.  All of the Ballroom and much of the Latin was held today including both sets of Open Scholarships.  In both styles the B offered the best competition.  Yanina Kisler w/ Peter Walker comfortably won the Ballroom B, winning all dances.  2nd in all was Tomoko Shimizu w/ Emanuele Papacena and 3rd in all Kelley Weld w/ Slava Sergiev.  The C fell to Krista Stewart w/ Igor Pilipechuk who also won all dances.  2nd went to Sue Gershowitz w/ Nikolai Pilipenchuk (2,2,2,2,3) and 3rd was Julia Wang w/ Peter Walker (4,3T,4,3,2).  Jennifer Fales w/ Slava Sergiev won all dances in the A.  2nd went to Lisa Dodd w/ Garry Gekhman (2,2,2,2,3) and 3rd to Chris Nunes w/ Lisa Vegas (3,3,3,3,2).

Missy White w/ Genya Bartashevich won all dances in the B Latin.  2nd went to Kelley Ward w/ Slava Sergiev (3,2,2,2,2) and 3rd to Erica Triscan w/ Sergey Izyumov (2,4T,4,4,3).  Ann Morsili w/ Tibor Kerekes won the C, taking all dances.  2nd was Sue Gershowitz w/ Nikolai Pilipenchuk (2,3,2,2,2) and 3rd Laura Stolman w. Genya Bartashevitch (3,2,4,3,3).  A good duel in the A resulted in a win for Sarah Gladish w/ Ilya Reyzin (1,1,1,2,1) over Joanna Wa w/ Anton Tregubov (2,2,1,2,2).  3rd was Lauren Lapointe w/ Louis Bar.
Janice Stanton w/ Clive Phillips won the Best of the Best 10-Dance Challenge.

Pro-Am Smooth Strong At Maryland!

Yesterday the pro-am smooth topped the bill and the Open Scholarships were strong. 
After Thursday’s triple win for the men, Chris Nunes w/ Lisa Vegas kept up the tradition winning all dances to take the Open A.  Nicole Vass w/ Scott Ruddick was 2nd 2,3,2,2 and Lauren LaPointe w/ Louis Bar took 3rd 3,2,3,3.

Helena Kostik w/ Mazen Hamza took all dances in the B and showed a lot of improvement.  Also challenging, we thought, was Chris w/ Lisa once again.  He was 2nd in all dances.  Anna Boyd with Kirill Gorjatsev was 3rd in all dances.

Darla Davies w/ Jim Maranto was on form and won the C quite easily we thought and she did win all dances.  Renee Kuwahara w/ Ilya Rezin was a strong 2nd in all dances.  3rd went to Amy Pollinger w/ Slava Sergiev, again in all dances.  Darla w/ Jim also won the Best of the Best 9-Dance Challenge.

The evening finished with two rising star events.  The largest was the Rhythm.  Shane & Shannon Jensen were the easy winners here, taking all dances.  Also winning all dances in the Ballroom were Oleksiy Buravenko & Victoria Karzukhina.

“Let’s Hear It For The Boys!”

It was guys’ night out last night at Maryland Dancesport in the Open Rhythm Scholarships.  Gentlemen students won all 3!
Xavier Paol Aria w/ Mariangeles Moussou won all dances in the A, Giovanni Fortezza w/ Jolanta Mosteika won all danes in the B and Philip Widlanski w/ Jolanta Mosteika won the C 2,1,1,1T,1. We felt the C was actually the strongest division and this started with a semifinal.  2nd went to Darla Davies w/ Jim Maranto 1,2,2,1T,3 and 3rd to Renee Kuwahara w/ Ilya Reyzin 3,3,3,3,2.  2nd in all dances in the B was Angela Morisson w/ Peter Santiago and 3rd in all, Blaire Miller w/ Clive Phillips.  Lauren LaPointe w/ Louis Bar was 2nd in the A, 2,3,2,2,2 and Nicole Vass w/ Scott Ruddick was 3rd, 3,2,3,3,3.

There were 2 straight finals in professional rising star divisions.  Sey-Young & Adele Jang Don won all dances in the Latin and Jeffrey Goltiao w/ Katt won all in the Smooth.

Joining the organizational team of Glenis Dee and Andrea Ringold this year here at Maryland Dancesport is Blake Kish.