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The Battle Decided!

The (Rhythm) Battle of Hotel San Juan is decided and the victors are Us Champs, Emmanuel Pierre Antoine & Liana Churilova who won all 5 dances.  Emmanuel & Liana had the majority of 1st places in all dances.  The swing was the closest fought however, as the runners-up, Nazar Norov & Irina Kudryashova had 7 1st places to Emmanuel & Liana’s 10.  Nazar & Irina were clear in 2nd spot in all dances.  3rd went to Peter & Alexandra Perzhu and once again it was in all dances.  4th in all fell to Misha Vlasov & Vanda Polyakova, once again a clear finish for them.  5th and 6th spots were a little closer with the result going to Maksim Lototskyy & Sara Haworth 5,5,6,5,6 over Matthew Hauer & Lauren Schelfhaudt 6,6,5,6,5.  Andre & Natalie Paramonov were also slated to compete but unfortunately had to withdraw.

Watch out for Ilya Reyzin’s report on this division in Dance Beat soon.

Matthew & Lauren were the winners in the NDCA sanctioned World Salsa Championship, a title they now add to their US National Mambo title.  They received 16 of the available 17 first places.  2nd in this division went to Eddie Rivera & Meg McNash and 3rd to Rodrigue Edouard & Diana Heilig.

Only 2 couples entered the Professional Showdance and the win went to Travis & Jamie Tuft over Eddie & Meg.

For the pro-ams it was Ballroom day and it proved a good day for Carole Simmons & Serghei Pogonet from Canada.  Carole won the both the Open A & B Scholarships.

Only 2 couples entered the A and Carole won all dances.  Tamuria Thompson w/ David Weise was 2nd.

In the B Carole placed 1,2,2,1,1.  Runner-up was Noriko Kiernan w/ Eric Pali with 2,1,1,2,2.  3rd in all dances was Mary Jane McCarran w/ Basil Issaev;  4th in all Laura White w/ Andrea Faraci and 5th Darcy Adamcyck w/ Garl Dahl.

Lisa Liao w/ Andrea Feraci was the winner in the C placing 1,1,1,1,2.  2nd spot with 2,2,2,2,1 went to Alla Neystadt w/ Basil Issaev.  3rd was Dexter Wang w/ Liane Apale 3,4,3,3,4;  4th Audria Hill-Mitchell w/ Peter Perzhu 4,3,4,4,3;  5th Janet Caruso w/ Edgar Osorio  5,5,5,5,5.

The weather gods were kind in San Juan as the sun shone throughout Saturday afternoon when all competitors had time off to enjoy the beach or pool.

The evening session began with the Gala San Juan, the cocktail hour sponsored by Rums of Puerto Rico.  Music Director, Brent Mills entertained us in his inimitable style on the piano.

For those competitors who stayed an extra day and were on the extended La Vida Loca package it was a day of sailing on the calm Caribbean Sea for lunch and snorkeling on a deserted (except for us) island.

Stars over the Caribbean Sea

Last night at Caribbean Dancesport the stars were out in the ballroom if perhaps not over the Caribbean Sea.  Both the Open Professional Smooth and Latin had US finalists attending.

Current US Champions, Peter & Alexandra Perzhu easily won the Smooth taking all 4 dances with a large majority of 1st places and perfect scores in the waltz.  Only judge Diana McDonald placed them 2nd overall.  Clearly 2nd with all the 2nd placements and a couple of 1st placements were Travis & Jaimee Tuft.  Moving up from their 2nd spot in the Rising Star, Leo Mora & Christina Garced overtook the RS winners, Radek Wiatrowski & Denise Sobiewski to place 3rd 3,3,4,3.  Radek & Denise placed 4,4,3,5.  Dave Hannigan & Maggie Toth were 5th 5,5,5,4 and Aaron Talbert & Angela Maughan were 6th.

In the Open Latin it was the turn of Roman Kutskyy & Anna Kovalova to take the trophy and they won all 5 dances with every 1st place from all judges.  Fellow Californians Roman Italyankin & Alexandra Bokova were 2nd in all dances.  They had the majority of 2nd places in all dances, but the cha cha was close as they had 7 to the 6 received by 3rd place recipients, Dmitry Nikishkin & Olena Shvets, who ended up 3rd in all dances.  4th place fell to Vlad Astafiev & Linda Gergye.

The largest event of the night was actually the Pro Rising Star Rhythm that began with a semifinal.  This was quite a tight competition but the win went to Maksym Lototsky & Sarah Haworth 2,1,1,1,1.  They had the majority of 1st places in R,S,B.  With 1,2,2,2,2, Riccardo Papi & Sabrina Moretti were the runners-up.  With all 3rd’s the new pairing of Eddie Rivera & Meg McNash were 3rd.  All the 4’s went to Marco Pizarro & Tamara Richartz;  5th were Jonathan Chen & Nadine Messenger 5,5,5,5,6 and 6th were Rodrigue Edouard & Diana Heilig 6,6,6,6,5.

For the pro-ams it was a full day of Rhythm with the Scholarship and multi-dance divisions at night.  The Open Scholarships produced some good finals.  The winner of the B was Elena Cormio w/ Edwin Torres.  Elean lost very few 1st place scores.  2nd in all dances went to Sophia D’Angelo w/ Ilya Reyzin.  These two were well clear.  3rd went to Eileen Arcilla w/ Golden Parker 3,4,3,5,3.  4th was Angela Morrison w/ Peter Santiago 5,3,4,3,4;  5th Ceci Torres w/ Eddie Rivera 4,5,5,4,5 and 6th Kimberley Taylor w/ Misha Vlasov.

The Open A went to Katia Diamond w/ Nazar Norov 1,2,1,1,1.  The runner-up was Alison Schill w/ Emanuel Pierre-Antoine 2,1,2,2,3.  In her 2nd open final of the night, Ceci Torres w/ Eddie Rivera was 3rd, 3,3,3,3,2.  4th place in all dances fell to Tanuja Tharani w/ Adrian Persad and 5th was Tamuria Thompson w/ David Weise.

With perfect scores Joan Goddard w/ Aaron Talbert won the Open C.  2nd spot went to Daniel Haims w/ Natalie Paramonov 3,2,2,2,3.  3rd was Liz Velazquez w/ Eddie Rivera 2,3,3,3,2;  4th Deborah Davey w/ Joseph Smith 4,4,4,6,6;  5th Deborah Liguori w/ Rodrigue Edouard 5,5,6,4,4 and 6th Patrice Tanaka w/ Emanuel Pierre-Antoine 6,6,5,5,5.

After the competition the dancing moved to the famous El San Juan lobby, the party capital of the Caribbean.  We think the competitors danced more there than they did in the actual competition!  But what's 3 AM between friends?

Tonight promises a true Battle of the Hotel San Juan with most of the current US Finalists competing in the Open Rhythm.  Check back tomorrow for the outcome!

Only in the Caribbean

Caribbean Dancesport 2014 is underway in the El San Juan Hotel, Puerto Rico.

Early arrivals enjoyed a night out at a Condado Beachfront restaurant in a private space with dancing and a buffet.  The next day it was off to Old San Juan for a tour of this historic walled city and of course a few rum cocktails for those who don’t mind a midday tipple.

Wednesday night  saw the inauguration of the “True Nightclub Experience.”  Following welcome cocktails the nightclub and Caribbean dances (salsa, bachata, wc swing, stc.) took place in a true nightclub space with lightning and a blasting sound system.  (Back up singing by MC Mark Brock, DJ Brent Mills and a few trills from Chairman, Richard Booth).  It was time to get loud and get happy.

Yesterday was Smooth and Latin day or the pro-ams with the smooth attracting the larger entries both in the single dances and in the multi dances.  Joann Smith w/ Sharon Levitt from Canada was the big winners in the Open Smooth Scholarships as she won both the Open A and Open B divisions, taking all dances. 

The C was the larger, beginning with 14 couples and here the winner was Alla Neystadt w/ WEric Pali 1,1,1,1.

2nd in the A went to Keiko Matsumoto w/ Dave Hannigan 2,2,2,2 and 3rd was Tamuria Thompson w/ David Weise.  2nd in the B , Sophia D’Angelo w/ Michael Choi 2,2,2,2 3rd, Keiko w/ Dave, 3,3,3,3.  In the C the runners-up were Janet Smith w/ David Weise 2,2,2,2 and 3rd was Michael Schmidt w/ Michelle Hudson 3,5,4,3.

The Pro-Am Latin was danced in the evening.  Winning the Open Scholarship in the A divisions was Jacqueline Soccodato w/ Delyan Terziev 1,1,1,1.  The runner up with 2,2,2,3,2 was Cindy Mishlove w/ Vartan Zakhariants and 3rd was Patria Mui w/ Alex Samusevich 3,3,3,2,3.

7 couples entered the B, the largest of the Open Latin Scholarships.  The winner in all dances was Marina Svyatets w/ Aleksandar Vukosavljevic.  Once again 2nd, but this time in all dances was Cindy Mishlove w/ Vartan Zakhariants and 3rd was Melinda Santos w/ Vaidas Skimelas 5,4,3,3,4.

Lisa Liao w/ Roman Kustkyy won the C with Michaela Puno w/ Slava Sergiev the runner-up

The Pro Rising Star Smooth produced one of the closest races we have ever seen involving both a Rule 11 and Rule 10 tiebreak.  The winners were the new partnership of Radek Wiatrowski & Denise  Sobiewski and they placed 1,3,1,3.  On the other half of the Rule 11 were Leo Mora & Christina Garced placing 3,1,3,1.  Confused yet?  Placing 2nd in all dances but after a Rule 10 decision winning an overall 3rd place were Dave Hannigan & Maggie Toth.  Aaron Talbert & Angela Maughan were 4th in all dances but certainly picked a fair share of higher scores.  A veryinteresting result indeed!

Today the pro-ams dance Rhythm and at night there are some strong open professional divisions in Latin and Smooth plus rising star.  Check back tomorrow for the updates.