Open Time

Click here for video from SuperShag

Yesterday at the final day of the USDC, was mostly about the Open to the World Professional divisions in Ballroom and Latin (WDC World Series events) and the Open to the World Cabaret.

Many of the results mirrored those in the National Titles, but there were some changes as you can see below.

Pro Ballroom
1.  Arunas Bizokas & Katusha Demidova 1,1,1,1,1
2.  Victor Fung & Anastasia Muravyeva 2,2,2,2,2
3.  Marat Gimaev & Alina Basyuk 3,3,3,3,3
4.  Alexander Voskalchuk & Veronica Ergorova 4,4,4,4,5
5.  Rudy Homme & Katia Kanevskaya (Germany) 6,5,5,5,4
6.  Iaroslav Bieliel & Lillia Gladiuk 5,6,6,6,6

Arunas & Katusha lost only 1 first place mark (in tango) and Victor & Anatasia lost only 2 second place marks (in VW and QS).

Pro Latin
1.  Nikolai Voronovich & Maria Nikolishina 1,1,1,1,2
2.  Manuel Favilla & Natalia Maidiuk (Ukraine) 2,2,2,2,1
3.  Mykhalio Bilopukhov & Anastasiia Schchypilina 3,3,4,4,3
4.  Gunnar Gunnarsson & Marika Doshoris (England) 4,4,3,3,4
5.  Andrei Kazlouski & Asta Sigvaldadottir 5,5,5,5,5
6.  Artur Tarnavskyy & Anastasia Danilova 6,6,6,6,6

All of the dances were won with the majority of 6 first place marks, so a good win for Nikolai & Maria.  An obvious improvement for Mykhalio & Anastasiia who jumped above Andrei & Asta.

In the Open Cabaret there was also a switch at the top.  The runners-up in the National title, Travis & Jaimee Tuft, were the winners tonight and the National winners, Shane & Shannon Jensen slipped to 2nd place.  The judges’ scores were very spread, perhaps because they once again had to place 11 couples.  No couple had a majority of 1st place marks.  Shane & Shannon had a problem with one lift and perhaps this is what caused some judges to place them lower.  The remainder of the top 6 were:  3rd Mykhailo Azarov & Tetyana Makarenko;  4th Clyde Harris & Summer Elkin;  5th Clifton Sepulveda & Mar Martinez;  6th Craig Smith & Micheline Marmol (S. Africa).

The traditional awards were presented last night.  The John Monte Award was given to Corky Ballas and the USDC Hall of Fame Award went to Michael Mead & Toni Redpath.

The overall top teacher, as in 2014, was Sinisa Vasic and his total prize money was $33,000.

And Again The Champions Return!

Click here for video from SuperShag

Once again last night as the US Championships we saw the 2014 National Champions re-crowned for 2015 – Riccardo Cocchi & Yulia Zagoruychenko in the Latin and Peter & Alexandra Perzhu in the Smooth.

Riccardo & Yulia, who are also the WDC World Champions, were never really in doubt and indeed they collected all but 2 of the total available first places.  They received a 2nd in rumba and paso, both from judge, Corky Ballas.

It was a double celebration for Yuliya who was also celebrating her birthday today.

The rest of the final was tightly contested and with several of last year’s finalists no longer in the race, there were open spaces in this final.  Runners-up tonight were Nikolai Voronovich & Maria Nikolishina and they placed 2,3,2,2,3, a close race with 3rd placed Andrei Kazlouski & Asta Sigvaldadottir 3,2,3,3,2.  Nikolai & Maria were 3rd last year, Andrei & Asta did not compete last year due to injury.  These two couples received mostly 3rd and 4th places but each also had some lower half scores.  Only the paso was won with a majority of “2nd or better” scores.  Nikolai & Maria received Corky Ballas’ 2 first places.

Andrey Tarasov & Yuliya Kuznetsova, who were finalists last year, were 4th in all dances this year.  Their best dance was the rumba where they received the same amount of 2nd places (4) as Andrei & Asta.  The new kids on the block, Mykhallo Bilopukhov & Anastasiia Schchypilina, who won the Rising Star earlier in the week, stormed into the final and placed 5th in all dances.  Closing this final tonight were Roman Italyankin & Alexandra Bokova 6,6,6,6,6.

Peter & Alexandra also won all dances and had the majority of 1st places in all of them.  3 judges, however, did score them 2nd overall – Nicole Carroll, Valentina Kostenko and Toni Redpath.

We saw an upset in current form in the runners-up spot as Mazen Hamza & Izabella Jundzill regained the upper hand placing 3,2,3,3.  Placing 2nd in 2 dances, but also 4th in 2, Mikhail & Galina Zharinov slipped to 3rd this year 2,4,4,2.  A difference of only 1 point between them.  The couple that really changed this year’s final around was the newer partnership of Yegor Novikov & Aleksandra Smirnova who got in among the seconds and placed 4th with 4,3,2,4.  Yegor & Aleksandra received the most 1st places in a dance of any couple except the winners – 5 in the foxtrot.  Nick Cheremukhin & Viktorija were 5th 5,5,6,5 and Travis & Jaimee Tuft were 6th 6,6,5,6.

Last night we saw the first of the US Open Championships, the Open Amateur divisions.  The Latin was the better of the events with a semifinal round.  The final scores were some of the most varied we’ve seen in a while with 4 of the finalists winning a dance.  Winning tonight were Pasha Stepanchuk & Gabriela Sabler and they placed 2,1,4,2,1.  2nd tonight fell to Alexander Chernositiv & Arina Grishanina and their scores were 1,2,3,4,2.  Next came Alexey & Vlada Karaulov, 4,3,2,1,5.  The last of those elusive 1st places went to 4th placed Austin Joson & Nino Dzneladze, 5,4,1,5,4.  Unlucky and placing 3rd in 3 dances but ending up 5th were Tal Livshitz & Ilana Keselman 3,5,5,3,3.  Closing the final were Tagir Mansurov & Alexandra Kondrashova.

Only 4 couples contested the Open Amateur Ballroom but it did go outside of the USA.  The winners were Stanislav Portanenko & Nataliya Kolyada from Ukraine and they won all dances.  2nd went to Marek Klepadlo & Liana Bakhtiarova 2,2,2,2,2;  3rd Nicholas & Rochelle Kharlamov 3,3,3,3,3;  4th Brandon Buchtal & Natasha Barrera 4,4,4,4,4.

The Open to the World Pro-Am Ballroom Scholarships were decided today and once again the A1 Final was danced at night.  In fact this division was disappointingly a straight final.  There was a change in ranking from last week’s World Championship as 1st and 2nd places were reversed.  This week Natalie Rezai w/ Sergey Kiselev was the winner and she won 4 dances and placed 3rd in quickstep.  Last week’s winner, Julia Shen w/ Alexander Voskalchuk had to be content with 2nd today, 2,2,3,2,2.  3rd went to Yulia Rudenco w/ Andrei Rudenco 3,3,2,3,1. 4th Rebecca Kuhn w/ Andrea Feraci 4,4,4,4,4;  5th Irene Lau w/ Mikhail Avdeev 5,5,5,6,6;  6th Irene Lee w/ Nick Cheremukhin 6,6,6,5,5.

The A2 went to Canada as Beverly Moore won her 2nd Championship of the week 1,2,2,1,1.  With 4,1,1,2,2, Julie Zhao w/ Denis Kutepov was the runner-up and with 2,4,3,3,5, Lengxi Gao w/ Kamil Urbaniak was 3rd.  As you can see this was quite a tight race and it continued as 4th placed Audrey Paek w/ Ronen Zinshtein placed 5,3,4,4,3.  Also scoring 3rd in one dance but placing 5th overall was Brynda Insley w/ Martin Reinbold 3,5,5,6,4 and closing this final was Michelle Peng w/ Mikhail Avdeev 6,6,6,5,6.

Jill Bradford w/ Andrea Stefano had a fairly easy time in the B division winning 4 dances and placing 2nd in tango.  Another of our favorites, Hye-Kyong Park w/ Linas Korieva won the tango but placed 2nd overall 3,1,2,2,2 and another lady who is proving a strong contender, Connie Edmonds w/ Samuele Pacchini was 3rd 2,3,3,3,3.  Lynn Murrell w/ Alexander Voskalchuk took all the 4’s, Sally He w/ Enzo Zappia was 5th 6,5,5,5,6 and Paige Riffle w/ Iaroslav Bieliel was 6th 5,6,6,6,5.

Susan Walter w/ Samuele Pacchini was the clear winner of the C1 placing 1,1,1,1,2.  The remaining placements were very mixed.  Runner-up, Linda Dillman w/ Arturas Misurenkovas 2,2,5,2,3;  3rd Charlotte Carey w/ Kostadin Bidjourov 4,3,4,5,1;  4th Sherry Borchelt w/ Andrea Stefano 3,5,3,3,4;  5th Sharon Sanchez w/ Sergey Barsukov 5,4,2,4,5;  6th Avi Lazarovits w/ Anna Oblakova 7,7,6,6,6;  7th Vivien Chen w/ Mirko Selli (Hong Kong) 6,6,7,7,7.

In the evening we also saw the Open to The World RS Professional Ballroom and as in the National RS this resulted in a win for Vladislav Shahov & Ekaterina Popova 1,1,1,1,1.  But 2nd place tonight went to Stefano DiBrino & Bianka Zubrowska 2,2,2,2,2 and 3rd to Youriy Nartov & Sarika Hudson 4,3,3,4,3.

Champions Once More!

Click here for video from SuperShag

Last night at all three National Champions from 2014 were once again voted champions by the 19 judge panel.  Arunas Bizokas & Katusha Demidova won the National Professional Ballroom, Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine & Liana Churilova won the National Professional Ballroom and Matt Hauer & Lauren Schelfhaudt won the National Professional Mambo.

In fact while it was a night of America’s greatest dancing, it produced few surprises with the majority of finalists from last year returning to the finals this year.

Arunas & Katusha won the Ballroom clearer than last year, winning all dances with the majority of 1st places.  The closest dance was the quickstep.  Here they received 10 first places while the runners-up, Victor Fung & Anastasia Muravyeva received 7.  Victor & Anastasia were clearly second in all dances receiving some firsts in every dance and only a total of 3 third places over the 5 dances.

New world finalists, Murat Gimaev & Alina Basyuk, were 3rd in 4 dances and 4th in quickstep, but had a much wider spread of marks than the fist two, including a few sixth placements.  They did have the majority of “3rd or better” scores in W, T, F.  The big gain tonight came from Artem Plakhotnyi & Inna Berlizyeva who bounced back from a bad result at Embassy Ball last week to take 4th place here 4,4,5,4,3.  They took 3rd in the quickstep on “4th or better” scores.  Alexander Voskalchuk & Veronica Egorova were 5th 5,5,4,5,6 and came close to 3rd place in VW where they lost on “4th or better” scores.  Mikhail Avdeev & Olga Blinova who had the best result of this group at Embassy, had to be content with 6th place tonight 6,6,6,6,5.

In the Rhythm, Emmanuel & Liana had the majority of first places in all dances.  The closest dance was the rumba where they had 10 of the available 17.  In all dances except the mambo the first places were shared between the top 3 couples.  In mambo Emmanuel & Liana had 16 first places.  They received no score lower than 2nd.

Nazar Norov & Irina Kudryashova were 2nd in all dances.  They received some first places in all dances (including 1 in the mambo) and overall they did not receive any score lower than a 3rd.  Andre & Natalie Paramonov were 3rd in all dances and received 1st places in all dances except mambo, however, they did have some judges scoring them in the lower half of the final most notably Sveta Daily 4,4,5,4,6 and Bill Sparks 5,4,5,4,5.  4th tonight were Mikhail Vlasov & Vanda Polakhova.  They were 4th in all dances but picked up some 3rd places in all dances.  Two Californian couples rounded out the final, Danus Jaksevicious & Yuki Haragouchi were 5th 5,5,6,5,6 and Vard Margaryan & Mandy Carlisle were 6th 6,6,5,6,5.

Seven couples entered the National Mambo and the result was unusual.  The judges actually scored Mikhail Vlasov & Vanda Polakhova to win.  In fact they received 16 of the 17 first places.  However, their solo routine was above the maximum time limit so after a penalty was applied they became 2nd.  This meant that the runner-up and last year’s winners, Matt & Lauren became the champions once again.  3rd were Perez/Burkina, 4th Edouard/Spotar, 5th Martinez Murphy, 6th Polaschek/Hutchinson, 7th Wayne/Simanenkova.  We were a little surprised that so many of the couples selected very slow music for their solo presentations.

For the pro-ams it was Latin day and the Open to the World Open Scholarships were of a very high standard.

The A1 final once again took place in the evening session and it became the 2nd pro-am scholarship to go north of the border.  Sabrina Strasser w/ Stanislav Kocergin of Canada won all dances.  2nd tonight was Joanna Wa w/ Plamen Danailov 2,2,2,4,3 and 3rd Vera Xu w/ Jakub Zeglin 3,3,3,2,4 – a close race there.  4th fell to Saina Hadden w/ Daniele Gozzi 4,4,4,3,2;  5th Brittany Gonzalez w/ Ivan Dishliev 5,5,5,5,5;  6th Ivana Dragasevic w/ Jose Decamps 6,6,6,6,7;  7th Emily Tang w/ Delyan Terziev 7,7,7,7,6.

Tina Broccole w/ Delyan Terziev was the confortable winner in the A2 division, taking all dances.  Maria Seragou w/ Dimitrios Damalas was 2nd 2,2,2,3,2 and Marina Dzasokhova w/ Ivan Statsenko (Russia) was 3rd 4,3,3,2,3.  Christine Sanko w/ Jean Paul took 4th 3,4,4,4,4;  5th Matthias Kirwald w/ Leanne Aranza 5,5,5,5,5;  6th Natsuko Lipchutz w/ Nikolai Sparkov 6,6,6,6,6;  7th Caroline Mao w/ Simeon Stoynov 7,7,7,7,7.

Lisa Lowery w/ Radek Wiatrowski took her second open to the world title this week, winning all dances in the B Latin.  Lynn Magnesen w/ Vard Margaryan was 2nd 2,2,2,3,2 and Beverly Moore w/ Alain Doucet (Canada) was 3rd 3,4,4,2,3.  4th Lorraine Peoples w/ Andrei Gavriline 4,3,3,4,4;  5th Tasha Romero w/ Evgeniy Likachev 5,5,5,6,6;  6th Iris Chang w/ Igor Colac 7,6,6,7,5;  7th Sally He w/ Enzo Zappia 6,7,7,5,7.

Also scoring her 2nd open to the world scholarship win was Susan Miller but this time dancing with Ricky Bentzen who won the C1 division 1,1,2,2,3.  Janet Colleran w/ Aleks Nashev was 2nd 3,3,1,1,2 and Fifi Wang w/ Delyan Terziev was 3rd 2,2,3,3,4.  Penelope Rostad w/ Nikolay Karchev was 4th 4,4,4,5,6.  Winning the jive but placing 6,6,6,4 in the other dances, Olga Bassett w/ Petr Dubovsky was 5th and 6th Pam Olsen w/ Vadim Gazda 5,5,5,6,5.

Also run tonight was the Open to the World Professional RS Latin.  This basically mirrored the results from the National RS division.  Once again Mykhailo Bilopukhov & Anastasia Schchypilina were the winners, Artur Tarnavskyy & Anastasia Danilova were 2nd and Sergey Chislov & Dasha Chislova were 3rd.

A 12-Couple Final!

Click here for video from SuperShag

That’s right, 12 couples competed in the US National Pro Cabaret last night and the judges were asked to place them from 1 to 12 – no easy task.

But they did it and the win went to Shane & Shannon Jensen over their close rivals and fellow BYU alumni, Travis & Jaimee Tuft.  But it was close!  Shane & Shannon received 6 first places to Travis & Jaimee’s 5.  But with a 15-judge panel this was not enough for a majority.  However, the Jensen’s did receive more 2nd place scores than the Tufts and won the event with 12 “2nd or better” scores to 8.  The only judge to radically disagree was Iveta Lukosuite who placed the Jensens 8th.

Mykhailo Azarov & Tetyana Makarenko were 3rd and they had the majority of “3rd or better” scores and these included 2 first places.  Clyde Harris & Summer Elkin were 4th.  Clifton Sepulveda & Mar Martinez 5th; James Brann & Sayra Vazquez 6th.

The US National Titles for professional 9-dance and 10-dance are both held over 2 days and both came to a conclusion last night.  In the 9-Dance, Jean Paul & Lana Rossi were the winners.  Their scores, beginning with the Smooth were 1,1,1,2,3,2,1,1,2,1.  Winning in the Rhythm but with much weaker placements in the Smooth, the runners-up were Shandor Shtefil & Aleksandra Barsukov 2,5,5,8,1,1,2,2,1,2.  3rd spot fell to Mykyta Serdyuk & Anna Krasnoshapka 5,4,4,3,2,3,3,4,3,3.  Perhaps the most interesting scores went to 4th placed Roman Malkhasyan & Viktoriya Kleyman who went from placing 8th in waltz to 1st in VW.  5th overall went to Maksym Lototskyy & Sarah Haworth and 6th to Viktor Tkachenko & Yuliya Lukina.

Only 6 couples contested the 10-Dance and the winners were Sergiy Samchynskyy & Yuliya Besarab who won 8 of the dances and placed 2nd in waltz and tango.  2nd place went to Igor Colac & Roxane Milotti who were the winners in waltz and tango and placed 2nd in the remaining ballroom dances.  Their scores in the Latin were 2,2,3,3,3,2.  Simeon Stoynov & Kora Stoynova were 3rd 4,3,3,4,4,3,3,2,2,2,3.  Ruslan & Katusha Wilder were 4th, Dmitriy Solomakha & Gabriela Sevillano were 5th and Nenad Pavlovic & Anastasia Barhatova were 6th.

It was 3 times in a row for Andre & Natalie Paramonov who won the US National Professional S. American Showdance title for the 3rd consecutive year.  They received 9 of the 15 first place scores.  Only 3 couples contested the event.  Hayk Balasanyan & Emilia Poghosyan were 2nd and Tim Polaschek & Katherine Hutchinson were 3rd.

The US National RS Rhythm was also decided tonight and it was a very closely fought race.  The winners by 3 dances to 2 were Shandor Shtefil & Aleksandra Barsukov 2,2,1,1,1 over Igor Ustymovich & Briana Santiago 1,1,2,2,3.  No couple had the majority of 1st places.  Aaron & Iryna DeSoto took the 2nd spot in mambo and 3rd overall with 3,3,3,4,2.  Donovan Dominguez & Rose Dimov were 4th 4,4,4,5,4; Maksym Lototoskyy & Sarah Haworth were 5th 5,5,5,3,6 and Riccardo Papi & Sabrina Moretti were 6th 6,6,6,6,5.  This event was danced over 4 rounds with the final taking place close to 2AM this morning.

Running opposite the RS Rhythm was the US National Pro RS Ballroom, an event that did not start until after midnight.  Despite the lateness of the hour we thought the couples in this division did a great job.  The winners in all dances were Vladislav Shahov & Ekaterina Popova.  They had the majority of 1st places in all dances.  This has to be one of our favorite ladies in this style right now.  It was a good night for Cristian Radvan & Kristina Kudelko who were the runners-up with 3,2,2,2,2.  This was a few steps up from their position last week at Embassy Ball.  3rd went to Yuriy Nartov & Sarika Hudson 4,3,3,3,3.  Stefano DiBrino & Bianka Zubrowska were 4th 2,4,4,4,4; Evgeniy Mayarov & Olga Lisovskaya were 5th 5,5,5,5,5.  Oleksiy Buravenko & Victoria Karzukhina were 6th 6,7,6,6,6.  Victoria injured her ankle early in the final but was able to continue.  Anatoli Repliuk & Ruslana Mamaysur were 7th 7,6,7,7,7.

The pro-ams completed their Smooth divisions yesterday and the Open to the World Open Scholarships were particularly strong.

Winning the A1 division was Melonie Krumer w/ Max Sinitsa.  Melonie won all dances.  2nd in all was Brianna Yadgir w/ Chris Germain and 3rd in all Kat Wagner w/ Sergey Barsukov.  4th in all, Yulia Rudenco w/ Andrei Rudenco.  We thought that these top 4 ladies were clear of the remaining finalists.  5th went to Irene Lee w/ Nick Cheremukhin 6,5,5,5;  6th Madison Striblin w/ Mayo Alanen 5,6,6,6;  7th Rachel Sayotovich w/ Ilya Velednitsky 7,7,7,7;  8th Megan Strong w/ Sergey Smolin 8,8,8,8.

In the A2 Aiyesha Dey w/ Mayo Alanen was the winner in all 4 dances.  2nd went to Elizabeth Rocco w/ Eric Hudson 3,3,2,2 and 3rd to Sirinda Sincharoen w/ Max Sinitsa 2,2,3,3.  As you can see a very tight race between these two ladies.  4th went to Patricia Schneider w/ Nick Cheremukhin 4,4,5,4.  We were surprised by the 5th place finish of Susan Sidman w/ Gleb Makarov 5,5,4,5 as we expected her to finish much higher than this.  6th was Joanne Tatum w/ Mariusz Zakrzewski 7,6,6,6 and 7th Amanda Levine w/ Morten Jensen 6,7,7,7.

Beverly Moore w/ Alain Doucet (Canada) was back on top in the B Division taking it with 1,1,3,2.  Her close rival throughout this year, Lisa Lowery w/ Radek Wiatrowski was the runner-up, 4,2,1,1.  Next is was the battle of the “Lynns!”  Lynn Shanahan w/ Darius Mosteika was 3rd 2,5,2,3 and Lynn Murrell w/ Peter Perzhu was 4th 3,3,4,4.  Sue Eldred w/ Artem Plakhotnyi took 5th 5,6,5,5;  6th was Robin Kencel w/ Sergey Vasiliev 6T,4,6,6 and 7th Sophia D’Angelo w/ Ilya Reyzin 6T,7,7,7.

The C1 category was won by Charlotte Carey w/ Kostadin Bidjourov 2,1,1,1.  We have long admired Charlotte’s passionate dancing and today she was really on form.  2nd went to another of our longtime favorites, Elaine Sheresky w/ Victor Russu 3,2,2,2.  Also strong today was 3rd placed Pam Olsen w/ Vadim Gazda 1,3,3,3.  Pat Luthy w/ Vladimir Popov was 4th 4,5,5,4;  Madeleine Chung w/ Evgeny Dyachenko was 5th 5,4,4,5 and Michaela Puno w/ Slava Sergiev was 6th 6,6,6,6.

The Pro-Am 9-Dance divisions were also completed today.  In the Open A division Brianna Yadgir w/ Chris Germain was the victor placing 1st in all 4 smooth dances and 2,3,2,2,3 in the Rhythm.  2nd went to Natalie Crandall w/ Decho Karev and she placed 3,3,5,4 in the Smooth and won all 5 Rhythm dances.  3rd was Stefan Tuomanen w/ Michelle Officer and he was 2nd in all the Smooth dances and placed 5,5,4,4,5 in the Rhythm.

Sophia D’Angelo w/ Ilya Reyzin won the Open B 9-Dance placing (Smooth listed first) 4,2,2,2,1,1,1,1,2.  The runner-up was Lynn Magnesen w/ Vard Margaryan 2,3,3,3,2,2,2,2,1 and 3rd was Robin Kencel w/ Sergey Vasilyev 1,1,1,1,4,4,4,3,3.

US Starts with Show Dancing!

The United States Championships in Orlando, Florida had a full day of Pro/Am Rhythm yesterday finishing up two full days of Rhythm dancing but at the professional level it was all about the show dances with the US National titles in the Theatrical and Classic Show Dance up for grabs.

In the US National Professional Theatrical Dance Championship 6 couples took to the floor all at the same time to the same pre-selected music and showcased a combination of dance with lifts. Due to the amount of people on the floor at the same time and some of the death-defying maneuvers (lifts) being performed, this makes this competition one of the most thrilling of the week and we mean “scary like.” However, all couples were very capable and managed to get around without any incident and at the end the US Theatrical title went to Travis & Jaimee Tuft from New Jersey, with almost perfect scores.  Only one judge, Lee Wakefield, awarded them a second place. Second was awarded to Shane & Shannon Jensen from Connecticut and they took that one first from Lee and the majority of seconds in this competition. Their lowest mark in this dance came from Iveta Lukosiute who awarded them a whamming 4th place finish, the other low marks came from Wendy Johnson & Gary McDonald who each awarded them third.

Third overall wen to Mikhailo Azarov & Tetyana Makarenko, fourth was Serhii Kovalenko & Kimalee Piedad, leaving fifth position to Kosta Trifunovic & Domante Padleckaite, and sixth to Aaron Stowell & Rebecca Berryhill.

In the US National Professional Classic Show Dance Championships, the title stays in the hands of Pavel Cherdantsau & Svetlanta Rudkovskaya, but not with a majority of firsts, they had to depend of 4th or better to acquire this placement. It was so close between first and second that it was down to basically one mark between first and second and the second place overall went to Mikhail Avdeev & Olga Blimova.  We are quite lucky to have two excellent couples going to represent the USA in this Classic Showdance.  Both did what we consider to be quite difficult a bit of comedy in their routines and both won the hearts of the judging panel. We cannot discard the third place finishers, Alexander Voskalchuk & Veronika Egora who also did a phenomenal job and managed to steal 3 first place marks from the two couples just mentioned ahead of them, too bad three couples cannot be sent to represent the USA or we would probably have all three up on top.

Fourth overall on this Classic Show Dance went to Paolo & Liene Di Lorenzo, fifth was Janis Kukainis & Aleksandra Mangileva, and sixth was awarded to Kosta Trifunovic & Domante Padleckaite, and seventh Nenad Pavlovic & Anastasia Barhatova.

Two Professional Rising Star events were also run this evening and the Latin was awarded to Mykhailo Bilopukhov & Anastasia Schchypilina who took first in all dances but only one dance with the majority of firsts and that was the jive. Second was awarded to Artur Tarnavskyy & Anastasia Danilova and they placed second in all dances, leaving third to Sergey Chislov & Dasha Chislova 3,3,4,3,3. Fourth place was awarded to Sasha Altukhov & Cheyenne Murillo 4,5,5,4,4, fifth went to Nikita Malakhov & Nadezda Vlasova 5,4,3,5,5, and sixth was Jake Davies & Alyona Kalinina 6,6,6,6,6.  An interesting factor in this event was that two of the finalists turned professional very recently (and we mean in the last couple of days) that was Tarnavskyy/Danilova and Malakhov/Nadezda.

The Professional Rising Star Smooth was also an excellent event and a feature in this second evening of competition.  Here, Jean Paul & Lana Rossi took the Rising Star title home by winning three dances and taking second on the VW. Second in those three dances just mentioned and first in the VW, making them a strong runner up was Adrian & Hanna Dydynski. Third was awarded to Mariusz Zakrzewski & Lynnsay Ray 3,3,4,3, fourth went to Radek Wiatrowski & Denise Sobiewski 4,4,3,4, fifth was Roman Malkhasyan & Viktoriya Kleyman placing fifth in all dances and sixth in all was awarded to Slava Stefanov & Jessica McMorrow-Stefanov.

Concluding 2 days of pro-am Rhythm competition were the Open to the world Scholarships.

The A1 divisions resulted in a win for last week’s World Champion in this division, Nadia Kireyko w/ Daniel Vasco.  Nadia won all dances.  2nd went to Rachel Sayotovich w/ Ilya Velednitsky 2,4,2,2,2.  3rd was Brianna Yadgir w/ Evgenii Grytzak 3,2,4,3,4.  Brianna was the winner in this division last year.  4th Chastity Smith w/ Eddie Ares 4,3,3,4,3;  5th Isabella Libertore w/ Charles Cunningham 5,5,5,5,5 and 6th Megan Strong w/ Slash Sharan 6,6,6,6,6.

Defending Champion, Giovanni Fortezza w/ Jolanta Mosteika successfully defended his A2 title winning 4 dances and placing 2nd in swing.  Newly crowned World Champion in the C (at USDC this is the B category) division, Sophia D’Angelo w/ Ilya Reyzin was the runner-up 2,2,1,3,3.  Susan Sidman w/ Gleb Makarov was 3rd with 4,3,3,2,4.  Kia Malone w/ Eddie Rivera took 4th 3,4,4,4,2.  As you can see these were close races.  5th went to Elena Cormio w/ Edwin Torres 6,5,5,5,5 and 6th to M’Balia Tagor-Guzman w/ Mariusz Zakrewski 5,6,6,6,6.

Lisa Lowery w/ Radek Wiatrowski won the B (C Division at other competitions) 1,1,1,1,2 having taken 3rd in this division last week at the World Championship.  2nd today fell to Lynn Magnesen w/ Vard Margaryan 2,2,2,2,1.  These top two were well clear in the judges’ scores.  3rd with 4,5,3,3,4 went to Gracelyn Tuoti w/ Andrei Abrashin.  Joan Goddard w/ Chris Johnston was 4th 3,3,4,6,5;  Quin Bommelje w/ Mikhail Vlasov was 5th 6,4,5,4,3.  This was not quite as good a result for Quin who was 2nd in this division at the World Championship.  6th went to Jennifer Marre w/ Plamen Danailov 5,6,6,5,6 and 7th to Renee Kuwahara w/ Ilya Reyzin 7,7,7,7,7.

Susan Miller w/ Hayk Arshakian won the C1 (Senior) category 1,1,1,2,1.  Runner-up was Quin w/ Misha 3,2,2,1,2.  Penelope Rostad w/ Nikolay Karchev was 3rd 2,3,3,3,3;  4th Sharon Sanchez w/ Sergey Barsukov 5,6,4,4,4;  5th Janet Brutell w/ Michael Neil 4,4,6,5,6;  6th Beverly Marsh w/ Nazar Norov 6,5,5,6,5.