Eugene & Maria, Karina & Marcus did their stuff the longest for over a minute with an inspiring cha cha.  The rest just either walked or danced a bit. Eddie Simon and Sarwat Kaluby managed to get a hustle into their presentation bringing the house to a roar and the three amigos Paul, Ray, Patrick tred to feather finish the show, unfortunately it went too long and they got run over by all the judges who could not wait for their finale. But totally on cue, as if in fully planned, they all managed to strike a pose for a dramatic, unforgettable ending.

To either distract the audience from what they just saw (the judges) or to save the evening’s work, Wendy ordered all the audience members to take off the seat covers and throw them all into the middle of the floor, everyone complied and we all went to the now well-known, fabulous after party, where we danced, drank and had food tuntil……….

As we said other than the judges “embarrassing” themselves (LOL, or not), we had three excellent competitions, the professional Latin, Smooth and the Cabaret division.

The “Cabaret,” started the evening on a very high note with 5 acts, 3 of them worth the early arrival to your seat. Ben Lerman & Emily Slayer won with a majority of firsts and they nearly swept the judges out of their seats with some very unique lifts in a balancing act that could only be described as a “Whoo!” Sarwat Kaluby was the only untouched judge who thought they should be last, we can honestly see that perhaps for Sarwat they did not have enough dancing in between but he cannot deny that their work had great transitions, entrances and exits, and never did we feel scared even though that was some life scary material if we have ever seen any.

Second in this excellent cabaret competition wen to Alejandro & Lucelia Falcon who also did a very complete routine with an excellent variety of lifts and dancing and the second favorite among the judges including Sarwat who awarded them first. Third was Ivan Berkovic & Dena Weiner who also did a fabulous routine, with an excellent theme.

Right after the Cabaret the Professional Smooth took place and it was a fantastic heat with a huge variety of styles.  The “news” for us came in the form of a new couple on the scene, Max Sinitsa now dancing with Tatiana Silverstova.  They showed a most interesting style and although they might not have won the competition they certainly impressed the audience and many of the judges, with their unconventional look and approach.  They placed third overall with these marks - 3,2,3,3, but in our opinion could have been easily first in that terrific and dramatic tango.

The winners of all dances on this night were Nick Cheremukin & Viktorija, second were Kyle & Allie Spinder who in our opinion got a little lost within the final but who had very consistent work throughout the event. Fourth went to Jean Paul & Lana Rossi 4,4,4,5 who continue to have the magic with the judges, fifth went to Evgeny Malko & Anna Shahbazyan 5,5,5,4.  We were quite impressed by this couple and a little surprised they placed so low in the ranks.  From our perspective this couple showed not only a maturity in their work but it was consistent throughout and without any obvious fault.  We would not have been surprised if they placed third overall. Sixth was awarded to Slava & Valeriia Constantinets.  We hate to use these words but here for us was more of the same.  The work, although quite clear, lacks ingenuity and understanding of the style itself.  It’s not all about the steps, ideas have to be formed.

The Professional Latin was terrific.  Here from the start it must have been very difficult for the judges to come down with a decision. From the final we could tell there were quite a few excellent couples left out and even from the quarter to the semifinal there was a few couples missing.  Overall it was a competition to be remembered. The winners themselves, Justinas Duknauskas & Anna Kovalova, were quite talked about after the competition.  For us they were by far the winners and overall they won every dance but, in conversation with other attendees, some wanted Justinas to do “more.” We wonder what they were talking about, we found him to be supportive and presenting the best kind of light for Anna to present some of her best qualities. When looking at the marks we noticed that they did win with a majority of firsts in all dances but some of the dissenting judges were not holding back.  Some awarded them fourth, fifth and even a sixth in their decisions. Their worst marks came from Patrick Johnston who awarded them 6, 6,3,3,5, as you can see quite a contrast to the majority.

Second in this excellent competition was awarded to Andrey Tarasov & Yulia Kuznetsova and overall they placed second in every dance. For us Andrey & Yulia were quite correct and precise.  Once again we thougth they lack a little ingenuity, but the work was good enough to place them there and we totally understand the decision. When looking at the marks we noticed that their marks were more of a mix from first to fifth position. Third overall went to Mykhailo Bilopukhov & Anastasia Shchypilina.  They too got a parade of mixed marks but this time from second to sixth place. We were not as impressed with their performance this time around, although we would have not been surprised if they placed second overall, we felt that here it was more of a case of posturing, puffing your chest and more preparation instead of inspiration.

Third in all dances was awarded to Dmitry & Olena Nikishkin 4,4,5,4,4.  We felt that they totally belonged in this final, however, the dance that attracted us the most was their jive, in the other dances we had to sort of find them or miss them. Fifth in this excellent final went to Artur Tarnavskyy & Anastasia Denilova 5,6,6,5,5, this couple probably has the most potential of everyone in this final, however, they spent half the time clowning around, especially him with his constant chicken feet and head moving scratch, that after a while it is a little hard to take seriously and you need to look away to find something better. In sixth place were Evgeny Likhachev & Maria Levina 6,5,4,6,6, perhaps the opposite to Artur & Anastasia, here the intensity of every dance is so real you could cut it with a knife, perhaps a little lightening up might give more depth to their work.  Their intense part might look better if they went slightly lighter on some of their moves. Whatever we or anyone might think of these couples, the reality is that they were all excellent and totally worth the trip to see them, no matter what anyone might think they still got something across and made us feel something, congratulations to this excellent final.

In the afternoon we saw the Open Pro-Am Ballroom scholarship – all good events.  There was a bit of a shakeup in the Open A.  Rebecca Kuhn w/ Andrea Faraci was visibly delighted with her win 1,1,1,1,2.  2nd today went to Vinie Miller w/ Denis Kutepov 4,2,2,3,1.  A lady who has been doing very well at recent events, Natalie Rezai w/ Sergey Kiselev, had to be content with 3rd place today 2,3,3,2,4.  Ashley Kunihiro w/ Oleksiy Buravenko was 4th 3,6,4,4,6;  fifth Levina Kasmara w/ Linas Korieva 6,4,5,5,3;  6th Michelle Brecker w/ Igor Ustymovich 5,5,6,6,5.

There were less surprises in the Open B as Celia Chou w/ Erminio Stefano remained on top, winning all dances.  2nd was Julie Zhao w/ Denis Kutepov 3,2,2,2,2 and 3rd Laura Shooks w/ Alexander Voskalchuk 4,3,3,3,3.  Taking that 2nd in waltz and placing 4,5,5,4 in the remaining dances was Michelle Peng w/ Mikhail Avdeev.  5th Brynda Insely w/ Martin Reinbold 5,5,4,4,6;  6th Bo Chang w/ Giampiero Giannico 6,6,6,6,5.

We were very impressed with Jill Bradfor w/ Andrea Stefano who coasted easily to win the Open C in all dances.  2nd was Jenny Du w/ Dariusz Michalski 2,2,2,2,2 and 3rd was Lynn Murrell w/ Alexander Voskalchuk 3,3,3,3,3.  Tammy Knight w/ Egor Abashkin was 4th 5,4,4,4,5;  Sally He w/ Enzo Zappia was 5th 4,5,5,5,4 and Mei Mei Chen w/ Joyson Liu (Hong Kong) were 6th in all dances.  There was some question about Joyson’s status (amateur or professional), but we have not heard the answer to this as yet.

Deborah Erico w/ Dariusz Michalski won all dances in the Senior Scholarship.  Mei Mei & Joyson were the runners-up 2,2,3,3.  The only gentleman in these open finals, Avi Lazarovits w/ Anna Oblakova was 3rd 4,3,2,2.  4th Sally Wiese w/ Dimitrijus Sazinas 5,4T,5,4;  5th Rong chen w/ Oscar Pedrinelli 3,6,6,5;  6th Barbara Grossman w/ Kyle Spinder 6,4T,4,6;  7th Cathy Chao w/ Iaroslav Bieliel 7,7,7,7.

The Holiday Dance Classic was totally worth the trip and although it was a six-day event it was interesting to see people come and go! Some stayed until the end and enjoyed the terrific after party at the Havana Club, once again a fantastic ending to this excellent, iconic competition. Congratulations, Wendy, Sam and Mary you have done it again!

We Are Family!

Last night at the Holiday Dance Classic in LasVegas, Nevada, the evening concluded with a show featuring a number of prominent families that are in our dance industry. Most prominent were Paulina Pilipenchuk with son Nikolai, Rita Algara with son Tall Livshits, and organizer, Wendy Johnson with her own offspring Marcus Johnson. We also had the well-known Rivers family from Californian, Ray Rivers, Matt, Kristy & Toni who performed to “Dancing Matilda”. The Weiss family did an upbeat family number featuring mama Weiss Viola, Papa Weiss Mark and Hanna, Alessia, Justin, and Kamill. The well-known world Latin finalist, Melissa Dexter also got into the action with husband Giaccomo Steccaglia and son Hayden. Tieing this cohesive show together was the Brooklyn Dancesport family courtesy of Eugene & Maria - Artur, Anastasia, Nikita, Nadia, Dimitri, Olena, Pasha and Gabby. And they did a couple of exciting group numbers. The opening of the show was brought to us by the Rick Robinson family and the dance studio “Vibe.”

The show was a main feature of last night’s performances but there were three main competitions that were also featured before the show even started and they were the Open Professional Ballroom, Rhythm and the Amateur Latin.

Out of the three feature competitions the Ballroom stole the night.  Here Artem Plakhotnyi & Inna Berlizyeva won all dances with perfect scores in the foxtrot and almost perfect scores in the other four dances. Their perfect score record was spoiled in the waltz by Giacomo Steccaglia who awarded them the only second and lower score in that dance. In the tango it was spoiled by Didio Barrera with a second, Didio also spoiled their perfect scores in the VW, but he was not alone in this dance Nick Kosovich gave them also a second and Pat Traymore finished it with a third. In the quickstep Didio, Ann Harding and Polina Pilipenchuk all gave second place marks to Artem & Inna.

Second overall was awarded to Andrey Begunov & Anna Demidova and here they placed second in all dances but the foxtrot where they were third. Second in the foxtrot and third overall went to Oscar Pedrinelli & Lenka Kovalcicova who took these marks - 4,4,3,2,3. Fourth overall was awarded to Rudiger Homm & Katia Kanevskaya 3,3,4,4,4, leaving fifth to Vladislav Shakhov & Ekaterina Popova 5,6,5,5,5. Emanuele Pappacena & Francesca Lazzarni were sixth 6,5,6,6,6.

We were slightly disappointed with the turn out for the Professional Rhythm, at least three prominent couples were missing from the final, leaving an open door for Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine & Liana Churilova to easily place first in all dances.

Second was awarded to Danas Jaksevicius & Yuki Haraguchi who placed second in all dances and third went to Shandor Shtefil & Alexandra Barsukova. Fourth overall but not in all dances were Riccardo & Sabrina Papi 5,5,4,4,4, as you can see they did not place fourth in every dance but it was good enough for them to get fourth place overall. Fifth position went to Igor Ustymovych & Briana Santiago 4,4,5,5,5.  Sixth were Jonathan Green & Rachel Grumblatt and seventh were Johnny Bryant & Ksenia Stavrica.

The Open Amateur Latin was a fine competition and here there was a shift for the lead position. Tal Livshitz & Ilana Keselman won overall by placing first in four dances and second in the samba. The usual champions, Pasha Stepanchuk & Gabriella Sabler placed second overall 3,1,2,2,2.  We are sure that these scores and result must have been quite a disappointing to them, however, it’s always good to get a shakeup because it makes people progress. Third overall was awarded to Alexander Chernositov & Arina Grisharina 2,3,4,3,3.  Fourth were Alexey & Vlada Karaulov 4,4,3,4,4. Fifth were Nikolai Tarasov & Amanda Herrschaft and they took fifth in all dances but the jive where they were placed sixth and in sixth position were Vladishlav Kvartin & Anna Maria Prokopovicova and they took fifth in jive and sixth in the other four dances.

Found the “A”’s

Yesterday was the longest day here at the Holiday Dance Classic and the majority of the time was taken by the Pro/Am Latin Style and we must say that unlike the days before, the “A” category in the open scholarship division was huge, making you wonder if Latin is the flavor of 2015. The evening session was basically set aside for all the Professional Rising Star categories, some of them quite impressive in quality.

The Rising Star Professional Rhythm was the first event of the evening session and it did not disappoint.  Jean Paul & Lana Rossi were the easy winners for us and the panel of judges. Jean Paul & Lana won the bolero and mambo with perfect scores, and the rest of the dances with almost perfect scores.  They lost one first place mark in the cha, one in the rumba, and three in the swing. Ray Rivers gave them the lower scores, awarding them a second in all these dances just mentioned. Riccardo & Sabrina Papi placed second overall in all dances but their scores were not as consistent as the first place winners.  They received marks from second down even some fifth place marks. For the Dance Beat team Riccardo & Sabrina’s performance was not the best we have seen and we can see how they got some fifth place marks, their dancing was had no major “oops” but it lacked excitement and at times it looked a bit slow. Third was awarded to Viktor Tkachenko & Yuliya Lukina and they took third in all dances, we have to say that this couple stood out from the word go and no matter when you looked you always saw them, the were never missing in action. Fourth overall was awarded to Johnny Bryant & Ksenia Stavrica 4,4,4,4,6, fifth in all dances went to Jonathan Green & Rachel Grumblatt and sixth were Jonathan Chen & Melissa Keller.

For us the most exciting event of the evening was the Rising Star Professional Latin, the final was quite disputed.  Unlike in the Rhythm the winners did win a few dances with a majority of firsts but with the exception of the paso just a qualifying 7 firsts out of 13 judges. The winners here were Artur Tarnavskyy & Anastasia Danilova who took second in the cha and overall first in the other four dances. Things got a little more murky from second place down. Francesco Bertini & Sabrina Manzi won the cha, placed second in the paso, samba, jive, and third in the rumba.  These scores gave them the overall second place finish. Third overall went to Ilya Maletin & Polina Maier from Canada with the scores of 4,4,2,3,3.  Fourth was Thykhin Zhyukov & Anastasiia Kuzieva 3,3,4,5,5, fifth went to Riccard Pacini & Sonia Spadoni 5T,5,5,4,4 and sixth were Andrey Voloshko & Kateryna Kyrylenko 5T,6,6,6,6.

In the Professional RS Smooth the winners overall were Slava & Valeriia Kostianets.  For us they were the clear winners but when looking at the marks, they won three of the dances with a qualifying 7 first place majority out of 13 judges and the foxtrot with 6 out of 13. Slava & Jesssica McMorrow-Stefanov took second in all dances, and Shandor Shtefil & Aleksandra Barsukov took all thirds. Fourth overall was awarded to John Campbell & Jaki Brockman and they took fourth in all dances.  fFfth went to Viktor Takchenko & Yuliya Lukina and sixth were Christian Lange & Nevena Urosevic.

In the RS Professional Ballroom the overall winners were Cristian Radvan & Kristina Kudelko but they placed second in the waltz and tango and first in the other three dances. The winners of the waltz and tango were Stefano DiBrino & Bianka Zubrowska and they placed second in the other three dances giving them a second place finish overall. Evgeniy Mayorov & Olga Lisovskaya were third overall 3,3,4,5,3, leaving fourth to Oleksiy Buravenko & Victoria Karzukhina 4,5,3,3,4. Fifth overall went to Slava & Valeriia Kostianets 5,4,5,4,5 and sixth were Anatolii Repliuk & Rosiana Mamysur and they took sixth in all five dances.

The Open Amateur Ballroom was an 8-couple final and here for us the easy winners were Oskar Wojciechowski & Karolina Holody and they won all five dances.  Second overall were Angelo Gaetano & Clarissa Morelli, placing second in all dances and third was awarded to Casey & Kayci Treu and they took third in all dances. Christian Solares & Whitney Myers placed fourth overall 5,4,4,4,4, Joseph Nuget & Kyla Zenger were fifth 4,5,5,5,5, Ryan Podzikowski & Rebekah Johns were sixth in all dances, seventh in all were August Jensen & Anna Morales and eighth were Nathan Alder & Katrina Pederson.

As we mentioned earlier, the “A” category in the Open Latin Scholarship was excellent here in the Latin division.  All scholarships began with quarters and they were terrific in quality. The “A” division went to Vera Xu dancing with Jakub Zeglen and they placed first in all dances.  From where we stood we thought them to be the best overall. Zoe Antoniou w/ Andre’ Strinadko placed second overall and they took second in four dances and third in the jive.  Bobbie Knight w/ Oleksii Lytvyn was third overall even though she placed fourth in the majority of dances 4,4,3,4,4. Breanna Arriolla w/Kristijan Burazer took fourth, 3,3,4,5,5.  As you can see she took a couple of thirds but the fifth and fourth kept her from capturing the third place position. Jacob Tsai w/ Yulia Kuznetsova was probably our favorite going in, however, by the final he had very little energy left and was only able to acquire a fifth place finish overall 5,5,5,3,2, leaving sixth to Jessica Stone w/Sergey Korshunov who took sixth in all dances.

The “B” Category was also well attended and here Maria Seragou w/Dimitrios Damalas won the competition by winning four of the five dances and placing second in the jive. Second place was awarded to Carolyn Howard w/Sasha Altukhov placing second in four dances and taking first in the jive. Katherine Kuan w/Jakub Zeglen was third in all dances, Jacqueline Soccodato w/Delyan Terziev placed fourth 5,5,4,5,4, Svetlanta van Tassel w/Kirill Nikitin was fifth 4,6,5,4,5, Cecilia Che w/Dimitri Mikulich placed sixth by tying for sixth in the cha, placing 6th in paso and jive, fourth in the rumba and seventh in the samba. In seventh position was Caroline Mao w/Simeon Stoynov and she tied for 6th in the cha, placed 7th in the samba, paso, jive and placed sixth in the rumba.

The “C” was also quite interesting with an 8-couple final.  Here Suzanne Saperstein w/Ricky Bentzen placed first overall but not in all five dances 1,1,2,1,2, Suzanne looked quite happy and not surprisingly as this was an excellent event to win overall. Tasha Romero w/Evgeny Likhachev was second overall 2,2,1,2,1, Rhonda Lynch w/Stephen McCann took third in all dances. Fourth overall went to Lynn Magnessen w/ Vard Margaryan 4,4,4,8,4, I suppose no one liked her Paso! Tammy Knight w/Oleksii Lytvyn was fifth 5,6,5,5,5, Vera Guiterez-Clellen w/ Danas Jaksevicius was sixth 8,5,7,4,6, and as you can tell she got a huge variety of marks, seventh was Iving Chan w/Roman Italyankin 6T,7,6,7,8, and in eighth position was Agnes Brzeski w/Cristiano Callegari 6T,8,8,6,7.

There was also an excellent Senior 1 competition worth the mention and here  Janet Colleran w/Alexo Nashev placed first overall 2,1,1,1, Esperanza Blair w/Andre Paramonov was second 3,2,3,2, Lisa Wong w/Roman Italyankin was third 1,3,4,3.

Tonight it is the “shows of all shows!” We expect it to be a fabulous sensation and we will begin the professional open events!

Smoothing at the Tropicana!

Yesterday it was a full day of Smooth dancing inside the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada, and it was interesting to see that anywhere you went whether it was at the New York, MGM, Luxor or the Excaliber, you could tell by the rhinestones in the hair that you are here for some serious dance competition, the last of the year, the Holiday Dance Classic.

Inside the ballroom the majority of the competitions were being contested from first rounds to quarters, semis and excellent finals, some of the took place last night.

Once again the “B” and “C” divisions of the Pro/Am Smooth categories started with huge entries and the finals were worth the wait. In the “B” category the winner was Susan Sidman w/Gleb Makarov and they won every dance. Second in all dances went to Sophia D’Angeleo w/Ilya Reyzin and third was awarded to Patricia Schneider w/Nick Cheremukhin. The fourth and fifth places were also excellent and worth the mention - Joanne Tatem w/Mariusz Zakrzewski took fourth, Angela Morrison w/Peter Santiago placed fifth and sixth was left to Tracy Hemauer w/Gordon Bratt.

The “C” category was a seven couple final and this went to Michiko Cantor w/Evgeny Malko and they took first in all dances.  We’ve always liked this lady’s dancing.  Second overall went to Sue Elder w/ Igor Ustymovych but not in all dances she placed second in three dances and third in the foxtrot. Darla Davies w/Jim Maranto took third overall 3,3,2,4.  Fourth was Monica Broch w/Kris Suakjian 5,5,4,3; fifth went to Diana Best w/Alyosha Anatoliy 4,4,5,5; sixth was Nancy Rapoport w/Sergiy Shapoval 7,7,6,6 and seventh was Ben Ow w/Lynnsay Ray 6,6,7,7.

The Senior 1 Smooth like the Rhythm the night before, was also an excellent event and here Sally Jongjilina w/Slava Stefanov was the winner 1,1,2,1. Second went to Elizabeth Cramer w/Roberto Nardozza 2,4,1,4; third was Scott Skinner w/Michelle Hudson 3,3,4,2; fourth was awarded to Pat Luthy w/Vladimir Popov 5,2,3,3; fifth went to Sara Switzer w/Shandor Shtefil 6,5,5,5, and sixth was Janice Eggert w/Mariusz Zakrzewski 4,6,6,6.

We also find it fascinating that as in the Pro/Am Rhythm categories there were few “A” couples entered.  Here there were only 2  couples, Irene Lee w/Nick Cheremukhin who took all firsts and Kelly Chambers w/Jonathan Atkinson who took all seconds.

The adult Amateur Smooth also took place and here there was a five couple final Joseph Nuget & Kyla Zenger took all firsts, Matt & Kelly Chambers all seconds and August Jensen & Anna Morales took third 3,3,3,4.  Fourth was Ryan Podzikowski & Rebekah Johns 4,5,5,3, and fifth went to Benjamin Wear & Whitney Finch 5,4,4,5.

Today we have lots to cover.  The Pro/Am Latin open championships will take place and the Pro Rising Star events will be held tonight, will bring all of it to you tomorrow.    

Lots of Rhythm!

The Holiday Dance Classic had nearly two days of Rhythm competition, heat after heat was packed with full quarters, semis and lots of 8 couple finals. As expected this time of year, the weather is also fabulous for those people who want to dance but want to also see some shows, gamble and visit. The weather has been fantastic, cool enough to walk around but not cool enough to have to wear any major coat or fur stoll.

There are a few new shows on the strip that looked terrific, making us want to go to them. Unfortunately we are here to work and have to do better planning next time.

However, the shows inside the ballroom have also been terrific so far.  Last night the Pro/Am Rhythm categories came to a close with the open scholarships and the “B” and “C” categories were fully packed. The winner of the “B” was Sophia D’Angelo with teacher Ilya Reyzin and she took first in every dance.  Second overall was awarded to Susan Sidman w/Gleb Makarov and she placed second in every dance.  We must mention that the quality of these two ladies was very impressive and had Susan won we would have been just as impressed. These two ladies were terrific and looked totally prepared for the task. Third overall but not in every dance went to Bernadette Straatsma w/Felipe Telona Jr. This lady placed third in 3 dances and fourth in the swing and bolero. The rest of the final was also excellent and totally worth a mention Heidy Kellison & Sean Tamashiro placed fourth 5,5,3,3,4, Nicole Huerta w/Edwin Torres was fifth 4,4,5,5,5, and last but not least in sixth position was the only gentleman of the group, Rick Shaw dancing with his teacher Tina Mayer and they placed sixth in all dances, although we would not have been surprised if he took had placed higher in a number of dances.

The “C” division was also heavily contested and here a seven-couple final was called.  For us and the majority of the judges Lynn Magnessen dancing with Vard Margaryan was the easy winner this time and she did win every dance. Second down to seventh position was not as clear.  Here Yuriko Shimamoto w/Steve Vasco placed second overall by taking second in 3 dances and third in the swing and fourth in the mambo. Third position was also not to clear - here Diana Best dancing with Alyosha Anatoliy took the overall position but as you will see not in every dance 3,4,2,4,3.  We must point out that is a delight to see this lady dancing, she is always smiling and seems to be having a blast from the start on and off the floor. Fourth was awarded to Darla Davis w/Jim Maranto and here things got really murky when it came to the marks, 6 in Cha, 3 in R, tied for fourth in swing, 5 in B, and second in the mambo, how is that for variety of marks? Fifth position was no different Renee Kuwahara w/Ilya Reysin placed fifth overall with these marks - 5,5,4T,3,5.  Sixth position also had a picturesque finale to their marks and this was Nancy Lam w/Sean Tamashiro 4,6,6,7,6, and seventh went to Monica Broch with Kris Suakjian 7,7,7,6,7.

Although it did not affect this year’s entry count, we were very surprised with the lack of interest in the “A” category only one lady registered or showed up for the event and she walked away with this scholarship.  Michelle Young dancing with Scott Koogle from Colorado. This is possibly a rare occurrence even though trends and things in this business tend to change daily like a thermometer - styles go up and down in the levels and quantity of the competitors.

The C1 Rhythm Scholarship was also excellent.  Here Esperanza Blair w/Andre Paramonov took all four dances.  Evelyn Lamden w/Daniel Vasco placed second and Andrea Wishnow w/Felipe Telona Jr. was third 4,3,3,3. Fourth went to Paul Duhaime w/Kimberly Harris, fifth was Myra Miller w/Vartan Zakhariants and sixth was Kathy Miller w/Csaba Vadasz.

Overall these last two days of competition have been great and even though we were quite busy from the start we still manged and outing or two.  The view from the rooftop restaurant at the Delano Hotel was amazing and so was the hotel that is probably the only one in Vegas to have no casino. I’m sure everyone has managed an outing or two, the walk between the hotel corridor is great and easy to do, this is perhaps one of the things that keeps everyone coming to this gambling town. Today is a Smooth day and we shall bring you the highlights of these activities tomorrow.