Snowed out!  But electrifying finish for Superstars! The last night at the Superstars Championships was terrific with great dancing. The Professional Latin was run and the winners, Ivan Mulyavka & Loreta Krisciukaityte, won all dances but the cha cha.  The cha cha was taken by China’s Ray Zhang & Rosa Ren who were very clean in their approach.  The Professional Smooth was also a great event with excellent couples, but here, Peter & Alexandra Perzhu took all dances and in our eyes were the best of the group. The Showdance and Cabaret was also a fierce event.  Five couples took to the floor but here the honor of being the best went to Shane & Shannon Jensen who took all first places but one from the judging panel. "We dance around in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows"

As you can see, the competition was excellent throughout the night but the closing event the “Anything Goes Showdown” was excellent showcasing all the champions from the Open Professional competition throughout the weekend of dance. And in a rare occurrence there was an unbreakable tie between Shane & Shannon from the Cabaret and the winners of the Open professional Rhythm Emanule Pierre-Antoine & Liana Churilova.  The third place honor, in this case there was no second place, went to Ivan & Loreta the Open Latin champoions.  Fourth was awarded to the Smooth Champions, Peter & Alexandra and fifth went to the Open Professional Ballroom Champions, Alexander Voskalchuk & Veronika Egorova. "Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything than isn't music."

As always and as you can see by some of the pictures, the ballroom was decorated beautifully in the style of Mr. Chapman, the leading force at the Superstars. It was unfortunate that over 1000 entries had to be scratched or withdrawn due to the snowstorm that swept across the northeast before and during the Superstars. However, the organizers spared no expense to make you feel at home and to make sure that everyone was entertained. It was also great luck that Delyan Terziev & Boriana Delcheva, the featured act at this year’s Superstars, managed to catch one of the last flights out of New York and gave us two wonderful shows, Friday & Saturday. "Opportunity dances with those already on the dance floor" New Partnership Takes RS Rhythm at Superstars The new partnership of Maksym Lototsky & Sarah Hayworth were the clear winners of the RS Rhythm.   From the semi into the final, they showed a great sense of musicality and awareness for each  other and went on to win all dances.  The competition was a little tougher between 2nd and 3rd place.  Shane & Shannon Jensen came in 2nd (4,2,2,2,3) over Stephen Smyth & Victoryia Kleyman (3,3,3,4,4).  In our opinion, Victoriya had an overall stronger presence and that might have swayed some marks in favor of that couple.  Only 1 point made the difference between 3rd and 4th place, Tamas Kardos & Mariya-Khristina Shurupova made their impact by taking 2nd position in CC and Mambo making this a very exciting final to watch. The RS Ballroom had 2 couples enterered.  The winners in all dances were Oscar Pedrinelli & Lenka Kovalcikova over Matt Rivers & Maliwan Diemer.

Ballroom Outshines Rhythm at CA Open Saturday The Open Pro Ballroom was the much stronger of the 2 pro divisions last night at CA Open.  "There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them"

In the final, it was a two-way race for 1st between two of the nation’s best, Artem Palkhotnyi & Inna Berlizyeva and Mikhail Avdeev & Olga Blinova.  Today the race was more one-sided than it has been in the past and Artem & Inna won all dances, each with the majority of 1st places.  The closest was the waltz that they won by 9 firsts to 6.    No other couple took any first places except the top 2.  So were Artem & Inna really in tip top form or was it Mikhail & Olga who were not at their best?  You’ll have to wait for the full coverage in print or online to get our opinion. 3rd today went to Denis Kutepov & Lesya Sinitsa and we thought they also had a very strong showing.  They were 3rd in all dances.  We were also impressed with the style and fluidity of 4th placed Igor Colac & Roxanne Milotti and they were 4th in all dances.  Taking all the 5’s were Robert Nemiro & Olga Tsikalyuk and 6th in this strong final went to Michael Towliszew & Tiffany Fung. The Rhythm did not rise to the challenge.  We enjoyed the performance of Ivan Dishliev & Marieta Nedyalkova who won all dances, but felt they were strongly challenged by the runners-up, Jonathan Chen & Nadine Messenger.  3rd were Dustin Donelan & Kristen McCloskey, 4th Pierro Della Santini & Allesandra Gonzalez, 5th Tommy Belmontez & Jessica Holty and 6th C.J & Jenny Lynn Gomez.  Giocomo Steccaglia & Melissa Dexter will offer their comments in Dance Beat soon. Just before the Rhythm division began it was time to say a fond farewell to the much loved team of Jason & Sveta Daly, former US Pro Rhythm Finalists who chose to make their retirement official in front of their home crowd here at the California Open.  They danced a beautiful bolero and thanked their many friends and supporters.  (The full letter will appear in Dance Beat soon)."Never give a sword to a man who can't dance." The evening began with 3 rounds of the Amateur Latin, with some skillful couples and others who had much enthusiasm but little experience.  The winners won all dances and they were Denys Samson & Yuliya Nikitebko representing England.  They are tall and elegant and certainly were the most eye-catching couple in the competition.  We were particularly impressed with the runners-up, Phillip Kudryatsev & Ashley Goldman who have improved tremendously since their move to California.  3rd tonight were Trey & Hope Jackson who are technically strong but lack characterization at this point.  4th fell to Umar Diallo & Natalya Devitskaya, 5th to Teleryck Ianakiev & Natella Devitskaya and 6th to Parker Lynn & Kristina Tieken. For the pro-ams it was Latin day ans we felt these were the strongest of the open scholarships.  The A was an especially strong final.  Cheyenne Murillo w/ Sasha Althukov won all dances and was clearly ahead in our view.  2nd in all was Brittni Gonzalez w/ Radomir Pashev and 3rd was Natalia Zhukova w/ Kiril Nitkin from Russia.  Look for a full report on this division in Dance Beat – with perhaps some views that differed from the final results. The Open B winner was Svetlana Van Tessel w/ Andrey Tarasov and she won all dances.  2nd fell to Kimberly Bolourtchi w/ Alex Borodko 5,2,3,3,2 and 3rd to Cindy Hwang w/ Nikolai Voronovich 3,3,2,4,3.  Connie Buckley w/ Leonid Proskurov won all dances in the Open C.  2nd in all was Rhonda Lynch w/ Stephen McCann and 3rd was Tammy Knight w/ Oleksil Lytvyn 3,3,3,4,3. Eugene Katsevman & Maria Manusova were on hand to perform their electrifying and fast-paced show that received several standing ovations from the appreciative audience.

Not As You Might Expect!
Friday night at CA Open Last night we saw the first of the Open Pro events and although one roughly as we expected, the other one did not.

The surprise for us came in the Open Latin.  Debuting tonight was former US Finalist, Yegor Novikov with new partner, Tetyana Olynyk.  The question was, what would the judges decide.  Well, there certainly wasn’t much doubt about the winners – Andrei Kazlouski & Asta Sigvaldadottir received the vast majority of the first places and easily won all dances.  But it was not to be Yegor & Tetyana’s night to be second.  While they did receive a number of 2nd placements in each dance, it was never enough and the majority of judges placed them lower.  Finally their placements were 4,4,4,4,4 – obviously placing them 4th overall.  Was this too low?  You’ll have to read Dance Beat soon to find out what we thought and Martin Lamb will also give his thoughts on this division. But let’s not write off the other 5 couples in this great final.  They were all great and it was a nightmare for the judges.  The rapidly rising Vitalii Proskurin & Evgenia Shatilova took 2nd overall 2,3,3,2,2.  We thought this was a close race with 3rd placed, Andrey Tarasov & Yulia Kuznetsova 3,2,2,3,3.  Evgeniy Likachev & Mariya Levina took all the 5th  placements, Oleg Astakhov & Olivia Wesolowska were 6th 6,6,7,7,6 and Simeon & Kora Stoynov closed the final, 7,7,6,6,7.

As we said, the other pro event, the Open Smooth was a little more predictable.  Nick Cheremukhin & Viktorija won all dances tonight.  We did think the runners-up, Kris Suakjian & Brianna Haft put up a good fight and have improved in basic technique a lot, but they had to be content with 2nd in all dances.  The closest race was for 3rd and that required a Rule 11 tiebreak that fell to David & Natalie Shulz 4,3,4,3 over Kyle & Allie Spinder 3,4,3,4.  Sergiy Smolin & Anna Tomasini were 5th 6,5,5,5 and Alex & Jessi Allion were 6th 5,6,6,6.  Beth Knoll will give her thoughts on this division in Dance Beat soon. The largest event of the night was the Amateur Ballroom, much swelled by the inclusion of many couples from BYU.  It was a strong final with the win going to the tall and stately Andrei & Veronika Ends – they won all dances.  We really enjoyed the dancing of the runners-up, Ruslan Kalyuzhnyy & Ksenia Sovenko who were 2nd in 4 dances and tied 2nd in the quickstep.  The other half of that tie was 3rd placed, Jordan Quintana & Grace Wang 3,3,3,3,2T – a fiery partnership that we also enjoyed.  4th in all were Tyler Wilson & Annie Seeley, 5th Dan Manea & Mia Hu (5,6,5,5,6), 6th Casey Treu & Kayci Kirkham (6,5,6,6,5). Big congratulations to Dmytry Dmytrenko & Cheyenne Murillo who won both the Under 21 and the Youth Latin divisions – both massive events. Of the Open Pro-Am Scholarships, danced in the late afternoon, the largest was the C and this went to Deborah Errico w/ Dariusz Michalski and she won all dances.  2nd went to Sally He w/ Enzo Zappia 2,2,3,2,2 and 3rd to Alex Hu w/ Olga Tsikalyuk 3,4,2,4,3T.  Melonie Krumer scored her second Open win of the weekend taking the Open A with Max Sinitsa and winning all dances.  2nd was Rebecca Kuhn w/ Andrea Feraci, again in all dances and Machiko Fuji w/ Alex Muradasilov was 3rd.  Alexandra Michel w/ Victor Veyrasset won the Open B, placing 1,2,1,2,1.  It was a close race and taking 2nd was Lily Chang w/ Sergey Kiselev, 2,1,2,1,2T.  3rd went to Ling Ma w/ Edgar Gasjuns 3,3,3,3,2T.

Stars Rising at CA Open The first of the professional events were held yesterday at CA Open – Rising Star divisions in Smooth, Ballroom and Latin. Kyle & Allie Spinder ran away with the Smooth taking all 9 first places from the judges in every dance.  After them it was definitely tighter.  Slava & Lara Kostianets, a tall, elegant couple from CA, new to us, took 2nd with 2,3,2,2.  3rd, but with the odd placements of 5,5,3,3 were Sergey Smolin & Anna Tomasini.

We felt the Latin was perhaps the most exciting division of the night, with several truly rising stars contesting the final.  The winners were Vitalii Proskurin & Evgenia Shatilova, but they did not have everything their own way.  They placed 1,2,1,1,1 with Evgeny Likachev & Mariya Levina taking 2nd with 2,1,2,2,2.  Vitalii & Evgenia’s best marked dance was the cha cha, where they took 6 of the 9 1st places.  3rd, placing 5,3,3,3,3 were Oleg Astakov & Olivia Wesolowska.

The Ballroom was also quite a close race, but the win went to another new couple to us, Evgeniy Mayorov & Olga Lisovskaya from Nevada who won 4 dances and placed 2nd in quickstep.  Taking quickstep were Simeon & Kora Stoynov.  They were 2nd in the remaining dances.  The judges were fairly evenly split between these 2 couples.  Slava & Lora added a 3rd place here to the 2nd they received in the Smooth (3,3,3,3). The Pro-Ams competed in Rhythm today and many of the heats were highly contested.  Unfortunately, the Open Scholarship did not attract huge numbers, but the quality of the dancing was high.  The largest of the divisions was the Open C.  Hope Huber w/ Troy Baeton won all dances and we thought definitely showed improvement in this style.  2nd went to Penelope Rostad w/ Nikolai Karchev (3,2,2,2,3) and 3rd to Philip Widlanski w/ Jolanta Mosteika (2,4,3,3,1).  We were a little surprised to see Philip this low in the ranking. Natalie Crandall won the Open A (1,1,1,1,1).  Nadiya Kireyko w/ Daniel Vasco was 2nd (2,2,2,2,2) and Tiffany Sulliva w/ Dustin Donelan was 3rd.  Giovanni Fortezza w/ Jolanta Mosteika won the B taking all dances over Victoria Romm w/ Daniel Vasco.  Darlene Bloom w/ Jason Daly was the winners of the Open Senior.
 
CA Open Starts Smoothly, despite winter storms! The CA Open started smoothly yesterday despite the winter storms that were disrupting travel nationwide.  Even your intrepid reporter was delayed a day, due to airport closures.  But it’s a balmy 80 here in Orange County!

The CA Open is in a new home this year, the Costa Mesa Hilton, and so far everything seems great here. It was also a “smooth” day in the ballroom with the pro-ams completing all of their Smooth heats.  We thought the best event of the day was the Open C smooth Scholarship that had three rounds.  The winner was Hope Huber w/ Troy Baeton (1,2,1,1) who gave a very impressive performance.  We were also very impressed with the runner-up, David Schmidt w/ Michelle Hudson (2,1,2,2).  David actually came out on top in the Dancesport Series qualifier, but lost out on the money here.  3rd in all dances was another good competitor, Penelope Rostad w/ Nikolai Karchev.  Penelope also won all dances in the Senior Open Smooth.  2nd in this was another good gentleman student, Norio Yamamoto w/ Anna Shabazyan (2,2,2,3).  3rd was Judy Brown w/ Marcin Tomaszzewski (3,3,3,2). The A & B Open Scholarships were both straight finals.  Melonie Kumer w/ Max Sintisa won all dances in the A.  2nd in all was Irene Lee w/ Nick Cheremukhin and 3rd in all Kelly Morikawa w/ Jonathan Atkinson.  Max Sinitsa’s student also won the Open B and this was Sirinda Sincharoen (1,1,1,1).  2nd was Karence Chan w/ Paul Cloud (2,3,2,2) and 3rd, Monica Broch w/ Kris Suakjian (3,2,3,3). Stay tuned for the Rhythm divisions tomorrow.

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.

Boston Cup Blends Junior & Pro-Am
The Boston Cup, held Jan. 25 in Framingham, MA, was a mighty 1-Day competition that seamlessly (almost) blended all styles and levels of pro-am dancing with junior and amateur divisions.  It was 1500 entries and a full day of dancing.

The Organizers, Ronen Zinshtein & Emil Loukhnikov are known for their involvement in the junior dancesport scene, so it was no surprise that the junior and amateur segment was the largest with a packed ballroom of kids and parents – always a great atmosphere.  But the day began with sizeable pro-am heats making up almost half of the total entries for the day.  Local studio, Supershag, made up the bulk of the entries.

The highlight of the event was the Adult A Latin that began with a semifinal and pitched many of the USA and Canada’s high ranking competitors against each other.  Canada turned up the winner as Danils Kutezov & Maria Shalvarova won all dances.  2nd in all were Nikita Malakhov & Nadezda Vlasova and 3rd in all Ron Garber & Liza Lakovistky.  Watch out for a full report in Dance Beat soon from Diana McDonald. Also coming soon to Dance Beat is a report on the Junior II Latin by Bill Sparks.  The winners here were Kristers Smite & Sophie Shvartsman (1,1,2,1,2).  2nd were Joshua Lishnevetsky & Angela Gerzberg 2,2,1,2,1).  3rd Matthew Lavitman & Olivia Agranovich (3,3,3,4,4).

Other feature events were the Youth Latin and U/21 Latin won by Jaryd Farcon & Kyla Dzhaniashvili (1,1,2,1,1) and Steven Varshavsky & Karolina Loukhnikov (2,1,1,1,1) respectively.

The Ballroom divisions were not as large but the events were still noteworthy.  The winners were:  Justin Lin & Sasha Dubinsky (Youth & Junior II);  Fernando Lareu & Nicole Palagashvili (U/21).
 
The Boston Cup is a 1-day event that felt ready to move on to the big time.  Ronen & Emil decorated the ballroom well and used full lighting and sound.  The venue was the Sheraton Framingham a pseudo castle that had two blazing fires in the lobby (a welcome sight to this Miami native) and had comfortable rooms and ample facilities.