Halloween In Indianapolis
Global Finale!

U.S dancers could be found in all corners of the country on Halloween weekend as 3 events were taking place in different parts of the country.  I was in Indiana attending the North American Imperial Star Ball which also hosted the finale of the Global Dancesport series.  Hosted by David Medeiros and Julie Stadler at the Sheraton Indianapolis at Keystone Crossing, the competition ran smoothly and in good spirit, thanks to the help of music director Rick Popp and Mark Brock using the opportunity to practice his karaoke styling.  The only place this weekend I am pretty sure where you could do an international VW to "We Are The Champion", original version!!

I would like to mention some of the pro/am competitors who were at the top of their game this weekend.

In the Bronze Smooth category, Alicia Richhart dancing with Christopher Spalding, Cheryle Russo dancing with Josh Tilford, Tom Travgott dancing with Shalene Archer and Charlie Carboneau dancing with Kelly Bartlett.

In Silver Smooth, congratulations to Stacey Tilford dancing with Josh Tilford and Judy Renau dancing withBen Ermis.

Open Smooth "A" went to Karen Jacob dancing with Christopher Spakding and the "B" to  Wendy Stambaugh dancing with Ben Ermis.

Rhythm
In the Bronze, Alyssa Ivanson dancing with Tony Didier, Peggy Lavinski dancing with Aleko Khutsidze and Tim Bolin dancing with Shalene Archer.
Silver, Chris Wilson dancing with Emilia Goldberg.
 
Open, Sophia D'Angelo dancing with Ilya Reyzin.  Sophia was also the recipient on top overall lady for the Global tour.

Ballroom
Bronze, Stacey Tilford dancing with Josh Tilford, Nancy Farrell dancing with Andrea Stefano.

Silver, Dawn Phillips dancing with Jari Muller, Donna Torsney dancing with Ben Ermis.

Open, Joyce Lo dancing with Guennadi Lakounine, Sherry Borchelt dancing with Andrea Stefano.

Latin
Bronze, Peggy Lavinski dancing with Aleko Khutsidze, Elizabeth Callahan dancing with Gert Roslander
Silver, Karen Rembold dancing with Gert Roslender

In the Pro category it was a very successful weekend for Roman Malkhasyan & Viktoriya Kleyman, they won the RS Rhythm and Smooth, the Open Rhythm and came in second to Adrian & Hannan Dydynsky in the Open Smooth.
 
The Open Ballroom winners in all dances were Michal Towliszew & Tiffany Fung followed by Pavel Cherdantsau& Svetlana Rudkovskaya who also won the Showdance.  

Also a good show for Jason Rivers & Elisa Seja who won the RS Ballroom and came in 2nd in the RS Smooth.

The Open Latin went to Dmytro Kovalenko & Nina Kovalenko.  
But none of these dancers were happier than Josh Tilford who was the overall recipient of the top teacher price for the Global tour taking home $10,000!

Congrats to all, and thank you to David and Julie.

Embassy Ball Dancesport Championship - Open Amateur Latin

Report by Eugene Katsevman
Photos by Charles Ryder Photography

This year’s Embassy Ball was a spectacular event — supported by top talent in every category, and capped off by a magnificent World Professional Ballroom Championship.

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10 for 10!

Last night at the WDC World 10-Dance Championship, held at the Grand Nationals, new World Champions were crowned, and it was Nikolay Govorov & Eugeniya Tolstaya from Russia and they won all 10 dances.

It was also a great night for USA as we took 2nd and 3rd places.  Sergey Samchynskyy & Yulia Besarab were 2nd and Igor Colac & Roxane Milotti were 3rd and it was a close race.  Sergey & Yulia placed 6,5,7,6,6,2,2,2,2,2 (ballroom listed 1st) and Igor & Roxane 5,4,4,5,4,4,4,4,6,4,3.  We thought both couples danced really well and especially in the Latin, perhaps both could have been higher. In fact we were a little surprised that Nikolay & Eugeniya won al the Latin section.

4th were Richard Still & Morgan Hemphill from England.  A second English couple although a name well known in the USA, Jonas Kazlauskas & Kathleen Ilo were 5th (8,7,5,4,5,5,5,5,4,5,5).  6th went to David Kiar & Lauren Andlovec from Australia.  They were 2nd in all the Ballroom but did not make any of the Latin finals.

There will be full reports in Dance Beat on this event soon.

The other 3 professional events were run as supporting events.  The Smooth was a semifinal round and was won by Radek Wiatrowski & Denise Sobiewski.  It was quite close as they scored 1,1,2,3.  2nd went to Maksym Lototsky & Sarah Haworth and they were 2,3,1,1.  With 3,2,3,2, Shandor Shtefil & Aleksandra Barsukov were 3rd.  4th in all were Proper/Elliott, 5th in all Lange/Urosevic and 6th Klotzsche/Lee.

In the Pro Ballroom Haritonov/Haritonova were the winners 1,1,2,2,2. Skriptsov/Skriptsova were 2nd although they won 3 dances 2,4,1,1,1.  3rd in all were Shelkovy/Shelkovy.  4th with 4,2,4,4,4 were Ishihara/Yokoyama.  5th in all Pavlovic/Barhatova.  Summers/Summers were 6th and Mader/Mader were 7th.

Azarov/Makarenko received a standing ovation for their routine in the Cabaret and they were the winners.  2nd went to Sepulveda/Martinez and they also received a standing ovation.  3rd were Falcon/Falcon, 4th DoLorenzo/DiLorenzo and 5th Sese/Lozada.

This ended the 2105 Grand Nationals, and with the addition of this World Championship it was certainly “Grand” indeed!

Is it a “Perfect 10?”

Yesterday we began the WDC World 10-Dance Championship here at Grand Nationals.  On this first night the first round (quarter-final) of all 10 dances were held with the semifinals and finals taking place tonight.  USA is well-represented and our chances look good.  The defending champions from Germany retired this year, so the world title is wide open.  Check back tomorrow for the results.

The other featured events were the Professional Latin and Professional Rhythm.  The Rhythm was the larger of the 2, beginning with a semifinal.  Nazar Norov & Irina Kudryashova won all dances and did not lose a single 1st place mark.  It was a tighter race for 2nd but in the end Andrei Abrashin & Maria Gavrylova took it by 3 dances to 2 – 2,3,2,2,3.  3rd went to Shandor Shtefil & Aleksandra Barsukov 3,2,3,3,2.  Maksym Lototsky & Sarah Haworth were 4th in all dances, Tamas Kardos & Mariya-Khristina Shurupova were 5th in all and Jonathan Chen & Melissa Keller were 6th.

The Latin was a straight final but was a strong event.  The winners – again by 3 dances to 2, were Dmitry Nikishkin & Olena Shvets-Nikishkin 1,2,2,1,1.  The other half of this duel was Roman Italyankin & Aleksandra Bokova 2,1,1,2,2.  Obviously this was a close fight between these two as it often is in other events around the country.  3rd were Aleksey Alekseev & Ekaterina Derevleva 3,4,3,3,3.  We were impressed with 4th placed Stefan Ilies & Anna Tabolina 4,3,4,4,4.  5th in all dances were Kristian Sese & Mae Lozado and 6th were Victor Caneo & Valentina Delano.

At night the pro-ams danced their open championships in Ballroom and Rhythm.  It was a good night for Lisa Lowery w/ Radek Wiatrowski who won the C division in both styles.  Miwa Rifu w/ Peter Minkov won the B Ballroom and Elaine Richardson w/ Linas Korieva won the Snr.  Janet Brutel w/ Michael Neil won the Snr. Rhythm and  Anna Trull w/ John Abrams won the B Rhythm.

Putting on the Ritz

Last night was the beginning of the Grand National Championships at the beautiful Ritz Carlton in Key Biscayne. 

The main feature of the evening was the Grand Nationals 10 Dance Championship. This 10-dance championship was excellent with very talented couples trying to be the best in ten dances. The winners were Simeon & Kora Stoynov and they placed 1,1,2,2,2,2,2,1,1,1, runners up were Jonas Kazlauska & Kathleen Ilo with the scores of 2,2,1,1,1,1,1,2,2,2.  So as you can see a very close competition. Third went to Ruslan & Ekaterina Wilder 3,3,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,4.

The afternoon was packed with Closed Rhythm dances and outside the ballroom it was all about the beautiful resort, beach and pool and we totally enjoyed ourselves in that department as well. Tomas Melnickski is a living testimony in that department and you can judge for yourself in the picture below

10 for 10!

Last night at the WDC World 10-Dance Championship, held at the Grand Nationals, new World Champions were crowned, and it was Nikolay Govorov & Eugeniya Tolstaya from Russia and they won all 10 dances.

Fred Astaire World Championships, Las Vegas, Professional Latin Division

Report by Nadia Eftedal
Photos by Park West

When one thinks of the Fred Astaire Dance Studio it is usually in the realm of Pro-Am and American Style dances.

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