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Miami Spice!

Miami lived up to it’s Latin heritage last night at Grand Nationals as the Professional Rhythm was the best professional competition of the week.

Nazar Norov & Irina Kudryashova were the undisputed champions, receiving perfect scores in all 5 dances.  The competition was really from there down and it was tight!  Runners-up were Maksym Lototsky & Sarah Haworth and they placed 2,3,2,2,2 but had the majority of 2nds in only cha cha.  In fact they took 2nd in mambo despite having only two 2nd places in that dance.  That gives you some idea about how varied everyone’s marks were.  3rd with 3,2,3,3,3 were Tamas Kardos & Mariya-Khristina Shuropova.  4th in all dances were the new partnership of Eddie Rivera & Meg McNash.  We were a little surprised with the 5th place finish of Shandor Shtefil & Aleksandra Barsukov.  We saw them higher in this final.  They were 5th in all dances.  Closing the final were Jhondarr Lopez & Amber Osborn from Texas, the only non-Floridian couple in the final.

Also on tonight was the Pro Ballroom.  This attracted only 3 entries but all were of a high level.  The winners were Alexander Voskalchuk & Veronica Ergorova.  They won all dances with only two judges, Shirley Johnson and Alexander Mueller, placing them lower.  2nd in all dances went to Vlad Shahov & Ekaterina Popova and 3rd to the new pairing of  Marta & Anastasia Kazmina representing Italy.

5 couples contested the Showdance and it was the usual mix of cabaret and more traditional showdance routines.  Cabaret won the day as Clifton Sepulveda & Mar Martinez won the day with an adagio routine that had some interesting and fast paced liftwork.  They received 7 or the 9 first places.  Vlad Shahov & Ekaterina Popova gave a showdance style routine and they took 2nd.  3rd were Slava Panakshev & Datia Cebotaru;  4th Alfred Perratta & Sloan Cobb and 5th Richard Ortiz & Hannah Pickard.

Keep checking Dance Beat for reports on these professional divisions from former US Champions, Bill Sparks, Shirley Johnson and Susie Thompson and former World Champion, Wolfgang Opitz.

The pro-ams danced two styles today – smooth and Latin.  In the Open C Smooth Scholarship Beverly Marsh w/ Sergey Barsukov was the winner 2,1,1,1.  2nd went to Renee Kuwahara w/ Ilya Reyzin 1,12,3,2 and 3rd to Dee Iannone w/ Markus Cannon 3,3,2,3.  Chris Wilson w/ Emilia Goldberg won the Open B Smooth 1,1T,2,1 with another gentleman, Terry Anderson w/ Olga Bogdanov taking 2nd, 2,1T,1,2.  3rd was Anna Trull w/ John Abrams.

Astrid Rush w/ Radim Lanik won the Open B Latin, winning all dances.  2nd in all went to Lisa McKee w/ Clement Joly and 3rd in all to Alice Lekht w/ Igor Derimov.

Throughout the day the audience was vastly entertained by the young dancers from Dance Town in Miami, mostly partnered by professional, Ivan Mulyavka.

Dancing Through the Ages!

As many of you may know, The Grand Nationals Dancesport Championships is one of the longest continuing running competitions in the USA – celebrating, we believe, 47 years in 2014. 

Last night we were amazed to see gentlemen professional competitors in the Open Pro-Am Rhythm C Scholarship who have been finalists in the Rhythm and other styles, representing almost every decade of those years including current finalists.  We’ll spare their modesty and not say who represented each decade – but guys!  You all looked great!  Here are the results:

1st, Renee Kuwahara w/ Ilya Reyzin (1,1,1,1,1);  2nd Janet Brutell w/ Michael Neil (3,4,2,2,2);  3rd Becky Kirby w/ John Abrams;  4th Beverly Marsh w/ Nazar Norov;  5th Dee Iannone w/ Markus Cannon (6,5,5,5,5);  6th Linda Marcus w/ Brian Smith (5,6,6,7,6);  7th Kathy Williams w/ Alan Williams (7,7,7,6,7);  8th Sharon Albert w/ Darren Cupp (8,8,8,8,8).

Another good Open Scholarship last night was the Open C Ballroom that began with a semifinal.  The winner here was April Haims w/ Ruslan Meskkov (1,1,1,1,1).  2nd went to Rosann Bonotto w/ Alain Doucet (2,2,2,2,3);  3rd Frances Yu w/ Paolo DiLorenzo (3,3,3,3,2);  4th Diana McDonald w/ Alex Koulik (4,5,5,4,4);  5th Yusuf Mihaylov w/ Elena Simonova (5,4,4,5,5);  6th Annina Nosei w/ Lina Korieva (6,6,6,6,6).

There were 2 open professional divisions also danced last night and the Smooth produced a very tight race decided in fact by a Rule 11 tiebreak.  Taking the title with 1,1,2,2 were Kirill Gorjatsev & Daria Zotova.  They won their two dances with the majority of 1st places from the judges.  They received mainly 1st and 2nd placements with only 2 judges, Alexander Mueller and Ron Troy marking them further down the field.  The runners-up with 2,2,1,1, were Mark Short & Alyssa Kark.  They had the majority of 1st places in the VW and for them too it was mostly 1st and 2nd places from the judges except Wolfgang Opitz and Oksana Zolotarevskaya.  3rd in all dances were William Proper & Jennifer Elliott;  4th in all Martin Pickering & Natalie Botes;  5th Vadim & Karla Boldirev.

For us and the judges the Latin was more clearcut with Dmitry Nikishkin & Oleans Shvets winning all dances.  We were surprised, however, to see a few 3rd places in their marks column.  They did receive perfect scores in the jive.  2nd were Dmitry Zavialov & Ashley Sanchez 2,3,2,2,3;  3rd Aleksey Alekseev & Ekaterina Dareleva 3,2,3,3,2;  4th in all dances, Srdjan Mikuljan & Carolina Avila;  5th Hector Quiles & Maria Balashova.

The current venue for the Grand Nationals is the splendid Ritz Carlton on Key Biscayne in Miami.  This area and the hotel is beautiful almost with the feel of a tropical island while being basically in Miami.  As one would expect the service and hotel amenities are superb.  

The ballroom décor is also superb with the showcase LED programmable light backdrop always adding so much to the ambiance.

Embassy Ball – Pro-Am World Championships

Report by Keith Todd
Action photos by Park West

Once again the Embassy Ball hosted the World Pro-Am Championships as sanctioned by the NDCA.  World Championships were held in all levels but this report is limited to the Open level events – A, B, C and Senior.

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Lights, Camera, Action!

Last night the Hollywood Dancesport Championships lived up to its name with a fabulous after party that overshadowed even the terrific professional events that were held just earlier in the Ballroom.

The party had a feast for a king a buffet that included a couple of food stations, but the real action came in the show were some excellent dancing was presented including, US Professional Rhythm Champions Emmanuel Pierre Antoine and Liane Churilova, Canadien Cabaret sensations Carlos Zapata & Dora Yaneva, Singing group Innovate, a ladies modern dance group called “Love”, the master of ceremonies who was very charming with lots of humor, Rob Glover, and to top all this the three amigos and organizers of the Hollywood Dancesport, Michael Chapman, Mary Murphy and Jonathan Roberts.

The show in itself is hard to describe but all I can say is that it was very fast paced and possibly one of the best put together shows I have ever seen, including some major events. The organizers brought the house down with Mary coming in as the lead man and Jonathan and Michael as the Carmen Miranda girls!!

The night in the ballroom was very short but sweet only two Professional events were held the Smooth and the Latin and they were both full semifinal rounds, with excellent professional dancing.

The Latin was an easy win for Roman Kutsky & Anna Kovalova who got a huge majority of firsts from all the judges.  The only judge to award them 4th place marks across the board and a 6th in the jive was Mrs. Shirley Ballas. Second place in all dances was awarded to Andrey Tarasov & Yuliya Kuznetsova and they received three of Mrs. Ballas’ first place marks, the other two first place marks went to the couple that placed third overall Vitalii Proskurin & Eugenia Shatilova and they placed third in all dances. Fourth was Roman Italyankin & Alexandra Bokova 4,5,4,4,4, Mykhailo Bilopukhov & Anastasia Shchypilina were fifth 5,4,5,5,5, Adam Katona & Bella Gubzheva were sixth in all dances and Sergiy Kvashyn & Olga Ginzburg placed seventh.

The Professional American Smooth was also a great comp Peter & Alexandra Perzhu won all dances with nearly perfect scores, only one or two judges per dance awarded then second places. Nick Cheremukin & Viktorija were second in every dance, and Mikolay Czamecki & Victoria Malko were third. Things got a little different from fourth place on, Kyle & Allie Spindler placed fourth overall but not in every dance 4,5,4,4.  Kris Suakjin & Briana Haft were fifth 5,4,5,5. Sixth down was a straight across with Radek Wiatrowski & Denise Sobiewski plasing sixth in all dances, and Sean Brunell & Ekaterina Marshukova taking all sevenths.

The Amateur Open Ballroom event although, a six couple final, was also a noteworthy event.  Here Marek Klepadlo & Liana Bakhtiarova were first in all dances, Mikhail Vorobiev & Sonya Tsekanovsky were second in every dance and Tyler Wilson & Annie Seeley placed third.

The Pro/Am Ballroom categories in the late afternoon were also excellent and here Melonie Kruner w/Max Sinitsa won the “A” category, Ani Mkrtchyan w/Nick Cheremukin was second in all dances and Levina Kasmara w/Slava Stefanov was third. In the “B” category it was an 8-couple final and here Celia Chou w/Erminio Stefano was the champion wining all dances. Michelle Peng w/Mikhail Avdeev was second in all dances and Ling Ma w/Edgar Gasjuns placed third 4,3,3,3,3. The “C” category went to Lisa Lowery w/Radek Wiatrowski 1,1,1,2,2 and second was Nancy Mei w/Dariuz Michalski 2,2,2,1,1, and third was Jenny Fong w/Victor Veyrasset and they took thirds in all dances. In the Senior Yumiko Nakagawa w/Robert Nemiro was the winner.

I want to congratulate the organizers on that phenomenal after party!

Hollywood Rises!

Last night at the Hollywood Dancesport Championships it was all about the Rising Professional Stars and the Pro/Am showcases.

The night started with the pro/am showcases and some of them were excellent a few with great humor, our favorite was Ceci Torres, this showcase number had lots of humor.

The Pro/Am Solos were followed by the professional Rising Star Events, the Rhythm had the most entries with a full semifinal, the event was highly contested but in the end  the winners were Eddie Rivera & Megan McNash from Florida taking first in all dances.  Second was awarded to Romney Reyes & Brooke O’Donnell 3,3,2,2,2, and third went to Ryan Lockham & Danelle Newman. Fourth was Zeki Maviyildiz & Crystal Chang; fifth Jeremy Babagay & Carolyn Barreno and sixth Mictchel Kibel & Bobbie Briceno.

In the Rising Star Smooth, the new partnership of Radek Wiatrowski & Denise Sobiewski placed first in all dances.  Second was awarded to Slava Stefanov & Jessica McMorrow, and third was Sean Brunell & Ekaterina Marshukova. Fourth was Slavic & Valeriia Kostianets; fifth Nathan Simler & Mireille Ginests and sixth was Angelo Verazzano & Erin Drake.

In the Rising Star Professional Ballroom first place position was more challenging but in the end Stefano Di Brino & Bianka Zubrowska took first place overall 2,2,1,1,1. Martin & Liene Reinbold were second 1,3,2,4,4 and Evgeniy Mayorov & Olga Lisovskaya placed third 3,1,4,3,3. Fourth were Alex & Grace Wang, fifth Slavic & Valerria Kostianets, and sixth were Jonathan Atkinson & Lorena Bravo.

In the Rising Star Latin Adam Katona & Denise Sobiewski won overall 1,1,1,2,1.  Simeon & Kora Stoynov were second 2,2,2,1,2, and third were Maksim Kapitannikov & Natalia Fridmanibitch third in all dances. Fourth were Stefan Golubovic & Uliana Maslovskaya; fifth went to Kirill Nikitin & Jenya Kanchukova leaving sixth for Oleksii & Carly Lytvyn.     

Simply Hollywood!

There are no other words to describe the Hollywood Danceport Championships, a four-day event in Los Angeles southern California. As always the ballroom was decorated to the nines, with posters of the most popular stars of the century giving the ballroom the feel and glamour of where we are.

The competition yesterday was all about the Rhythm.  All day long Pro/Am competitors took to the floor to showcase their Rhythm. In the end the evening sessions concluded with the best Pro/Ams competing for scholarships.

The Open Rhythm “B” had the most entries with an 8-couple final.  Here Lisa Lowery with her teacher Radek Wiatrowski took first places in all dance. Kia Malone w/Eddie Rivera all seconds and third went to Heidy Kellison w/Sean Tamashiro.

The “C” category was also excellent and here we had a five-couple final. This Scholarship went also to Lisa Lowery, again first in every dance.  Second was awarded to Quin Bommelje w/Misha Vlasov and they placed second in every dance, I must also point out that Quin was the overall winner of the Senior Schoralship. Third in this “C” division was awarded to Evelyn Lamden w/Daniel Vasco.

The “A” competition was the smallest of all with only 5 couples entered.  Here Nadia Kieyko w/Daniel Vasco won all dances. Second in this heat went to Kia Malone w/Eddie Rivera and third was awarded to Nicole Huerta w/Edwin Torres.

The night ended on a very high note and almost right on time, making people enjoy their surroundings or go to the bar for a cocktail or two.

Looking forward to tonight when things will start getting hotter, with some more scholarships this time in the Smooth divisions.

Capital Dancesport Open Professional Smooth

Report by Irina Sarukhanyan
Photos by Ryan Kenner Photography

The 2014 Capital Dancesport Professional Open Smooth showcased many talented dancers.  It’s nice to see so many new Smooth couples on the floor.

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2014 USDC World Professional Cabaret                                                                

Report by Jennifer Foster
Photos by Mary Tweeddale

Oh, what a night! Cabaret is always an exciting event, full of entertainment and a departure from the week’s ballroom and Latin style competition.

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