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As we just mentioned, Francesco & Jessa Mae won the Open Professional Rhythm three/two and could have almost won the cha cha with just one more point. Francesco & Jessa Mae were one point away from taking that dance. However, we must point out that no couple here had the majority of firsts. Dmitry & Olena had to also rely on “second or better” to win the dance. In the rumba the majority went to Francesco & Jessa Mae with 12 first place marks in their column. In the swing they too go the majority with 9 first places on their score card, and the same in the bolero. In an interesting twist of events in the mambo no couple got the majority of firsts because Kevin Ubillus & Milagros Lareto as usual stole the show with this dance and got 7 first place marks from the judges, more than any other couple but not a majority, making Dmitry & Olena win this dance with second or better once again, and was quite close for Dmitry & Olena and Francesco & Jessa Mae, Dmitry & Olena won the mambo by one point.
For us on the sidelines it was an comfortable win for Francesco & Jessa Mae who showed great understanding of the music in question. But having said this, we also felt that Dmitry & Olena had a really strong showing as well. Overall we are thrilled to see such incredible quality in the Rhythm style. Dmitry & Olena might have been second overall but their game last night was very hard to beat, not only in their energy but their quality of movement.
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It must have been quite a disappointing result for Ryan & Danelle Lockhart who in the past have done a lot better than the 6th place they got tonight. They scored 5,4,6,6,6. Unfortunately, we have to agree with the judges, on this evening Ryan & Danelle seemed to be just walking it through, and the few times you looked at them they also had a number of basic floor craft issues. We do hope to see them again and hope even stronger and better than before.
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For the pro-ams, the day was filled with Latin. The Open Scholarships in the Latin brought out some of the top competitors in this style, including the ladies who are currently featuring in a Bravo TV reality series.
The largest division was the Open B (and this is the division being filmed by Bravo) and it was won by Sabrina Strasser w/ Stanislav Kochergin from Canada. Sabrina won all 5 dances, all but the jive with a majority of first places from the judges. With 2,2,2,2,3, Gaelle Benchetrit w/ Nino Langella took the runner-up position and 3,3,3,4,4 gave Leonie Biggs w/ Kostiantyn Samarskyi third place. That elusive 2nd place in jive went to Lindsay Keatley w/ Vladislav Robatsenko whose overall placements of 4,4,5,3,2 gave her a fourth place finish. 5th Tina Broccole w/ Andrei Kazlouski 5,5,4,5,5; 6th Collette Marotto w/ Oleksiy Pigotskyy 6,6,6,6,6. This event began with a quarter-final.
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It was a 3 to 2 decision at the top the Open C final with the result going to Loraine Peoples w/ Kostiantyn Samarskyi 1,1,2,2,1. With 2,2,1,1,2, the runner-up was Isabel Collins w/ Mykyta Serdyuk. All the 3’s went to Mariana Svyatets w/ Vladimir Karpov. 4th Holly Lee w/ Ryan Lewis 5,6,4,5,4; 5th Gisa Dilorio w/ Stefano Placidi 4,5,6,4,6; 6th Michelle Mazel w/ Roman Italyankin 6,4,5,6,5.
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Howdy, Y’All!
As you all know “this ain’t our first rodeo!” We have been to the Millennium Dancesport Championships for years, but we have never attended one in Texas, Dallas, Texas to be precise.
And as is so true the moment you walked in that ballroom your first thoughts were – “look at it, it’s bigger’n Dallas!” And before we are “fixin’ to” talk about last night’s competition and show, we have to say that once again the Millennium at the direction of Mr. Michael Chapman, outdid itself in decorations and in first class entertainment!
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Second in this Latin heat went to Manuel Favilla & Natalia Maidiuk taking second in all dances. Manuel & Natalia are also always fully groomed in a very classical style that complements the interpretation of each dance. For us at times we would like to see a little more punch or should we say forceful movements to keep our attention for longer periods of time, so not to allow us to get away from them but always a great couple to see in this type of quality final.
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Taking fourth in the jive and fifth in the other four dances were Pasha Stepanchuk & Gabrielle Sabler, another talented couple with huge potential but at the moment a little quiet in their approach, perhaps they should take notice of our comments from before and be a little more “loud” and not so worry about being right. Sixth and we are sure quite disappointed with their result, were Roman Italyankin & Alexandra Bokova who have been placed ahead of almost every couple in this final but of late seem to be slipping a little, and perhaps need to rethink their approach to the style and reinvent themselves for them, for the judges, and for all of us.
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Second in this parade of stars went to Travis & Jaimee Tuft, who were the recipient of the one first place mark from Mr. Kimmins in the Viennese Waltz and who took all seconds in the other three dances from the judges. As we have always said this couple do not lack talent, ability or technique, they just need to perhaps go out on the “limb” a little more often and take us with you.
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The Open Pro-Am Ballroom Scholarships were not as large as their American Style counterparts, but the level of dancing was very high.
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Natasha Janey w/ Iaroslav Bieliei won a fairly tight race for the Open B winning 3 of the 5 dances to the runner-up Laura Shooks w/ Alexander Voskalchuk’s 2. Natahsa placed 2,2,1,1,1, Laura placed 1,1,2,2,2. Meredith Kaplan w/ Rudy Homm was 3rd in all dances. 4th Janet Simsic w/ Andrea Stefano 5,5,4,4,4; 5th Haily Ng w/ Andrii Mykhailov 4,4,5,5,5; 6th Laura White w/ Andrea Faraci 6,6,6,6,6; 7th Joyce Lo w/ Guennadi Iakounine 7,7,7,7,7.
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The Open D was a closely fought division that ultimately fell to Linda Gill w/ Luca Balestra with the scores of 2,2,1,3,1. Three ladies actually shared the first places in this division. 2nd went to Paige Riffle w/ Iaroslav Bieliei 1,3,2,2,2 and 3rd went to Hardy w/ Rudy Homm 3,1,3,1,3. The second half of this final was much more settled as each competitor finished in the same position in all dances. 4th Stetler w/ Alexander Voskalchuk; 5th Roy w/ Bezukladnikov; 6th Sue Gershowitz w/ Nikolai Pilipenchuk.
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Doing it Dallas Style!
Millennium Dancesport Championships is under way right now – but not in its more usual home, but in Dallas, TX.
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So far we have seen the pro-ams dance all levels of their Rhythm and Smooth divisions. We felt the Open Smooth Scholarships, danced last night, were of a very high standard – certainly among the best pro-am divisions we’ve seen so far this year. Although not quite as exemplary as the Smooth, the Rhythm also gave us some thrills. Here are the results from both styles.
The Rhythm night (Wednesday), was a great night for Nichelle Kennedy w/ Aleks Nashev who won both the Open B and Open C. She won all 5 dances in both divisions with the majority of 1st places. Really well done! 2nd in the B went to Julie Wolf w/ Gene Bersten and she also was 2nd in all dances. 3rd in all dances was Brittain Eliezer w/ Sergey Samchynskyy. 4th Natalia Zavodchikov w/ Dmitry Demidov 4,4,4,4,4; 5th Loren Rouke w/ Jhondarr Lopez 5,6,5,5,5; 6th Jill Winters-Bougard w/ Grigol Kranz 6,5,6,6,6.
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Several of the Open Smooth Scholarships began with a quarter-final round and produced some wonderful finals.
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Stay tuned for more pro-am and professional reports coming tomorrow.