The atmosphere magically envelopes us from the moment we land at Logan Airport, driving through the city of tunnels, walking through the park - perfectly located just across from the hotel and starting the day with a cup of refreshing coffee while enjoying a peaceful ride on a swan boat. The beauty and history of the city, paired with the traditional grace and elegance of the hotel, naturally set one up for an unforgettable weekend.
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I may be repeating myself in saying that, despite the huge progress in this style and its global attractiveness, we have abandoned something very essential - Fundamental Ballroom Technique (specifically footwork). Development and progress are wonderful, yet without foundation, there cannot be a lasting future. It reminds me a bit of the fashion industry - garments purchased in the beginning of the 1900s last to this day, yet new and very trendy items lose their quality after a single wash: high end or not, the quality of the past was made to last and today’s priority is to satisfy an instant/momentary need which will easily fade even from memory.
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The Professional Rhythm, on the contrary, produced astonishing results. The current US National and World Rhythm Champions, Andre and Natalie Paramanov, were defeated for the first time, by a rather new and very promising partnership, Francesco Arietta and Jesse Mae Briones. This was surely an upset for the Paromanovs. However, I’d like to commend them on their professionalism during the award presentation and their applause for the new winners. Professionalism, etiquette, and simply good manners are the basic requirements for anyone and even more so for such high ranking couples and finalists; however, there have been occasions (even at very recent competitions), where the couples demonstrated their dismay to the presenting adjudicators and observers: a behavior that is not appropriate for a professional athlete/dancer. Therefore, seeing the Paramanovs applauding for the new winners, made me feel that not everything is lost and that, despite feelings of disappointment, values and sportsmanship still exist in the our professional field. After all - competition is the name of the game and anyone should have an equal opportunity for winning based on performance.
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From my humble point of view, this is an event that keeps giving, an event that’s so welcoming and where success comes not only from running a good ‘Business’ but from cherishing and building on core values and history. In our society today, as well as our dance industry, there are times these components are not compatible due to certain choices. Yet when everything is done for the right reason, the true value of success is amplified and becomes inclusive of everything, creating an environment which to some extent has died out due to our obsession with ‘Success,’ to be the biggest and the best and always competing with others, instead of coming together and building a healthy and supportive community.
With this said, I’d like to send my sincere congratulations to the wonderful team of organizers of the DBDC - Didio Barrera, Chris Johnston, and Frank Miranda, as well as Keith Todd, Andy Fishel, and Audrey Heyun Paek, for creating yet another year of a successful and truly special event. Well done! And I am already looking forward to next year’s story in the making.