Sorry I’m late in posting again. Another problem with Godzilla last night — our run-ins are slowly coming to a head…

Anyway, one highlight to me last night was Mia Michaels echoing my love of Janette! She pronounced Janette “my favorite, favorite, favorite this season”! I of course love Janette too. There’s nothing she hasn’t been able to do. I don’t think she’s really received a single criticism yet on the show. Since this show honors versatility, at this point she is my favorite to win.

I also think though that Evan and Kayla are two of the best things to come out of this season. I honestly feel that the past two seasons generally have been duller than the first three, and sometimes I wonder what good this show really does for the dancers who appear on it. American Idol contestants go on to do huge things — acting in movies (and winning awards for their work), going on Broadway and becoming sensations, and of course becoming recording superstars — but I haven’t seen the dancers from this show reap those kinds of rewards. I do think with Evan and Kayla, Broadway could have found some new stars. I could see both of them up there on the Broadway stage, especially if, as Mia Michaels told Kayla, they can sing and act. I thought Kayla and Jasons’ Broadway routine was the hit of the night. The judges didn’t all agree with me and I think Nigel said they were “flat” but I thought it was fantastic. I thought Kayla in particular showed real star potential.

To me, Evan always shows that star potential. Another great Gene Kelly-ish solo from him last night. He reminds me so much of ABT’s Craig Salstein.

Continue reading ‘SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE TOP 8: JANETTE, EVAN AND KAYLA SHINE’

Joanna Leunis and Michael Malitowski won the Latin Pro Championship tonight at Blackpool (for the second year in a row now). Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko came in second, Franco Formica and Oxana Lebedew in third, Sergey Surkov and Melia fourth, Maurizio Vescovo and Melinda Torokgyorgy fifth, Markus Homm and Ksenia Kasper sixth.

Am fairly pleased with the results I guess… though unsurprising of course. At least Michael and Joanna didn’t win across the board; Riccardo and Yulia placed first in Jive. I like Joanna and Michael and think they’re an excellent pair; I just don’t want the judges to make all others wait until they retire to advance.

photo of Leunis and Malitowski taken from here.

Expecting a bit of commentary from Eleanor and Becca soon!

Update: Eleanor says:

“Last night was the best comp I have ever been to! Although the result is never gonna be what I want it to, there is something that made me very happy! Riccardo and Yulia placed 1st in the Jive! If I were to have my way then Maurizio wouldn’t be there but what can you do? The only other bad thing about the whole thing was that Riccardo and Yulia were in the same heat as Sergey and Melia so I usually had to choose between the two! Otherwise it was absolutely the best comp I have ever seen. Now I have to drag myself out of bed and hope I still have a voice. Xx Eleanor.”

[I personally like Maurizio though he can be a real ham Not my favorite, but I am always very entertained by him. I haven't seen him and Melinda dance in a while. And I don't think I've ever seen Markus Homm and Ksenia Kasper?... Also, I wonder what happened to Peter and Kristina Stokkebroe? I guess that's how Homm and Kasper got a place on the winners podium. Will be very interesting to see what happens next year when Slavik and Anna join the fracas!]

(photo from DanceBeat, taken by Andrew Miller)

Team USA won the team competition last night, as Eleanor and I had expected. Italy took second, Germany third and the UK fourth. We were beaten by Italy in Waltz and Germany in Jive, but other than that, we placed first in all dances. And — Eugene Katsevman and Maria Manusova were our second Latin couple! Go them! I was waiting to see who it’d be since Andrei Gavriline and Elena Kruyshkova retired and Anna Trebunskaya and Pavlo Barsuk seem, very upsettingly to me, to have broken up. I loved them, but oh well. Apparently with our introductory number, the Latin couples came out and did a Tango and Quickstep, then the ballroom couples did Jive and Cha Cha. According to my dispatch from Eleanor, and DanceBeat, it wowed the crowd! (Our second ballroom couple, as usual, was Victor Fung and Anna Mikhed). Eleanor also says Yulia and Riccardo are very good at Standard.

Visit DanceBeat and DanceBeatWorld for full reports.

Also, there seems to be no mention of this on DanceBeat, but Eleanor reports that Franco Formica (from team Germany) looked “mmmm” in tights and no top   Sounds very ballet!

Update: Aha, am reading up on DanceBeatWorld and seeing it WAS ballet! Formica impersonated Nureyev during their little opening introductory number! Fun! (The German team’s intro consisted of impersonations of Hollywood stars, but DBW calls Formica’s the greatest hit!; do read DBW for the rest: apparently in Italy’s opening number, the men acted as dogs and the ladies their handlers, champ Mirko Gozzoli being the unruliest dog of all, all over the stage and balcony! And England’s theme was the Circus, replete with acrobats and unicyclists, some of the senior champs of yesteryear — think Len Goodman-esque — dressed as animals. I love it.)

In another dispatch from the first day of Congress lectures, Becca reports of Sergey and Melia’s:

“Oh my GOD. Their lecture was the best I’ve ever seen in my life! They are so perfect, and they just got married too!”

Aw, I didn’t know that. Congratulations to them!

Eleanor writes:

“Just a little something about today for you. Best lectures [see post below for definition] were given by Max [Kozhevnikov] and Beata, and Sergey and Melia. Max spoke about how he gets his ideas for showdances and they performed their Charlie Chaplin number.

Sergey and Melia spoke about Rumba and did some gorgeous demos to different pieces of music showing the different interpretations. Then there was the Chrisanne one, which I featured in … am just thankful that 99.9% of the dance world don’t know who I am because I have a feeling the DVD is going to be embarrassing.

Also the World Exhibition champions, Greg and Natalie, gave a fab final lecture.

Just waiting for the team match to start now, Germany instead of Japan. US will win by miles in my opinion!

Eleanor x”

Thanks Eleanor!

So, I haven’t seen Max Kozhevnikov and Beata’s Charlie Chaplin dance, but looked it up on YouTube here. Look at that fancy footwork for Max! I seriously love Max in this! I didn’t know they were dancing together (and I think it’s only for showdances not for competition) but I like them together!

So sorry I missed Sergey and Melia’s lecture. I love Rumba, and I love theirs and would have savored seeing their different interpretations. I think I will try to buy the DVD this year if it’s not too expensive — also to see the Chrisanne show (which I’m sure won’t be embarrassing to anyone )!

And so tonight is the team comp (see prior post for more info on that too). I guess the four teams are the UK, the US, Germany and Italy. The way the team match works is that each country’s two best couples in each dance style – -Standard and Latin (so four couples total) take turns dancing two rounds of each individual dance (Rumba, Cha Cha, etc., and same for Standard). The scores are then added together and the country with the highest scores win that dance. Then, the scores for all nine dances are added together and the country with the highest score overall wins. I agree that the US will probably win, since we have two of the top couples in the world in each dance style — Riccardo & Yulia in Latin and Katusha & Arunas in Standard, whereas none of the other countries have top dancers in both (just one or the other). Last year was the first year the US ever won, by the way. We’ll see.

The Blackpool Dance Festival has begun and for the first time in four years I’m missing it. So sad. I felt like I needed to save on expenses this year with the recession and all, and I was disappointed that my favorite, Slavik Kryklyvyy, likely wouldn’t be competing again, and I was aggravated with the predictability of last year’s results and figured I’m going to get frustrated all over again. So, I decided to take a year off.

But, thankfully, two wonderful young ladies from England, Eleanor and Becca, who I met from this blog, are going to do some little write-ups on the goings on later this week. They are fans of Sergey Surkov and Melia, so they’re rather perfect for this blog In fact, today, they are modeling in the Chrisanne ballgown show in the pavilion, along with Melia!

(Here’s a picture I took in the past of the runway)

Chrisanne boutique in the pavilion.

I’ll also be keeping up via Dance Beat.

Today and tomorrow are the increasingly popular daytime Congress lectures on things like technique, performance quality dancing, and ballroom dance history by the top pros of today and yesterday, and tonight is the ridiculously exciting but somewhat goofy country team competition. The two most important nights of the week will be Wednesday and Friday, Wednesday being the Pro Latin and Friday the Pro Standard. I’ll be rooting for Sergey and Melia of course, along with the top U.S. couples Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko in Latin, Katusha Demidova and Arunas Bizokas in Standard.

Standard champion Mirko Gozzoli from Italy giving a Congress lecture,

after giving a demo of mouthwatering splended perfection with partner Alessia Betti.

Former champs the charmingly funny Luca Baricchi, with his partner Lorraine, doing the same.

American team’s elegant team comp intro from two years ago.

And last year’s. Still not sure where we were going with that what goes on in the teepee theme…

I’m excited though to be in NY for all of ballet season, for the first time in a long time this year. Between ABT and NYCB I don’t think I’ve missed a day of ballet in the past week.

But, still, it’s always nice to go away. Some of my favorite pics from the past:

(an unusually warm May day in the northern sea-side town)

Riccardo Cocchi rocking it out with his former partner, Joanne.

Karina Smirnoff when she last competed.

Sergey and Melia the first time I saw them dance and the first time they placed in the finals. Kind of funny, it looks a bit like he’s spanking her here

On the train ride from Manchester to  Blackpool. Sheep! I know, why do Americans always take such pictures? It’s like we don’t have any such animals here…

Curry dinner from Taka Dance’s Japanese restaurant, which they set up in the base of the Winter Garden for the duration of the festival.

Slavik with Elena Khvorova, last time I saw Slavik compete.

Max and Yulia’s advert page in the program the year they made the top six.

The nearby beach. Pretty but cold.

Cheesy, Vegas-y “Eiffel Tower” that houses a lot of casinos and pinball machines, along with pseudo-Vegas-type shows.

Day trip to Liverpool, in between Latin and Standard finals.

The always happening Ruskin Hotel where people like Maks Chmerkovskiy can often be found.

Arunas and Katusha in last year’s finals.

(Above, a couple of pics of her and her partner, Igor Mikushov, I took at, it looks like, the Manhattan Dancesport Championships)

I’d gone to ABT last night and got home right before the DWTS winner was announced and so didn’t have to watch the whole show to see who won. I was so high on my night at ABT I’d totally forgotten about the DWTS pro results!

EEEEE, Anna! I’m so happy for her. I’ve long admired her, watching her dance at Blackpool and the US Nationals here and the other comps. And of course her sister is the reigning Queen of Standard. I actually hope this can bring greater recognition to Katusha Demidova and her partner Arunas Bizokas.

They are a contemporary Fred and Ginger. I’m not exaggerating one smidgeon. I’m not. I truly believe anyone who has the chance to see them dance will think the same. The only reason they’re not as famous is because those MGM movies aren’t around these days. Otherwise, they’d be stars.

I really thought everyone would go for a hot, sexy Latin dancer. (Not that I’d blame them if Slavik Kryklyvyy or Sergey Surkov was a contender!) But I’m beyond thrilled America went for elegance and romance and sophisticated, high-end glamour. Maybe there’s hope for ballet to make a mainstream comeback…

I was in the bookstore the other day looking for literary magazines and somehow got caught up in the latest issue of Vogue Hommes International. I’ve been a fan of Keanu Reeves all the way back since River’s Edge (honestly) and I saw on the cover that there was an interview inside with Bret Easton Ellis (novelist, Less Than Zero, American Psycho, Glamorama, etc. etc.) Interview with BEE is pretty funny, actually, in a way it likely wasn’t intended to be. IE: interviewer: So, you were an icon in, like the 80’s. BEE: Yeah, it was hard being an icon. And confusing. Seriously. I’d get in a fight with my boyfriend and I’d be like, wait, you can’t criticize me; I’m an icon!” But my favorite BEE quote is here.

Anyway, I was flipping through and there are all these little mini interviews with and photos of writers (Stefan Merrill Block too!), architects, actors and filmmakers, of course designers and models.

(French actor / filmmaker Louis Garrel by Bruce Weber, images from here)

But not a single dancer anywhere. Why not? They’d make such good models

(photos of Sebastien Marcovici and Robert Fairchild by Paul Kolnik, from NYCB website)

(Jose Carreno and Roberto Bolle by Tommy Ng, from ExploreDance)

(David Hallberg and Herman Cornejo in Gene Schiavone pic, from here)

(Sergey Surkov, my photo; Slavik Kryklyvyy from here)

(Arunas Bizokas, my photo; Linas Koreiva, from here and here)

Vogue Hommes should so hire me to compile a dancer spread! Fabrizio Ferri can do the pictures. Maybe Bruce Weber, though he can get kind of cliched and corny… No, Fabrizio.

Then, yesterday, I saw Valentino: The Last Emperor, which was pretty good. The Dolce Vita-esque scenes were the best   And it reminded me of Fashion Week’s being moved from Bryant Square to Lincoln Center, and I thought how excellent (and fitting of course) it would be to have NYCB and ABT ballerinas as the models, an idea Kristin Sloan had proposed on the Winger a while back. Ballerinas generally have far better bodies than models. Come on!

(Stella Abrera, photo by Nancy Ellison, taken from here)

(Irina Dvorovenko, from ABT website)

(Janie Taylor, by Paul Kolnik, from ExploreDance)

How sweet would Janie look in this Valentino gown (middle, pink, image from here)

And Irina in this (image, here):

Results from the UK National Championships, held this week in Bournemouth (and one of the most prestigious in the world) are now up.

Sergey Surkov and Melia, Blackpool Congress 2008, photo by Tonya Plank

Sergey and Melia take third in Latin!!! Woo hoo! They must have been so happy! And I’m so happy for them!

Slavik and Hanna didn’t do so hot though — they received a disappointing 6th place. Oh well, better next time.

Other placements were predictable:

Continue reading ‘U.K. Championship Results are In!’

People are going to hate me for this…

Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.

T-Mobile

On a scale of one to ten, Hanna is a ten, Slavik a 20000. In other words, no match. No match at all. I’m seriously depressed.

Update:Â Now that I’m home, I’m re-thinking this. I just think my expectations were so high for a Slavik and Hanna Karttunen partnership because I’ve found her so mesmerizing in her exhibitions. I just felt like her Latin wasn’t all there. Maybe she just had a bad night. Maybe she wasn’t feeling well. Or maybe good women just tend to suffocate under the weight of great male partners. But why? I think when a woman is dancing with a great man — one who’s both uber-charismatic and technically excellent with mind-boggling speed and precision of movement — she really needs to find herself, to bring out her artistry. We’re never going to be as good as the men in the athletic department, so we need to excel in other ways. I think I remember Melia saying something like that during her and Sergey’s Blackpool Congress lecture — she had to work hard to find her own “voice” to keep from getting lost under Sergey’s strength.

I just felt like even though she has great flexibility and has lovely extensions, etc., Hanna was really just all but invisible tonight.

On the other hand, Slavik! Slavik had people screaming. This girl next to me moaned loudly in ecstasy when he started to play with his suspenders, and she got so embarrassed her head practically ended up in my lap, but how much could I relate I realized this is actually the first time I’ve ever actually seen him perform live. I’ve only ever seen him compete before. He is a performer beyond any other I’ve ever seen — and I mean any — ballet (Marcelo Gomes, Angel Corella), modern, flamenco (Joaquin Cortes) — I mean everyone and every kind of dance included. It’s quite impossible to exaggerate the man’s performance ability.

And, among other things, I really don’t see how it’s humanly possible for anyone’s pelvis to move as fast as that man’s does…

And then, at one point he took the microphone and gave a little speech. Said he lived and worked in New York for a few years, back when he was competing for the United States (with Karina Smirnoff) — everyone cheered like nuts — and that New York and the U.S. in general occupied a special place in his heart, it’s “part of my soul.” A bunch of people went “ooooooh, aaaaawww,” and he looked out and smiled and said something that made people nearly fling themselves to the floor. I wish I could have heard what he said — his Russian accent is pretty strong.

Anyway, more thoughts on this later. It’s been a long day and I’m tired…

(photo by Roman Stetsyk, taken from here)

Yesterday I went to see a play about choreographer George Balanchine (which I’ll post about as soon as I have time; I have about 10,000 things to write about and that’s really not much of an exaggeration). My ballroom friend, Mika, came with me, which was wonderful because I hadn’t seen her in a while and needed to get caught up on all the ballroom gossip She’s just returned from Internationals, held at Royal Albert Hall in London — so jealous; I really wanted to go to that this year. Anyway, we were chatting about the Latin results and she noted that Slavik Kryklyvyy (one of my two favorite Latin dancers; the other, Sergey Surkov, was unfortunately injured and couldn’t compete), was there watching but still didn’t compete with his newish partner, Hanna Karttunen. Word had it that he got cold feet; didn’t feel up to it. He did the same in May at Blackpool, though. He wandered through the crowd, watching, with a forlorn expression that nearly made me cry, live competitions and videos vendors were showing of past competitions that included him and Karina Smirnoff. Funny, my friend even saw him stretching at one point, before competitors were called onto the floor. As if he were competing. People kept coming up to him and asking for photos, asking him if he would be dancing, and he just kept repeating, “Not this year, sorry,” sounding sadder each time.

Last year when he and Elena Khvorova (who’s now dancing with Andrej Skufca — the couple placed third at Albert Hall — for people who are interested) were a new couple, he did the same thing. But that year, they came to US Nationals and tried out their new partnership in the open to the world category. So, I thought he and Hanna might do the same this year, but they didn’t.

I hope he gets up the nerve to compete soon because people, for one thing, MISS HIM (unless google analytics is lying to me, he’s consistently been the way most new readers have found this blog. And, to my knowledge he’s never been on any of the TV shows, so his fame comes just from his spectacular work on the ballroom floor) and, for another, are getting worried judges are going to start being dismissive, forgetting about him, making a comeback harder. And real-life ballroom judges, lord knows, unlike their TV counterparts, are completely immune from public opinion.

Anyway, happily, he doesn’t seem to have an issue with showdancing. Here’s a video of him and Hanna — video quality is not the best, but if you know ballroom, and if you know him, you can tell they look in great form. Also, commenter Shim alerted me that they are to dance at Columbia University’s Big Apple Dancesport Challenge, on December 6th! I just hope that’s not restricted to Columbia students…

Just wanted to remind New Yorkers (and anyone traveling to NY in the near future) that Fall For Dance tickets go on sale this Sunday, 9/7, at 11 a.m. Tickets are $10 if you choose to stand in line at the City Center box office (which I don’t recommend), or $15 (with $5 surcharge) if you book online. Tickets sell out very quickly, usually within a day or two. Here’s the schedule and lineup of artists.

Also, this weekend is the Evening Stars series of free performances at Battery Park. Tonight is Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, tomorrow night Rasta Thomas’s Bad Boys of Dance, and Sunday night Los Vivancos flamenco group. All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Go here for more info.

Outside of New York, this weekend is the United States National Dance Championships (most important Latin Ballroom event in the country) in Florida, which for the first time in a couple of years, I am not attending. Sad day. I will definitely keep my eyes peeled for results. I expect Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko to take tops in Latin, and Arunas Bizokas and Katusha Demidova in Standard but am always happy for a surprise. If anyone is there, please let me know what’s going on, and who all’s there for the World events! If I miss Slavik or Sergey I am not going to be happy.

I’m having some internet connection problems (Time Warner can’t come out till the end of the blasted week!), but am trying to post as many pictures as I can between crashes. I’m updating (have about 300 in all, but am trying to narrow it down to 100-150), but here is my photo album thus far.

I hate blackpool.

Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.

Sergey and melia placed 4th overall, even behind the utterly boring stokkebroes. Everyone who cares about these stupid comps knew beforehand who would place first so i won’t bother to say. Yulia danced better w/ max but she and riccardo placed 2nd.

Sergey melts me

Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.

His and melia’s paso is unbeatable. Couple 184 just did a very original jive – will have to figure out who they are…

Sergey and melia!

Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.

His congress lecture was very good – very personable making fun of himself when screwing up his english etc! Their paso was breathtaking – inspired by “carmen” and garcia lorca -passionate, tragic,.. I realized why i love them so…

Well, I had really wanted either Arunas Bizokas and Katusha Demidova or Jose Decamps and Joanna Zacharewicz to win, but I understand why Andrei Gavriline and Elena Kryuschkova (pictured above, photo by Jeffrey Dunn from America’s Ballroom Challenge site) did. As host Ron Montez said, they are by far the couple with the most experience dancing together. The judges value that longevity and commitment, and they’re the most used to each other. While I thought their Rhumba long program was a perfect representation of that dance, flawlessly executed with a very difficult lift, where he rolled her not only down but up and down again all in the same breath, I still can’t help but be a slight bit bored by them. Still can’t figure out why. On the other hand, I’m not in love with Standard and yet I can’t take my eyes of Katusha.

The minute she and Arunas leave the floor I’m sad and want them back. To me it says something that I’m not in love with their dance style but they still take my breath away. And she looks so much better with him than with her former partner, Jonathan Wilkins. Their long program just blew me away, from their frame, their sweep, their elegance — they’re a world class couple and it shows. Of all competitors in tonight’s championship, Katusha is the highest ranked internationally, placing second with Jonathan last year at Blackpool. Andrei and Elena didn’t even make the semifinals.

(photo above by Jeffrey Dunn) I loved Jose Decamps too — no one does the Mambo like he does. No one! No one does those crazy lightening fast-jumps and has all that liquid upper body action. The Afro-Cuban styling at the beginning with all that back movement and those rib-cage isolations — that was insane! It’s like he’s a rubber band! The man has no vertebra. The problem with them as a couple is that I think he outperforms Joanna by miles. She’s a good dancer, but he’s so much better that there’s a lack of balance. He can’t help it of course. He shouldn’t dance down. Who was his last partner; does anyone know? I know he was once with Cheryl Burke, but that was a while ago, I thought. Well, my advice to the top Rhythm people is: Joanna and Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine should get back together, and Jose needs a new partner.

And J.T. Thomas and Tomas Mielnicki: I like them a lot and I know how much she loves Broadway theater-style dance. They constructed a perfect foxtrot / cabaret routine, with each dance shown in equal measure and some nice connections between them. But I just think Broadway dance doesn’t look right unless it’s on a stage. With singing. And a loud, live band. I preferred their short routine, the creative combo of Argentine and Standard tango.

And all those “ballroom cameos” in the exhibitions — how fun! Max Kozhevnikov and Yulia Zagoruychenko on twice made my night I love that “Rhythm Section” routine. It’s a classic for them and it never loses its charm. I love her razor sharp precision. She just nails every movement, and I love how they play with the rhythms and switch back and forth between them so fluently. I think he’s a wonderful guy, but I do think she outdances him. So, though I’ll miss them as a couple, I think their split was for the best, and I can’t wait to see her with her new partner, Riccardo Cocchi.

And what a treat were Valentin Chmerkovskiy and Valeriya Kozharinova! Ooh, he’s just so sexy! He reminds me a bit of (top pro dancer) Sergey Surkov. Valentin and Valeriya are an amateur couple, as are the last couple to perform, Anna Demidova and Igor Mikushov. Both do well in amateur comps, particularly the latter couple. Couples like these are what I mean by competitive amateur dancers who have sponsors, dance full-time, and are nearly as good as their pro counterparts. You’ll recognize the last names of Valentin and Anna — they both come from big dance families

I really enjoyed Ron Montez. He was very good at explaining what the judges looked for and what was good about each couple. And he taught you some vocabulary as well. I learned a lot from him, particularly in the Standard and Smooth divisions, which I don’t know as well as Latin. I hope he returns next year.

Finally, I have to say, I’m so glad they did that little segment on John DePalma, the announcer. If you ever go to a competition in the U.S. — and everyone should! — his voice will become so familiar to you, you’ll be hearing it in your sleep for days. I always wondered about him, where he came from and how he got this job, so now I know! He’s at practically every comp in this country; those words, “Who’s your favorite couple, ladies and gentlemen?!” — Haha, I haven’t been to a championship in a while now (had to miss the New York Dance Festival this weekend, sadly…) but his voice and his words kind of bring me there anyway.

Uh, I’m sad it’s over for another year… They need to televise far far more of these.

Sorry it’s taken me so long to get this Ballroom Challenge post up!!! (All pictures by the way, except mine from Blackpool below, by Jeffrey Dunn, taken from America’s Ballroom Challenge website).

I loved Vaidotas Skimelis and Jurga Pupelyte’s retro hustle-y disco-y Cha Cha / Samba! He moved so well; I’ve never seen his hips move like that! The routine had a great sense of humor and charm. I loved his bouncing around on one leg, the other extended out, their excellent lift sequence, the 70s-style costumes, and that great, very disco-y death spiral they ended with. All so Studio 54; all such fun!

Funny because Anna Trebunskaya and Pavlo Barsuk did a retro routine as well; theirs more jive-y and from the 50s-60s, although I felt theirs didn’t have as much spark and fun period flavor as Vaidotas and Jurga’s. At Blackpool last year there was a very popular lecture on the history of Latin dance, where the speaker used several currently competing dancers to demonstrate the looks and moves of the past, tracing them to the present. It was so interesting to see how the dances have changed over the years, becoming faster, the footwork more intricate and the movement much sharper. And with each decade you could see outside popular cultural influences; the 70s period replete with hilarious Saturday Night Fever moves. Of course we laugh now, but back then it was brilliant the way contemporary dance meshed with classical ballroom. It made me wonder what period we’re in right now? Hip hop? The movements are so sharp, so staccato, I wonder if Hip Hop (the club dance of our day) and break dancing have had something to do with it?? Hmm. Anyway, I just thought I’d include a couple of my pictures from that lecture here:

Here is the 50s style. How adorable is that dress! The couples danced so slowly compared to today, they danced much farther apart from each other (it being the 50s and all) and everything was very “cutesy,” meaning, the hips were less connected to the lats (back muscles), so it looked like the butt was kind of shaking cutely on its own instead of the hips being compelled to move by the shoulder blade forcing the lats down and compressing the lower back into the hip socket. (Remember the perfect Rhumba walks exhibited by Yulia Zagoruychenko in the opening exhibition? The hips are more connected to the rest of the body now; whereas back then it was more like the dancers were walking toward their toes, lightly, and, with their hips uncontrolled by the upper body, it made for a rather dainty booty-swaying action).

Here’s the cute 60s style Cha Cha, the couples still barely touching each other to maintain “a safe distance.” See how her entire body sways to one side though?

Here’s the 70s couple with their hilarious costumes and John Travolta arms.

And this couple — my love Sergey Surkov and his Melia — demonstrated the contemporary Rhumba. See how, in contrast to the 60s couple above, her body is straight, only the hip slightly beginning to settle to one side? Now, the active parts of the body move one at a time, first the foot takes a step, then the shoulder pushes down on the lat muscle, pushing down on the lower back, which compels the hip to settle. It’s much more stylized, more controlled, and more subtle than the hip-swaying / entire-body-swaying movement of yore. And much harder!

Anyway, back to America’s Ballroom Challenge.

I loved Delyan Terziev and Boriana Deltcheva’s “Money Money Money” routine from Cabaret. And I love that they used the newer, Alan Cumming version of the song! I loved the way Delyan moved his back, the way he curved his shoulders up and over so he was hunching intentionally awkwardly at times. He kind of inhabited the decadence of Weimar, the corruption of money, in his body, the way Cumming’s Emcee did in the play. And her dress and bob were cute and she did the seductive Sally Bowles well too. I thought this was one of their better routines and I was sorry the judges didn’t rank them higher.

I also noticed, both in group and solo routines Andre Paramonov and Natalie like I never have before. Maybe they come across better on camera than in person since they’re a bit smaller than the others?… I don’t know, but he dances with a lot of character and charm, shows a lot of expression on his face, and she has beautiful extensions and ballet-based technique. Some of those lunges and the dip she’s doing in the picture above were breathtaking.

And I just want to say something about Ilya Ifraimov and Nadia Golina, who did this robotic thing that reminded me a bit of Gary and Rita Gekhman’s techno Standard showdance from a couple of years ago. It wasn’t my thing as I’m thinking it wasn’t for a lot of people, but the judges placed them first because in the showdances they seem to value creativity and uniqueness over all else. This, I think is where Jonathan Roberts was coming from with that rather odd-looking routine he created for Marie Osmond on Dancing With the Stars last season that he received so much public scrunity over. These competition judges go wild for these kind of odd-looking routines, sometimes the more out of the ordinary the better.

And finally, the winners, Andrei Gavriline and Elena Kryuchkova. I find their showdances to be rather bland, actually. Andrei used to teach at my old studio, so he’d perform in the showcases first with his students in the student section, then with Elena in the pro portion. Pasha and Anya though were always the main draw, their showdances having loads more flavor, cool tricks, and just overall pizzazz, though they were never ranked as high as Andrei and Elena in the comps. I think Andrei and Elena have excellent Latin technique and a quiet, subtle charm, but, while understated works in group dances, it doesn’t for showdances. I do think they deserved to win the overall.

It’s very weird, but I feel that Andrei on his own is one of the most amazing dancers I’ve ever seen. And on his own he seems to have a decent amount of charisma. But together they’re lacking in that department, and that’s extremely nonsensical given how in love they are and how much attention he showers on her, both during dance and outside the ballroom (I’ve seen them together a lot and they’re always all over each other!) Ballroom dance is all about partnership, though, so they have to learn how to have appeal as a couple. How do you teach that: how to have charisma when dancing together? All I know is, they need to take it up several notches if they ever want to achieve real popularity with the crowd. If that’s what they want.

Going over my notes, as far as the group numbers: I love that the camera guy focused so on Vaidotas and Jurga. Thanks camera guy! I guess others find them charismatic as well… I liked Anna and Pavlo’s close, cheek-to-cheek Argentine tango handhold at the beginning of their Cha Cha. It was different. Anna also had some great moves, some beautiful ronde de jambes en l’air (one leg circling the air), particularly coming out of a deep lunge. I liked Natalie’s beautiful Rhumba splits, which she did several times, making good use of her long legs and flexibility. I loved Delyan and Boriana’s costumes, the cherry red making them stand out brightly. They’ve moved up a notch, by the way, regularly surpassing Ilya and Nadia in the standings now, very unusual in Latin.

That’s another thing: Ron Montez kept saying he had high expectations for Anna and Pavlo, thinking they’d be at the top and possibly even winners, since they’re a new couple who’s shot up the charts recently. He should know though, unless something has changed since his day as a champ, that precisely because they’re a couple new to the finals, they would place at the bottom. Those are the ironclad rules of ballroom dancing that make these competitions so frustrating. Pavlo and Anna placed in the finals because Max and Yulia didn’t compete (Yulia, by the way, is not retired, as Montez said; only Max Kozhevnikov, her old partner with whom she danced in the exhibition, retired. She is now dancing with Italian dancer Riccardo Cocchi, but wasn’t yet ready to compete with him when this competition was filmed); last year Pasha Kovalev and Anya Garnis’s departure from competition allowed Vaidotas and Jurga into the finals. It was a given therefore that Vaidotas and Jurga would place fifth, Pavlo and Anna sixth, being the second-newest and newest respectively. That’s just the way things work. I could have told you the finalist positions before the comp happened, as could anyone who regularly attends these things.

One last thing. For anyone who tuned in a bit early and saw the end of the McNeil Lehrer Newshour where Mr. Lehrer was talking about the New York Times article arguing PBS was no longer necessary, here is that article. Regarding this show in particular, the writer, Charles McGrath, argues that PBS is now, in an attempt to get audiences, copying the networks by putting on a dance competition of their own. Mr. McGrath obviously didn’t know that this was a real competition, not a reality show of the kind seen on the networks. He also wasn’t aware that these PBS ballroom competitions have been around now for well over a decade. It’s true that they went off the air for a couple of years due to lack of funding. But they have long been a mainstay of public television. Dancing With the Stars has been around for, what, two years now? I don’t think America’s Ballroom Challenge is doing any “copying.”

I know, it doesn’t exactly have the ring of “Oh, Marcelo Marcelo Marcelo!” does it? Hehe, oh we so love our Eastern European dancers and their ever so fun names (and their ingenuousness at not even thinking to Americanize them…)! But, though he looks nothing like him, Vaidotas Skimelis (whom I’ve been on about here and there throughout the comp) actually kind of reminds me of my favorite ballet dancer, mainly because of their large sizes and the kind of virility that almost naturally entails. I mean, large bone structure is difficult with Latin because speed is so important to the style — and certainly Vaidotas’s jive will never look anything like winner Max Kozhevnikov’s. But still, I like his size — as I do Marcelo’s — there’s something so sexy and romantic about a big hunk of a guy, right Plus, difference is good! Who wants all the dancers to look the same whether it’s Latin or ballet — boring, I say!

One of the not horrible things about Pasha and Anya leaving (at least for now) the competition world is that it made room for Vaidotas and his lovely plum-haired partner, Jurga Pupelyte, to be seen, to make it to the top ranks, where they most definitely belong. I only wish he didn’t live in California! As one of the only non-tiny Latin dancers, he’d be perfect size-wise for me as a teacher. But of course I shouldn’t even be thinking of private lessons because they are too expensive! So, good rather that he lives all the way out in California…

Anyway, here are a few more pics of my favorite couples and other stuff I did in Florida:

Emmanuel Pierre Antoine and Julia Gorchakova, a super fun couple with creative routines and great show quality whom I wanted to take American Rhythm, but who ended up placing third.

Matt and Karen Hauer, semifinalists in American Rhythm and second-place finishers in the National Mambo championships, who teach at my former studio. He does do a mean Mambo, I think second only to Jose DeCamps’s, and they’re young and in love and cute and their dancing reflects all that

America’s sweethearts, Anna Mikhed and Victor Fung, second-place, as always, in International Standard. Okay, they may not be as perfect technique-wise as Jonathan Wilkins and Katusha Demidova, but they’re the king and queen of charm, those two.

The adorable Anna Trebunskaya (from Dancing W/ Stars) and her new partner, Pavlo Barsuk. They placed sixth in the finals, which is excellent for them.

Hehe, am I a paparazzi in the making or what? Here’s her hubby Jonathan Roberts (the brown-haired guy here, also of DWTS) intently watching her. She’d look out in the audience for him and he’d give her a little wave and a wink and she’d smile like she was on cloud nine. So cute!

Very sexy Latin couple that I like a lot, Nikolai Shpakov and Tatiana Banko. Friends keep telling me Nikolai (who resides in NY) would be a good teacher for me … But of course I am not listening since I can’t afford ballroom lessons anymore…

Aw, the just-displaced now former National Latin champs Andrei Gavriline and Elena Kruychkova. They are an immensely good couple and no one flies across that dance floor like Andrei. He’s truly beautiful to watch; so slender and light-footed his feet sometimes look inches above the parkay. And I certainly don’t think it’s impossible for them to get their title back at some point in the future; I just think others need to be given a chance as well. And this was simply Max and Yulia’s year.

Speaking of the new champs… look at Yulia’s gorgeous arch! How is she even supporting herself like that?

An American Smooth couple I like, Eulia Baranovsky and Stephen Dougherty. I actually thought they’d win, but they placed fourth or fifth. So, I was off on that! I think that couples like these two and the winners J.T. Damalas and Tomasz Mielnicki are bringing the life back into what was becoming a rather staid and boring style. The Smooth championships, placed between Latin heats though they were, were actually really exciting to me for once.

Another Latin couple, Andrei Strinedko and Olga Kinnard, who caught my eye big time this comp. A lot of women wearing these shiny gold dresses this year… What I really love about this photo though is that they are doing my very favorite Latin dance step in all of life, a Samba roll in shadow position. From here, they’ll arch far back together in beautiful unison, then they’ll bend way forward from the waist and then back again making a circle with their upper bodies while doing a hip-rolling side step across the dance floor. It’s hard because you have to be in perfect harmony or you’ll step all over each other’s feet or bop him in the crotch with your butt or whack him upside the face with your arm (I know all of this because…) , but gorgeous when done properly

Another proud paparazzi photo of mine This is Nick Kosovich who designs the dresses for Dancing W/ Stars (and he appeared in the show a couple of seasons ago — partnered Tatum O’Neal). When he was on the show I thought he was a bit nerdy-looking, but after seeing him in person at the last few competitions, I realized how good-looking this man actually is. Tall dark and handsome Aussie! He’s retired from competition but at Blackpool did this James Bond-styled showcase with his partner, who I’m pretty sure is his wife and they really blew me away, which is highly odd since they’re Standard dancers. Anyway, the fact that he is so gorgeous makes my former stupid “breast” experience with him all the more embarrassing… (he was the “Austrailian guy” / “LeNique guy” — as I later found out — in this post).

More Latin favorites of mine — Delyan Terziev and Boriana Deltcheva, who placed third, moving up a whole three notches from last year! Good for them; they’ve been working very hard and they deserve it. To me, this couple is one of the most artistic. She moves just like a spider and she’s just bewitching. She kind of reminds me of a Latin, raven-haired version of ballerina Janie Taylor, with her kind of ethereal, goddess-like sexiness.

Andrej Skufca and Katarina Venturini from Slovenia who competed in the Open-to-the-World Latin category on Saturday night. This is the competition I was hoping my favorites Slavik Kryklyvyy and Sergey Surkov would participate in, as they did last year, but oh well. Andrej and Katarina (4th in the world in Latin, right behind Slavik & partner Elena) were the only top couple to compete, so it was rather boring; they easily took first. For some reason, Max & Yulia didn’t stay and compete in this category, like they did last year. Not sure what happened. Maybe they were too tired. I hope no one was injured … that’s happened before in competition, couples injured during last-minute practice. Anyway, I loved Katarina’s bright emerald dress. Looked spectacular with her carrotty hair (which I personally love, though I know that opinion is most definitely not shared by all )

Look who this is!! They had the hallway leading down to the ballroom lined with blown-up pictures of former champions. This one’s of Tony Meredith and Melanie Lapatin (choreographers from SYTYCD) in their heyday, circa 1995! Look how young he is — such a little cutie!

Ewwwwww!!!! It was some ungodly hour of the morning and comps were still going on (judging by the rows behind us, I think many departed the ballroom already, save us insane diehards) and I, not being a late night owl, am half dead here, no makeup and flat as a pancake hair thanks to the lovely Florida humidity. Plus the angle gives me a quintuple chin. Oh well. Michele, my roommate for the comp, is being herself

Okay, I am almost done, I swear. I took one day off from comp-spectating and went to Epcot Center. I’ve never been to Disney World though, growing up in Phoenix, went often to nearbyish Disneyland as a child. So, of all of the parks, I chose Epcot because I figured, not to sound like a dork, but I so loved the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disney as a kid, I figured I’d have the most patience and respect for one that introduces children to the world beyond our borders. But I found it disappointing, and this picture epitomized why. It was so Disney-fied — the cartoons completely overtook the exhibits. Everything was so cheesy, not at all educational. “Viva Donald”?? Great way to introduce kids to a foreign language. Maybe I’m misremembering things and my child’s mind over-glorified them, but, a bunch of silly dolls though they were, that Small World ride really made me promise myself that I’d go to Argentina, Holland, Spain, etc. one day. The dolls were so sweet and their costumes so beautiful. And everyone singing that song in their native language sounding so mellifluous — definitely made me so curious to hear more (and I did take a ridiculous amount of foreign language classes in high school and college). And who wouldn’t be enthralled with Africa by that nutty laughing hyena! I don’t know, maybe if I went on that ride again, I’d feel differently, but it definitely gave me an appreciation for foreign culture as a child. I can’t imagine this doing the same at all. Kids are too busy laughing at the stupid cartoon characters, and the adults buying all the horrendously cheesy souvenirs.

A great celebration of Italian culture for sale. It was like you paid $75 just to be able to buy a bunch of souvenirs. I don’t get it…

This guy demonstrating how to extract pearls from oysters in the Japanese souvenir shop was okay. Demo was interesting and the guy pretty flamboyant.

Returning to NY. Could they have blurted over the loudspeaker one more time at the Orlando airport that the alert level had been raised to orange / four, and we were all to exercise great caution in leaving bags unattended, etc. And then there had to be some crazy hurricane off the coast of North Carolina. I’m a nervous flyer man! Fellow fearful flyers have recommended Valium, but I don’t like drugs. I much prefer alcohol. In case of emergency, you can always talk yourself out of being drunk; not the same if knocked out cold by prescription medication! This wine, by Best Cellars, was pretty good.

Anyway, okay I’m done, I’m done! Thanks for humoring me and my ballroom fetish, you guys

I’m over slavik and sergey

Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.

Bc andreij sculfca & katarina venturini (from slovenia) r here. 4th in the world – woo hoo!!

Bummed about open latin tonight

Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.

Accd to program, neither slavik nor sergey – my 2 faves in the world entered this yr.

April had recently asked me where she could get a video of the Dance Times Square showcase I’d blogged about earlier containing Pasha and Anya’s brilliant performances. I directed her to contact the studio itself, as they usually have a professional videographer at the showcase. However, the videos have in prior years included only the student showcases, presumably to prevent choreography-stealing. But, in the last couple of showcases the student performances have been so interspersed with the professionals’ that the videographer has just included them all on the DVD. Anyway, if anyone contacts DTS about the videos, just make sure you ascertain that Pasha and Anya’s pro showcases are on there! Don’t worry; they won’t mind if you ask — they understand!

It occurred to me, though, that there are other places you can find videos of Pasha and Anya dancing, along with other stars of the dancesport world Two years ago, in May 2005, they competed at the Blackpool Dance Festival in England and placed second in the Professional Latin Rising Star category . Quasar Videos makes DVDs of three of the competitions that take place there each year: the Professional, Amateur, and Professional Rising Star. I found the 2005 Pro Rising Star on this website. You can probably order directly from Quasar as well. They’re expensive though (I think they’re around $100). These are live filmed ballroom competitions, so all of the finalists are on the floor at once — they’re not individual showcases like on SYTYCD. But, for people who’ve never seen one, these ballroom competitions are so cool! And Anya had THE most gorgeous costumes that year — one white, one black! It’s too bad that they don’t include all of the competitions on one DVD (meaning Professional and Rising Star Pro) because you’d get to see all of the most awesome dancers (like my loves Slavik Kryklyvyy and Sergey Surkov ). But you will still see some breathtaking ballroom dancing — both Latin and Standard.

They also competed in the Ohio Star Ball two years ago (2005), and that was filmed and shown on PBS as “America’s Ballroom Challenge.” If you missed that earlier competition when it aired on PBS (it was from 2005, not last year — they had to miss last year because of an illness), you may be able to purchase a DVD of it through PBS or ABC. If you’re able to get a hold of that one, you will witness how popular Pasha and Anya are with the dancesport crowd. People were NOT happy when they didn’t take one of the first three spots — even Marilu Henner (host) remarked to Tony Meredith (co-host), “wow, this is the most passionate reaction we’ve seen all night!” Annoyingly (I was obviously there that year), the producers did a bunch of “sound clips” — I don’t know if that’s the proper term, but they had a judge walk around the floor while the audience first was completely silent, then on her second walk we all chattered, then on her third we screamed and cheered like a bunch of lunatics. So, when they edited, they took out the fans wildly screaming, “Pasha” “Anya” “Pasha and Anya,” during the comp and replaced it with the quiet sound clip! Anyway, good thing about that competition is that it includes all of the top Latin dancers in the country, such as Andrei Gavriline and Elena Kruyshkova, and Yulia Zagoruychenko and Max Kozhevnikov.

Okay, I’ve rambled on long enough. Hope this helps!

Also, don’t forget about the petition

Just got my plane ticket for Nationals, coming up at the beginning of September, in Orlando, Florida, where I’ve never been! I was actually pondering saving money and not going this year, but my friend, Michele, blasted some sense into me: it’s going to be far too exciting a year to miss. Am now trying to fill out above form to reserve my event tickets — $70 for Saturday night comp and $60 for Thursday and Friday night each — I do wish it wasn’t so expensive, but at least they’ve moved the competition to a cheaper hotel; last year it was in swanky Palm Beach, and the only hotel in the vicinity was the, basically, ten–star one in which the competition was held.

So, no alligators this year (Last year, I took a brief excursion from competition madness to visit the Everglades)

Anyway, this is going to be a big year. Because of a couple of important retirements, new champions will be crowned in two events: American Rhythm and American Smooth.

I’m hoping Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine, my former teacher and an excellent dancer, will do well in Rhythm. Well, I know he’ll do WELL, but will he win is my big question?!

Or will the king and queen of rhythm be Emmanuel’s former partner, Joanna Zacharewicz and the super cute Jose deCamps?

We’ll know Thursday, September 6th, late late LATE night (these competitions are definitely for night owls)

The highlight for me though is always the International Latin. It’s always a showdown between these two:

current national champs Andrei Gavriline (my favorite American man) and Elena Kruyshkova, and

my favorite American woman, Yulia Zagoruychenko, and her partner Max Kozhevnikov.

They also have an open-to-the-world category, in which dancers who are not American residents or citizens can compete. Last year I was just in heaven — my two favorite Latin dancers in the world competed in that category: Slavik Kryklyvyy, who is just about my favorite dancer period (excepting this one of course of course:) ) (Slavik’s dancing here with Elena Khvorova)

and Sergey Surkov (parterning Melia).

Oh, I hope so so SO much they compete again this year. I’m thinking Slavik may not, may have only competed last year because he’d just broken up with his old partner, Karina Smirnoff and was testing out a new partnership before the really important world comps, but I really do hope he shows at this one. Otherwise, I’m stuck waiting until next May for Blackpool to see him again…

Two people I’m fairly sure who won’t be there are the couple I always long to see of course: Pasha and Anya, who are, sigh, off to bigger and better things these days… Of course I’m so happy for them, but it is sad knowing I’ll likely not see them compete at one of these events again. I’m thrilled though that so many opportunities are opening up for professional ballroom dancers. The same couples win these competitions year after year after year. And, while it’s always fun for us spectators to watch, I can imagine how frustrating it must be to be a professional dancer knowing you’re likely going to place exactly where you have been for the past umpteenth years.

Anyway, unrelated to the USDSC, here’s some interesting stuff I found on the net:

1) Boris Willis has created a funny little “manly dance” for me, apropos of all my blogging on Bad Boys of Dance and Ted Shawn’s Men Dancers, etc. etc. etc. Thanks Boris!

2) The artist David Michalek, who made those Slow Dancing films I was going on about forever, has linked on his site to a bunch of us bloggers who covered the exhibit. So very cool to see artists taking bloggers so seriously and considering us to be our own little form of press! And, I noticed by reading down his list of bloggers that Alex Ross, classical music critic for the New Yorker, posted a couple of pictures of the event on his blog, one of which intentionally includes both Midsummer Night Swing and Slow Dancing together like many of mine do. I’m glad someone else found the two events coinciding with each other interesting. He describes them, though, as “juxtaposed surreally” with each other in the photo. I’m still interested in why people think it’s odd that an exhibit of filmed dancers should coexist with people actually dancing, that people could enjoy both the physical experience of dancing themselves and of watching dance. To me it seems ideal, not surreal, to have these two events co-occur.

3) Root Magazine, based in San Francisco, is having a little thing on burlesque right now. There’s a write-up on a group that has its origins in Samba, which I found interesting. Root’s editor also deals with the feminist issue, which makes me happy.

4) And, finally, as I’m sure most people already know but I was a bit late to discover (oops ), there’s a blog devoted to SYTYCD called, appropriately, Blogging So You Think You Can Dance. It’s really pretty good: they have links to practically everything extant on the internet dealing with the show, and they give detailed, fairly objective write-ups of what happened each night (which is great for me since I’m always out and missing it!) Thanks guys

Sorry no posting for the last couple of days. It took me forever to get home, first because of a several-hour-long plane delay, then over an hour-long cab wait at Port Authority (to which I took a bus from JFK). And I’m still so tired. I didn’t get much sleep the entire time I was there (in Blackpool), and it’s now really catching up with me. I’m just kind of depressed, missing Slavik Kryklyvyy and Sergey Surkov and all of my favorite Latin people…

Slavik is such a ham, as I realized for the first time this competition. The only other time I’ve seen him dance live was at U.S. Nationals in Florida last September when he competed in the open-to-the-world category, and there, he didn’t play so to the crowd since it really wasn’t his people. Here of course, everyone went completely nuts screaming and cheering the nanosecond he stepped onto the floor so he really hammed it up. How do I choose these guys? Marcelo, Jose, now this one… guess I’m just naturally attracted to a certain dancer-personality type …

Although Sergey seems more quiet, like a David Hallberg. No hamminess, no crazed fanfare, just great dancing, near flawless technique, and intense passion for his very pretty partner… It’s funny because, at one point during finals, Joanna Leunis and Michael Malitowski were dancing very close to Sergey and Melia and I could see from afar that the way Michael threw Joanna out to his right into a lunge, she was going to brush Sergey’s left side. She kind of reached out and playfully petted his left shoulder to let him know she was there, and he was so focused, as he always is, on Melia, I thought oh no, Joanna’s totally gonna disturb his concentration! He did seem a little surprised, but not too much so — obviously he’s used to dancing on a very crowded dance floor after all! After the round was over, still close to Michael and Joanna, he kind of tenderly patted her on the shoulder as well. It was cute. He seems kind of shy. Very attractive

Hehehe, do you think he’s mad at me for this pic?!?! I nearly dropped my camera when he shot me this look Isn’t he cute — doesn’t he look kind of like Keanu Reeves?! He and Melia were meeting fans and autographing posters at the Chrisanne boutique in the shop pavilion, which I blogged about earlier, but here is a better picture. Sorry about the crappy cell phone pictures, by the way. It was the only way I could blog without worrying about an insecure wireless connection for my laptop. I’ll get a better cameraphone the next time!

Anyway, it was just so exciting to be there and I feel like none of my world favorites come to the U.S. competitions and so I don’t know now when I’ll see them again. I hate to think of having to wait another whole year… Now on top of being tired and depressed, or perhaps because of one or both of them, I have another one of these horrid headaches, which means, after the pain, days of being all woozy from the meds…

Anyway, I managed to get all of my pictures downloaded, although the captions are not all up and some names are spelled wrong and there are typos galore… all of which I plan to have fixed by this weekend, at the latest. Unfortunately the pictures this year are not as good as those last year, mainly because I couldn’t get a very good seat up close to the action, so everything is from afar, and pics of the finals in all competitions are from all the way up in the balcony, so you can hardly make out most of the dancers’ faces… It was insanely crowded, so it meant reaching up and over heads, snapping away haphazardly and hoping the picture came out okay… Another thing that kind of depressed me though I guess it shouldn’t. I should be happy that “Dancing With the Stars” and all of these shows have made ballroom dancing so popular that the number of amateur entries basically doubled and it was so crowded you could hardly move, but … I don’t know, it just meant I could hardly see any of the action.

I’m going to be talking about this likely for weeks to come, and posting things as I remember them, but here are a few more quick highlights:

Bryan Watson and Carmen taking their final ballroom floor walk en route to the judges to receive their final first-place Latin champions trophy. So sad. So many retirements this year in dance in general…

Max Kozhevnikov and Yulia Zagoruychenko being called to the floor to receive one of their two finalist awards: they placed sixth in Rhumba I think fifth in Jive. Max was so cute when their number (198) was called as finalist! He ran out onto the floor and started jumping around pounding his fists into the air like a cute little kid. Yulia ran up behind him and grabbed him from behind. He then remembered her and turned around and hugged her.

Same EXACT actions from these two:

Victor Fung and Anna Mikhed who, for the first time, made finals in Standard Ballroom in three of the four dances (excluding waltz). He ran out in his tux and tails, jumped around pounding the air excitedly, then she ran out behind him in her ballgown, and had to tap him on the back before he turned around and remembered, oh yeah my partner, she helped too, really should include her in the euphoria… Ballroom men!!!!!

It was a great Blackpool for America this year. With Anna and Victor making finals in Standard and Max and Yulia in Latin, and Jonathan Wilkins and Katusha Demidova placed second overall in Standard.

Okay, that is all for now… more later…

Also, I went to see ABT’s Sleeping Beauty last night but will blog about it after I see it again, with another cast, later this week.

Autograph time

Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.

Sergey surkov and melia signing posters for fans at chrisanne in the pavilion.

Emotional night

Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.

Carmen and bryan watson – world latin champs for ten years and longest in history – announced their retirement tonight after winning again. A lot of tears. Slavik came in third, sergey fifth and max & yulia made finals in two dances placing seventh overall!

Waiting patiently

Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.

For pro latin finals. I bought this seat for my mom who was unable to come. Am a little out of place age-wise here! General dancing on ballroom floor while judges figure out who made finals. Sergey please please!

I have a quick few seconds and then must head off to the preliminary rounds of pro Latin today — my very favorite day!!! And, Slavik Kryklyvyy, my favorite dancer, will be dancing in prelims (all couples who made semifinals last year are exempt from afternoon prelims and don’t dance til evening, but Slavik has a new partnership this year so is not exempt. He placed second in the world — with Karina Smirnoff of DWTS — last time he danced two years ago, so it’s always very amusing to see the greats dancing with the newbies!). So, anyway, I must get there early and get a good seat to hopefully get some good pics

Anyway, very quickly here are some of the pics taken from my photo album (which I’ll keep updating as time permits) of my highlights from the first few days (opening Congress lectures on ballroom dancing through Amateur Latin and Junior Ballroom).

First in the world in Standard Ballroom, Mirko Gozzoli and Alessia Betti from Italy, during opening Congress

The fabulous Maxim Kozhevnikov and Yulia Zagoruychenko from the U.S., currently 2nd in Latin in US and first in world in Latin showdance, showing snippets of their new showdance routine during Congress.

This is from the most interesting of the Congress lectures in my opinion. Retired Latin champs, now theater arts performers Jukka Haapalainen and Sirpa Suutari from Finland are working on a full-length dance rendition of Federico Garcia Lorca’s brilliant play “Bodas de Sangre.” The full-length story dance, the first of its kind to be entirely in Latin Ballroom style, will be performed in Finland. I’m so excited about this! Ballet may have a new competitor for full-length story dances!

Exhibition champs Victor DaSilva and Hanna Karttunen from South Africa performing their new routine. Their signature lift is one where he lies on the floor, lifts her with two arms, then to one, then gets up into standing position all the while lifting her with only one arm. I didn’t want to take a picture of that one and risk distracting them with my flash!

Team USA taking the floor during their opening number for the team match. Match consists of a competition — first Latin, then ballroom, with two couples in each style from each of four countries. This year’s match was between US, UK, Russia and Italy. UK came in first, then Italy, then Russian, then US UK has all the great Standard Ballroom dancers — two of the top three in the world are from England, while no one country really has all the great Latin dancers — tops are divided between Germany, Poland, Russia, and … oh I always forget where #3 is from — Andrei Skufca and Katarina Venturinini but it’s somewhere in Eastern Europe — Slovenia??) Anyway, the UK kind of has the team comp in the bag because of its Standard…

Slavik and new partner Elena Khvorova competing in the team match for Russia.

Second in the world in Latin Michael Malitowski and Joanna Leunis from Poland demonstrating during their Samba lecture on the second day of Congress (Sunday).

The adorable Timothy Howson and Joanne Bolton, 2nd in the world in Ballroom, demonstrating Viennese Waltz during Congress.

My second favorite male Latin dancer, Sergey Surkov and his partner Melia from Poland. He is by far the most romantic, passionate male dancer in the world and I think all male dancers could take serious lessons from him — from Latin to Ballet! One of the real highlights of Congress for me was watching him participate in one of the lectures on Latin Dancing Through the Ages.

From that same lecture, given by Richard Porter, here is another couple, represting the Fifties in Latin dancing. I LOVE that dress and kinda wish the styles were still the same — so classic. This was to me the most entertaining lecture. He went through four decades showing how certain basics remained the same but styles and embellishments have changed to reflect the time. It reminded me a bit of Apollinaire Scherr’s recent very interesting article in Newsday apropros of NYCBallet’s new Romeo and Juliet on the different versions of that ballet over time and how they’ve each reflected goings-on in the world at large at that particular time. I’ll have more to say about this (as well as the Bodas de Sangre ballet) when I return because I think this is a very intriguing topic. I can’t think very clearly right now in this over-crowded, noisy, smoky internet cafe!!!

Jonathan Wilkins and Katusha Demidova, third in the world in Ballroom, and the top US couple, demoing during Congress.

Nick Kosovitch (who’s appeared on Dancing With the Stars — I think Tatum O’Neal was his last celebrity) with his partner Lena demoing their James Bond-ish ballroom showdance during Congress.

Max and Yulia again participating in another Congress lecture, this one on making the proper entrance and exit by this amusing Russian guy named Taliat Tarsonov. After they performed the ideal “exit,” they performed their entire routine from America’s Ballroom Challenge / Ohio Star Ball that they also performed here last year (and the performance of which I’ve previously embedded a YouTube code) — don’t have time to find it and link, sorry! So exciting! Another big Congress highlight.

Marcus and Karen Hilton, MBEs, former ballroom champs, giving a lecture on “Quality Ballroom.” The crowd went wild and gave them several standing ovations.

And finally, the illustrious, 9-times world Latin champs, Bryan Watson and Carmen from Germany, ending Congress with their lecture on what makes a world champion. I have more to say on this topic too because, in light of their lecture as well as the previous one by the Hiltons, I think what makes a star and a champ is a really interesting topic as well, and one I will blog more about when I return.

For now, I have to get out of here and get to Winter Gardens for pro Latin prelims!!! Sorry if this is loaded with typos and other mistakes — no time to correct!!

I don’t have much time to write because I returned from Florida (Nationals) to a desk overflowing with work, but I had an awesome time! Here are my pictures. I am such a nervous flier (still, since 9/11, although I AM getting better slowly but surely!!), so immediately after checking into the swanky hotel, I crashed on a plush sofa in the bar and had a very large glass of wine. Ended up being a great place to people watch, because I had a perfect view of the check-in counter. From which I spotted Slavik Kryklyvyy!!! My favorite male Latin dancer, and Karina Smirnoff’s former partner (they just broke up, so sadlly, last year). I was so happy because he was supposed to compete with his new partner, his wife Elena, at Blackpool this year, but he didn’t feel ready yet, so dropped out. He is no longer competing for the U.S. and so did not compete in the national competition here, but he and Elena competed in the Open to the World category, which they won, of course of course!! Also competing in that category, unexpectedly, was Sergey Surkov and Agnieszka Melnicka from Poland, whom I saw dance for the first time in Blackpool and fell in love with! So, two of my favorite world male Latin dancers danced! Sergey and Agnieszka took second in the worlds. And, last but not least, I was so so so happy to finally see my teacher Pavel Kovalev (Pasha) and his partner Anna Garnis compete. They couldn’t compete in Blackpool or the local Manhattan DanceSport competition this year because her Russian passport and work papers were stolen and she had to return to Russia to get things back in place. Now they are back to competing and are a force to be reckoned with I have many pictures of them in the photo album, of course.

Nothing really unexpected happened: Andrei Gavriline and Elena Kruyschkova took first in National Latin, Jonathan Wilkins and Katusha Demidova placed first in Standard, Tony Dovolani and Elena Grinenko came in first in Rhythm, and Ben and Shalene Archer-Ermis topped Smooth. The biggest upset was Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine and Joanna Zacharewicz placing second in the National Mambo championships, losing their title to a new couple from New Jersey (I forgot their names, but have a picture posted of them in the album). Pasha and Anna placed fifth in the Nationals, which I thought was way too low for them; they should have been closer to third. But of course I am biased My other teacher, Luis Grijalva and his partner Anya Fuchs placed third in National Mambo, after Emmanuel and Joanna, which was good for them since they’re still a relatively new partnership. Maxim Kozhevnikov and Yulia Zagoryuchenko, another favorite couple of mine, placed second in National Latin but ahead of Andrei and Elena in the Open to the World category (making them, interestingly, higher ranked world-wide than the national champions). And Max and Yulia, expectedly, won the South American showdance exhibition with their famous Samba routine — which is the biggest reason I like them so

I had a fun though not unstressful time overall. The dancing was of course amazing to watch, and I re-connected with a couple of friends I hadn’t seen since Blackpool in May, and some old friends from my former studio. The stressfulness resulted mainly from my un-wise decision to cut costs (the hotel was well over $200 per night, and that was with our dance discount) by rooming with four people. I grew up an only child in a spacious suburban Phoenix house and I am still a bit of a loner — meaning, I like to be around people for some of the time, but I definitely need some quality down-time alone. And, the dance crowd, which took over the common areas of the hotel and the beach and pool area, was pretty raucous, so I felt kind of like I was going to have a nervous breakdown toward the end. To escape the madness, I took a little half-day excursion out to the Everglades National Park, where I took an airboat ride through the most beautiful “swamp” I’ve ever seen, and got to meet some very friendly aligators! I also spent some good, quality time swimming in the ocean, which was very warm and clear; got the best workout I’ve had since my last ballet class months ago now, and realized I’m going to have to find a gym or recreation center with a pool in NYC because I really do love the water and swimming is such good cross-training for dancers with continuing tendon and ligament problems.

I flew back to NY the day before 9/11 when everyone in the airport would have to be talking about “something happening” — I felt like screaming, “can everyone please shut up and not talk about this here for crying out loud”; and this was my first time flying since the liquid scare, but once I was in the air everything was fine and Jet Blue was pleasant. I really do want to overcome my flying fears completely. I guess the way to do that is to fly a lot… And dancing provides a great excuse to fly! I can’t wait for my next dance event –the Ohio Star Ball in November maybe? It’s mostly pro/am and I don’t think they’re televising America’s Ballroom Challenge there this year, like they did last, so I’m still not sure whether I’m going to go to that, but knowing me, I will… And, when I got home, my Blackpool tickets were in the mail slot