Tag: Blackpool

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For Ballroom and DWTS Fans: Cast Your Vote in the Swarovski / Dance USA 2011 Championship

 

For all you ballroom and DWTS fans who read this blog, Swarovski Elements (you know, the crystal designers whose stones everyone uses for their dresses) recently teamed with Dance USA to host a little costume competition. At the April 2011 Dance USA Championship, held in Baltimore, several top couples in various divisions – including my personal Latin fave, Valentin Chmerkovskiy and Daria Chesnokova (in video above) – was dressed in a costume designed by one of four leading costume designers (working with Swarovski gems of course). They want your input on which costume (and / or couple) you like best. You can watch videos of all the couples and vote online at Swarovski’s Facebook page.

Here’s a ballroom couple – Daniel Shapiro and Katya Kolvalyova.

 

The videos made me homesick for a ballroom competition. Blackpool time is just about here and unfortunately I can’t go again this year; I’ll be at Book Expo America instead. But I do hope to go to the Manhattan DanceSport Championships at the Brooklyn Bridge Marriott at the beginning of July.

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MARTINA HINGIS AND MATTHEW CUTLER ON STRICTLY COME DANCING

 

Apropos of the currently underway U.S. Open, which is captivating the attentions of many New Yorkers right now, I thought I’d mention that Martina Hingis, former tennis champ, is a contestant on this upcoming season of Strictly Come Dancing, the British (and original) version of our Dancing With the Stars.

She’ll be partnered by Matthew Cutler, that show’s last season pro winner and a former Blackpool champ. Here are a couple of videos of Cutler, in the first demonstrating a samba with his former pro partner Nicole Cutler, and the second some vintage clips (or at least they seem vintage now) of the Latin Blackpool championship from about 7 years ago. At various points you can spy 10-year-long reigning champs Bryan Watson and Carmen, as well as DWTS’s Karina Smirnoff and my love Slavik Kryklyvyy. At about the 2:40 mark, the camera focuses on them.

Kind of fun to watch these older comps. You can see how much Latin competition dancing has really changed just in the past several years (seems so much faster now, and costumes skimpier…)

Strictly Come Dancing airs on BBC beginning on September 18th.