Tag: Yulia Zagoruychenko

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Yulia Zagoruychenko Auctions Championship Dress to Help Fellow Dancer With Lung Cancer

 

World Latin champ Yulia Zagoruychenko (whom this blogger adores, as everyone here knows) is auctioning off one of her championship dresses to help friend and fellow dancer Julia Ivleva with her cancer treatments. Ivleva is a pro standard dancer who was recently diagnosed with lung cancer in both lungs, though she’s never smoked and, like all dancers, maintains a healthy lifestyle. It really can happen to anyone… Also like many (probably most) dancers, Ivleva has no health insurance. What a nightmare. There’s lots of money in the world of pro / am ballroom dance (I mean possessed by the students), so I’m hoping people help her out. Here’s the link to Zagoruychenko’s auction. If you can’t afford the dress but wish to donate go here. If all students donated the cost of a private lesson or two, that would be a pretty big sum.

Here’s a video of Ivleva dancing with her partner Igor Litvinov:

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Jittin’ Genius

My favorite from last night’s Live to Dance semifinal. I hadn’t heard of jitting, which he described as a more modern version of the jitterbug of the 50s. To me it looked like original break dancing or krumping without the attitude, but the jitterbug connection makes sense. I loved it. I hope America votes him into the finals.

I wasn’t so in love with the child ballroom duo. Whenever anyone dances to The Beat I just can’t keep from thinking of Yulia Zagoruychenko and her old partner Max Kozhevnikov and whatever’s before me just pales in comparison. Their legwork and some of the partnering was sloppy. I know they’re kids but I’ve seen much better at ballroom competitions.

I am glad the public voted the ballet dancers – White Tree Fine Art – into the semis for next week.

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SLSG’s Dance Highlights of 2010

Instead of trying to remember which were my favorite performances of the year, I’m just going back through my blog archives from January of this year and linking to the most memorable posts. More fun that way! A lot happened in a year…

January

Pacific Northwest Ballet made their debut at the Joyce; it was my first time seeing them live.

The Post‘s Page 6 announced that you know who and you know who are dating, and the ridiculous homewrecker attacks began.

Baryshnikov and Annie Liebovitz starred in a very cool Louis Vuitton ad.

February

I totally fell for New York City Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty.

…and Mark Sanchez 🙂

I found myself quoted in Colin Jarman’s book, Dancing With the Quotes.

I also fell for Sara Mearns’s Odette in Peter Martins’s Swan Lake.

On a personal note, my former judge, the esteemed Honorable Sylvia Pressler, passed away.

The Kings of Dance came to town.

Morphoses shocked the ballet world by announcing that Christopher Wheeldon was leaving the company.

March

My friend’s organization, Art for Change, held a benefit for Haiti after the earthquake.

Rasta Thomas’s Bad Boys of Dance announced that Danny Tidwell and SYTYCD’s Jacob Karr were joining the company.

Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon finally made their NYC debut!

I found myself actually getting press for liking Kate Gosselin – or for not hating Kate Gosselin rather – on Dancing With the Stars.

I fell for Keigwin + Company’s Runaway.

I was delighted to receive an email from NYCB ballerina Yvonne Borree’s aunt regarding of all things, my novel.

April

I had my first experience as a dance writer panelist! Thank you, Marc, from TenduTV!

Tiler Peck appeared on Dancing With the Stars in a Travis Wall routine, which everyone was so excited about. But it ended up amounting to not a whole lot…

Roberto Bolle danced a naked Giselle, in Italy of course.

May

New York City Ballet opened their spring season with premieres of Millepied’s Why Am I Not Where You Are and Ratmansky’s Namouna, both of which I liked, though Ratmansky’s had to grow a bit on me.

Baryshnikov returned to the stage.

I greatly enjoyed ABT’s new production, Lady of the Camellias, though most critics panned it.

June

ABT celebrated Alicia Alonso’s 90th birthday with three all-star Latin American casts (plus Natalia Osipova) dancing in Don Quixote.

Yvonne Borree gave her farewell performance at NYCB.

Bill T. Jones won a Tony for best choreographer for Fela!

Philip Neal gave his farewell performance at NYCB.

Natalia Osipova was mugged right outside of Lincoln Center.

Two of the greatest ballerinas in Europe – Osipova, and Alina Cojocaru – gave back to back Sleeping Beauty performances at ABT.

Albert Evans gave his farewell performance at NYCB.

Tap great Savion Glover made headlines by voicing his annoyance with Alastair Macaulay’s NY Times criticism of him – onstage, during a show.

Conductor Maurice Kaplow gave his farewell performance with NYCB.

Darci Kistler officially ended the era of the Balanchine-trained dancer with her farewell performance with NYCB.

July

Carlos Acosta announced his retirement from ballet and his foray into modern dance.

Alex Wong, probably the second greatest contestant ever on SYTYCD was injured and unable to finish the show.

My friend, Taylor Gordon, was profiled as a freelance ballet dancer in a New York Times article 🙂

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s beloved Denise Jefferson passed away.

Nilas Martins retired from NYCB oddly sans fanfare, sans criticism, sans a performance.

August

I interviewed tWitch about his role in the movie Step It Up. Fun fun interview!

I had a blast covering Ailey Camp.

I nearly fell over when Wendy Perron, esteemed E-I-C of Dance Magazine recommended Swallow on Twitter!

September

NYCB began their excellent “See the Music” series.

October

I loved Ashley Bouder’s Serenade.

Emerging Pictures’s awesomely exciting Ballet in Cinema series began with the Bolshoi’s Flames of Paris.

This cool new Lincoln Center-area street art sprouted up.

One of my favorite posts of the year, though it received no comments, was about Anne Fortier’s novel, Juliet. I jokingly daydreamed about it being made into a film, and which of my favorite ballet stars might take the lead.

November

ABT made an historic visit to Cuba and oh how I wished I could have gone with them.

I think I was the only person in the entire dance world to sympathize with Bristol Palin on Dancing With the Stars.

I had a blast covering New York So You Think You Can Dance auditions.

All of a sudden Black Swan was everywhere.

Nearly fell over again upon hearing Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko took the world Latin ballroom title – making them the first U.S. couple ever to do so.

December

My take on SugarPlumpGate.

Black Swan finally premiered which I didn’t love but was happy to have ballet brought back into the spotlight.

I was in awe of Alvin Ailey’s 50-dancer Revelations, staged in honor of the 50th anniversary of that dance. I also loved several other dances in their City Center season – Ailey’s Cry, Ronald K. Brown’s Dancing Spirit, and Geoffrey Holder’s The Prodigal Prince – just to name a few.

Robert Wilson / Roberto Bolle’s Perchance to Dream exhibit in Chelsea was a lot o’ frightening fun.

ABT’s new Nutcracker premiered, which I really enjoyed, almost as much as the Bolshoi’s.

Portman and Millepied revealed they are now engaged and expecting.

I had great fun, despite the crazy snowstorm, going down to Wall Street and covering Judith Jamison’s ringing of the closing bell at the NYSE.

Pretty busy year.

Happy New Year, everyone!

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Wow, Riccardo & Yulia Take Latin World Title!

Holy crap – according to Dance Beat, Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko placed first in the worlds in Bonn, Germany a couple days ago. When I first heard, I thought the current world Latin champs, Michael Malitowski and Joanna Leunis, might not have competed for some reason. But they did. They placed first only in Cha Cha. Riccardo and Yulia placed first in all other dances, making them the first American couple ever to be Latin world champs. I never thought they’d overtake Michael and Joanna – just because of the way ballroom competitions are, with the judges scoring couples the same year after year. I’m in shock!

Read more about the worlds, and about the Ohio Star Ball, in Dance Beat’s current issue.

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Riccardo and Yulia Cha Cha in Japan

Above is a video of U.S. Latin champions Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko dancing recently in Tokyo at the World Superstars Latin Dance Festival. This is an annual festival (there’s one for standard ballroom as well), where the top Latin and ballroom dancers are invited to perform a showdance in each style. I’ve always wanted to go, but have never been able to. I’ve heard it’s prohibitively expensive! But I almost always buy the DVDs of the performances (they’re usually available from DanceVision), which come out a couple weeks later.

According to this write up, the Latin performers this year included, in addition to Riccardo and Yulia, my favorites Sergey Surkov and Melia, and Slavik Kryklyvyy and Anna Melnikova, as well as current world champs Michael Malitowski and Joanna Leunis. Some year I must go!

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MANHATTAN DANCESPORT CHAMPIONSHIPS ARE THIS WEEKEND AT THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE MARRIOTT

 

And I almost forgot… Friday night is the pro Latin competition, meaning Yulia Zagoruychenko and Riccardo Cocchi will be dancing, but I have a ticket to ABT and I really, really need to see my fave Marcelo Gomes dance Oberon in The Dream and Jose Carreno and Diana Vishneva in the pas de deux from MacMillan’s Manon. I may go to MDC Saturday night for the pro Rhythm and Standard, and the professional showdances. I always like Rhythm and you don’t get to see that in the international competitions. Anyway, here’s the info if you’re in NY and want to go. This is the most prestigious ballroom event in the Northeast; all of the top dancers usually compete. I highly recommend it if you want to see great ballroom.

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BLACKPOOL 2010 OVER ALREADY

 

Wow, this year’s Blackpool Dance Festival has already come and gone. Funny how priorities change; I used to look so forward to this every year. But this year I was so caught up in book stuff, and BookExpo America, that it didn’t even register the competition was underway until I received my registration packet for next year’s in the mail (the organizer always sends them out so that your packet is waiting for you when you get home – which is nice; it makes it not so sad that your vacation is over with the reminder that next year is just around the corner…)

Anyway, according to Dance Beat, it seems the big news is that the U.S. has Standard champs for the first time ever — in the form of Arunas Bizokas and Katusha Demidova (pictured above, photo from Dance Beat).

Poland’s Michael Malitowski and Joanna Leunis won the Latin championship again, but our Yulia Zagoruychenko and Riccardo Cocchi placed first in one dance – Jive.

The U.S. won again, for the second year in a row, in the team competition. And after that event, our second Latin couple – Eugene Katsevman and Maria Manusova, of whom I’ve long been a big fan, announced their retirement from competition. Sad, but I’m sure they’ll still be around to perform for years to come. I wonder who will take their place in next year’s team comp for the U.S. I’m so ridiculously out of it I don’t even know who our second best Latin couple is now…

Photo of Eugene and Maria, by moi, from this post.

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YULIA AND RICCARDO TELL ALL

 

For the Ballroomers, here’s a nice, rather long interview with Yulia Zagoruychenko and Riccardo Cocchi, current world Latin champs. They talk about dance versus sport (Riccardo was going to be a footballer on the Roma team — who knew?), art versus sport, their personal lives, how they started dancing, the politics of dancesport, what dance means to them, how they found each other after long prior partnerships, why children should learn dance, etc. Good interview.

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MAKS & KARINA & TABITHA & NAPOLEON ON TONIGHT'S EMMYS

Here’s the big dance number on tonight’s Emmys, choreographed by So You Think You Can Dance’s Tabitha and Napoleon, performed in part by Maks Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff from Dancing With the Stars. Nice to integrate the two main TV dance shows in this way. But, ah, where have I seen that costume before, Karina?…

Medarethinks Yulia moved that fringe a bit better. Although of course she had more time to dance. I do sometimes wonder if Karina were still competing today whether she’d beat Yulia.

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SLAVIK KRYKLYVYY AND ANNA MELNIKOVA COMPETE IN US NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

 

Argh, I knew I should have gone to the U.S. National Championships this year. My favorite male Latin dancer, Slavik Kryklyvyy, and his new partner, Anna Melnikova, just competed in the Open to the World category in Florida. They placed second, behind Yulia Zagoruychenko and Riccardo Cocchi. I can imagine what an exciting comp that must have been though. Here’s a short video of Slavik and Anna’s Cha Cha round. Go here to see more competition videos of the champs in each category.

 

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PASHA KOVALEV AND ANYA GARNIS BURN THE FLOOR

 

It’s just been announced that Pasha & Anya (from So You Think You Can Dance of course!) will join the Burn the Floor Broadway cast as the star dancers, replacing Maks Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff, who depart the show August 16th. Pasha & Anya will begin August 18th.

Woo hoo! So excited for them!

I really think they’re going to make this show. (My review of the Maks / Karina cast is coming very soon — likely later today). I think Pasha and Anya are the quintessential Latin ballroom performers. Karina’s technically probably the best female Latin dancer in the world right now (imo, with the arguable exception of Joanna Leunis, or Yulia Zagoruychenko) and Karina & Maks are worth seeing in the show for that reason alone. But Anya’s a true diva like no other and she and Pasha really know how to melt you into a giant puddle, right there on your seat… I’m not kidding, they are to die for.

I don’t know which cast to recommend now… I recommend them both!

(Full disclosure of course: for newish readers to this blog, I am friends with Pasha; he is my former instructor).

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MANHATTAN DANCESPORT CHAMPIONSHIP HIGHLIGHTS

Sorry I am so late with this post, now that it’s been two weeks since MDC. Once again, ballet season kind of took over…

 

One of the biggest highlights for me this year was Emmanuel Pierre Antoine dancing with his new partner, Lianna, in the Pro Rhythm championships (pictured above). I like the way the pictures came out in sepia better than color, but if you want to see dress colors, etc. you can see all the color photos here. Emmanuel is a longtime favorite of mine and I always enjoy watching him. He has such character and his routines are always quite original. He and Lianna placed second in all dances, behind the champions for several years now, Joanna Zacharewicz and Jose DeCamps, but I actually thought they outdanced Jose and Joanna in a couple of dances, particularly with their expressive, jump-heavy Mambo and their Bolero, which was really beautiful with some nice spins. Dance Beat felt the same. But, as I’ve said many times before and I’ll say again, it’s definitely not unusual for the judges to give the top award (with wins in all five dances no less) to the same couple year after year, until that couple retires.

Other highlights, as always for me were the Pro Latin and Pro Standard events, which Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko won rather easily in the former,

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and Katusha Demidova and Arunas Bizokas even more easily in the latter.

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Both couples who normally place second in these events didn’t compete: Anna Mikhed and Victor Fung in Standard didn’t attend, and Eugene Katsevman and Maria Manusova (photo below of their heated Paso) showed but had to withdraw after the first round because of an injury (hers I’m told).

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A shame since I always love watching Eugene and Maria.

Arunas and Katusha danced really really beautifully, as always, and according to Dance Beat, received perfect scores. Such an elegant couple, their dancing so radiant and rich and luxurious and full, you just can’t take your eyes off of them no matter what they’re doing, even when simply getting ready to take off.

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And Riccardo and Yulia are so much fun. His Jive is to die for, as are her Rumba walks.

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I kind of like this picture even though the light is obscuring Riccardo’s face because to me it shows the excitement of a competition, with the couples making full use of the floor, kind of darting across and seemingly coming right at you as such, no matter where you’re sitting. I think they’re doing Samba promenade runs here. Riccardo is a bit of a flirt, I noticed, flashing his cute smile, with raised eyebrows, at women sitting in the front seats. I think it’s an Italian thing, though. Maurizio Vescovo does the same thing (he dances for Hungary and so doesn’t come to these U.S. comps but I’ve seen him at Blackpool) and our fancy new ABT ballerino Roberto Bolle winks at audience members during curtain calls.

Speaking of Samba, interesting but Riccardo and Yulia actually messed up during the finals. He pushed her a little too far out at one point and she tripped. She didn’t fall but she was noticeably taken off balance. She recovered easily though and the judges apparently didn’t take any deductions, or else they did and it didn’t matter.

Second place couple was one of my favorites, a tall, thin pair from Bulgaria, Delyan Terziev and Boriana Deltcheva. Delyan is a really charming dancer and very personable too — he often wins awards for best teacher. And Boriana has such long limbs, she makes these really gorgeous, spidery lines. And, in my mind, she always wins the award for best costume 🙂

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Even though it’s not centered, I like this picture. They’re married, they’re cute 🙂

Other highlights were JT Thomas and Tomas Mielnicki, always snazzy, winning Pro Smooth, with the very popular Mazen Hamza and Lisa Vogel placing right behind them (wow, did they get lots of applause).

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(JT and Tomas above; Mazen and Lisa below)

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And of course the Amateur Latin was as always a blast. Valentin Chmerkovskiy and his new partner Daria Chesnokova took first, and I loved them. I’d liked his old partner Valeriya Kozharinova, but I always thought he was significantly better than she and that it looked like she wasn’t as emotionally involved in the dance as he (as if she was just going through the steps). But Daria is not at all like that — she is more his equal. I think they’re going to go far.

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And placing second were a couple I’ve long liked, Oleksandr Althukhov and Oksana Dmytrenko, who I’ve watched coached at my old studio, Dance Times Square. At first I didn’t recognize their names, since I’ve always heard him called Sasha 🙂 Russian nicknames!

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Other highlights: Event founder (and former U.S. National ten-dance champion) Gary McDonald, dancing with two other guys, did a fun tribute to Michael Jackson complete with moon walks and floor spins. They also played Michael Jackson music in between the heats and during awards ceremonies, which was nice.

 

 

Judges and scorers and just people in attendance included Tony Dovolani, Mayo Alanen and Anna Demidova from Dancing With the Stars, which made me think of my friend Sharon Balik, who passed away several weeks ago and who I still think a lot about. She loved that show, especially loved Dovolani, and she so would have enjoyed this competition. Also partial to Maks Chmerkovskiy and so always very interested in hearing how his little brother placed, she would have loved to know how well he and his new partner are faring. I’m still so sad about her.

 

 

I missed watching Pavlo Barsuk — whose intensity is always mesmerizing to me — now that he has broken up with Anna Trebunskaya, but I saw him in the ballroom watching. I’ll look forward to seeing him and his new partner compete, when they are ready. I also saw Andrei Gavriline and Elena Kruschkova in the ballroom watching. They’re former US National Latin champs, now retired, and I miss watching them. And another favorite Latin couple of mine — Vaidotas Skimelis and Jurga Puplyte — he reminds me of my favorite ballet dancer, Marcelo Gomes — this is the second year they haven’t shown up for this competition. I know they’re based in California and traveling is expensive, but c’mon man, when am I going to get to see them again? I guess I really do have to go to Blackpool next year.