Miami in Fort Lauderdale?

This year the Miami Vibe once again traveled north to Fort Lauderdale.

As last year’s venue, The Eden Roc Hotel on Miami Beach, was unavailable, organizer, Andrew Phillips, once again moved his event northwards – this time to the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort. This is a glamorous hotel, right on Fort Lauderdale’s white sand beach. Many of the meals for package holders were served outside to take advantage of the balmy Florida weather.

We believe this was one of the largest, if not the largest Miami Vibe and it was it’s 13th anniversary.

The professional events were split over Friday and Saturday nights and produced some interesting finals with some national names in attendance.

Friday we saw the Latin and Smooth divisions, both began with semifinals. Volodymyr Barabash & Yulia Rudenko won all 4 dances and had the majority of 1st places in all but Viennese where they missed the 7 needed for a majority by one. Leonid Burlo & Maria Usan took 2nd place in all dances and received their best scores in both waltzes. The closest fight in this final was for 3rd place and this actually produced a Rule 11 tiebreak. Dmytro Pohybil & Alana Kushnir got the nod with 3,4,4,3 leaving Alexandru & Stephanie Munteanu in fourth scoring 4,3,3,4. Oleg Ovchinnikov & Karina Nugumanova were 5th in all dances and Alexander Elsbury & Grace Gallagher were 6th in all dances. We were a little surprised that this duo did notb place a little higher, at least in some dances as we saw great improvement. Roman & Hanna Prymachok were 7th in all dances.

The Latin was a tighter race overall because although the winners, Andriy & Amanda Besyedin, won all 5 dances, they did not have the majority of first places in any one. Andriy & Amanda have become consummate competitors and perhaps compete more often than any couple on the professional Latin circuit. In a quirk of the Skating System used to calculate dancesport scores, the runners-up, Ilya Maletin & Anna Oblakova, had the most (but not the majority) first places in 2 dances, but ultimately placed 2,2,2,2,3. Pasha Stepanchuk & Gabrille Sabler took the runner-up spot in jive and were 3rd in the other 4 dances. Roman Italyankin & Alexandra Bokova placed 4,4,4,5,4 but did have some judges placing them first in all of the 5 dances. Kelvin Ong & Marsha Kozobrod were 5th 5,5,5,4,5. We have always enjoyed this young lady’s rather unorthodox style. Robin Alexander Veskus & Diana Gavrilova were 6th in all dances.

Also on Friday night was the Open Pro Cabaret. Anthony Kantin & Olivia Card were the winners receiving 10 of the 13 first places. They performed a very tight and controlled cabaret piece and have improved significantly since we first saw them. With a totally different type of performance (in fact a “showdance”), Nazar Batih & Mariko Cantley took second. This was a new piece and the first time that we had seen it, performed to “Money” from Cabaret. This couple are building on their success in this genre and the new number is sure to place well in Ballroom Showdance competition. Kelvin & Marsha took 3rd , Aki & Jun Nakaaki from Japan 4th and Charles & Carissa Norris 5th.

The Ballroom was the smallest of the Open divisions with only 3 couples entered. The winners were Artem Belmeha & Anna Shevchenko who placed 1,1,1,1,2. Alexander & Grace were 2nd but won the quickstep 2,3,2,2,1 and Alexey Grinyev & Kseniia Grinyeva were 3rd 3,2,3,3,3.

The Open Rhythm began with a semifinal and produced the clearest win of the event with Dmitry & Olena Nikishkin winning all dances and losing only 2 first places total. Vasyl Voinarovskyi & Krrystina Voinarovska were 2nd in all dances, but the individual scoring on each dance was quite tight between them and third-placed, Kristian Sese & Mae Lozada who were 3rd in all dances. Alexey Smirnov & Daria Smirnova were 4th 4,4,4,4,5; 5th Arkadi Atasuntsov Areanna Triliegi 5,5,5,5,4; 6th Donovan Kirrane & Olga Goncharova 6,6,6,6,6.

Another “small but mighty” event was the Open Amateur Latin. This gave a comfortable win to the new partnership of Maksym Rodionov & Sophia Marriott who won all 5 dances. We have always enjoyed this young lady’s dancing and the couple seem to be settling down well. Also with a strong performance were Idan Daich & Anastasia Sinyauskaya from Canada who were 2nd in all dances and pushed the winners hard in our view. 3,3,4,3,3 gave Erik Linder & Mela Kreczman 3rd place overall and Ihor Horobchenko & Alina Lisova were 4th 4,4,3,4,4.