World’s at the Embassy!

Three world titles were run at the Embassy Ballroom Championships this year, resulting in three successful defending champions taking the Latin, Rhythm and Smooth.

The WDC World Professional Latin was the feature event at this year’s Embassy Ballroom Championships and it did not disappoint. The new venue, Hyatt Regency, Orange County, is the perfect new home and everyone seemed pleased with the new choice, spacious ballroom, fun restaurants and excellent accommodations

The WDC World Professional Latin Championship stared with a first round of competition danced in 4 heats and after a number of call backs Dorin Frecautanu & Marina Sergeeva representing Great Britian, were the easy winners with the majority of firsts in every dance. Dorin & Marina’s worst dance was the paso where 4 out of the 11 judges from around the world awarded them second place. On the dissenting side we tend to agree with Marie Pilgaard, the judge from Denmark who awarded Dorin & Marina all second places. Unlike most of the adjudicators, we did not think this was a stellar performance for them and have to agree with Marie that Kirill Belorukov & Valeriya Aidaeva had a terrific night and should have won at least some of the dances on the night. Marie awarded all firsts to Kirill & Valeriya but at least one other judge agreed with her in the samba and the rumba and three in the paso doble.

Kirill Belorukov & Valeriya Aidaeva for us had a wonderful night, making them and Dorin & Marina be in a class of their own. Third in every dance was awarded to Klemen Prasnikar & Alexandra Averkieva (Slovenia) and they easily took this position with the majority of the judges awarding them third place overall. Fourth was awarded to the USA’s Andrei Kazlouski & Nino Dzneladze who we have to say seemed a little lost in this final on this night, even her beautiful leg action could not push them any further in this final. We were hoping for a third-place finish for them tonight. We expect that they can return to their usual form soon.

We were quite impressed with Darren Hammond & Marina Steshenko in particularly Marina who danced brilliantly this evening ensuring them fifth in all dances. In this final as expected most of the couples are at an amazing level so they all have to surpass expectations to get the judges to mark them higher and in this case, we thought that Marina danced quite freely and had a great interpretation of the five dances. Sixth in this excellent final went to another US couple, Tal Livshitz & Ilana Keselman who were thrilled to make this top-notch final.

This was the second year for Francesco Arietta & Jessa Mae Briones to win the World Open Professional Rhythm Championship. The 17-panel of adjudicators gave them a majority in all dances. Their weakest scores from the judges were in the rumba where they lost the most firsts, 5 in total and all were second places but one, where they were awarded a 3rd place finish from Natalie Paramonov former US Rhythm Champion. Andrew Escolme & Asta Sigvaldadottir stole the most firsts from Francesco & Jessa Mae, but not enough to get them any further than a solid second place win overall.

From second place down things got a little murkier with the marks but Dmitry Nikishkin & Olena Shvets-Nikishkin were still able to get a solid third-place finish from many of the judges. Fourth was awarded to Ivan Kudashev & Ksenia Sokolova, we were quite surprised to see that some of the judges awarded them seventh nearly across the board, for us they were easily fourth and could have placed better in some of the dances especially their bolero where they seemed to have the best chemistry on the floor. Ivan & Ksenia placed fourth in all dances but the mambo where they took fifth overall.

Fifth place was awarded overall to Kevin Ubillus & Milagros Lareto but not in all dances 5,6,6,5,4. Their best performance as usual was in the mambo where many of the judges placed them third and even a second was awarded to them by Yulia Zagoruychenko. Ryan Lockhart & Danelle Lockhart took sixth overall 6,5,5,6,6, and Gene Bersten & Elena Bersten took all seventh in all dances. All couples were from the USA.

In the World Open Professional Smooth, Roman Malkhasyan & Galina Detkina took all dances with a majority of first in all dances, only losing two first place marks in the Viennese Waltz and foxtrot and one in the remaining dances. Travis & Jaimee Tuft stole the majority of firsts from the reigning champions and for us they could have taken a few more, their performance is always faultless and with great connections between them.

Third in this World Smooth championship was awarded to Tykhon Zhyvkov & Yana Zhyvkov 4,3,3,3, a fantastic result for this couple and quite deserving on this night. Yegor Novikov & Tatiana Voilokova were not far behind and easily took fourth overall 3,4,4,4. Fifth in all dances was awarded to Aleksandar Vukosavljevic & Alexandra Smirnova, and sixth went to Leonid Burlo & Mariia Usan. All couples in the final were from the USA.