The Crown Jewel of Dancesport 24

Aptly, the “Crown Jewel” of Dancesport is run in one of the Crown Jewels of American Hotels – the Ritz Carlton.

To be precise, the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort in Naples. Despite some rain on the first day, competition goers got to enjoy some great weather from there on and that meant some quality time at the hotel’s wonderful outdoor facilities. The event is run by former US and World 10-Dance Champions, Gherman Mustuc & Iveta Lukasuite. We were very impressed with the quality of the food for package holders and the live music during the banquet on Saturday night was a great bonus.

The professional heats were not huge but there were several US national finalists in attendance to heat up the excitement.

The Open Rhythm fell easily to Shane & Shannon Jensen who won all 5 dances with a significant majority of first-place marks. Kristian Sese & Mae Lozado were the runners-up scoring 2,3,2,2,2, although they did manage to take a couple of first places in all dances. The runners-up in the rumba were Alexey Smirnov & Daria Smirnova and they were 3rd overall placing 3,2,3,3,3. A new partnership took 4th, Stanislav Morozov & Angelina Evseeva and they were 4th in all dances. Arkadi Atasuntsov & Areanna Triliegi were 5th in all dances and Sebastian Burbano & Lindsay Milam were 6th. The event began with a semifinal.

Volodymyr Barabash & Yulia Rudenco won all dances in the Open Pro Smooth and had exactly 9 of the 11 first-place marks in each dance. Dmytro Pohybil & Alona Kushnir were second in all dances and easily had the majority of “2nd or better” marks. Vladislav Robatsenko & Lula Callaway were third 3T,4,3,3. 4th Alexey Grinev & Kseniia Grineva 3T,3,4,4; 5th Oleg Teleha & Mishka Teleha 5,5,6,5; 6th Anton Chubykala & Josephine Auchterlonie 6,6,5,6; 7th Marco Dal Pezzo & Miriam Marie 7,7,7,7.

Only three couple entered the Open Pro Latin but the quality was high. Manuel Favilla & Natalia Maidiuk easily won all dances, losing only 1 first in the first 4 dances and 3 in the jive. Sasha Porozov & Arina Sokolova were 2nd in all dances and Roman Melnyk & Anna Melnyk were 3rd.

Similarly, the Pro Ballroom also only had 3 entries. Alexey Grinev & Kseniia Grineva easily won all dances. Oleg Teleha & Mishka Teleha were 2nd in all and Dmytro Roshchupkin & Isabelle Jordan were third.

Three couple also entered the Pro Cabaret and in a rare show of unity the judges were in complete agreement on the result. Shane & Shannon Jensen took all first places; Anthony Kantin & Olivia Card took all seconds and Alexey Smirnov & Daria Smirnova took all thirds.