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beautiful Latin lady dancer

Anna Melnikova first caught my eye at Embassy Ball 2008 in Irvine when she was an amateur dancing with Stefano Di Fillipo just before they won Blackpool 2009.  

She then turned professional, partnering with Slavik Kryklyvyy - one of my favorite male Latin dancer.

I really like Anna's style, it does not have the hard edges that a lot of the other Russian Latin ladies seem to favor, but is very luscious, feminine and continuous musically.   Such a shame Anna Melnikova is no longer dancing with Slavik.  

Anna Melnikova and Slavik Kryklyvyy
Rumba - 

Cha Cha - 

great show!

Just saw a fantastic live Latin Ballroom show by Nikolai Voronovich and Maria Nikolishina last night at Star Studio in Monterey Park.  This was their Blackpool fund-raiser to help them compete in England this year.  

What I really enjoyed was their choreography which told stories and expressed the music well.  It was humorous, playful and entertaining.
 
Here's a video of a recent competition they won in Vegas.

Nikolai and Maria were semi-finalists last year as Amateurs and turned Pro shortly after and doing very well in US competitions.  Here's wishing them the very best for Blackpool 2011.

Regards,
Karen

Heidi's still my fave in West Coast Swing

Heidi_superstarsballroom_web

I just took an advanced West Coast Swing workshop with Heidi Groskreutz and Heidi's still my favorite lady West Coast swinger.  I haven't seen Heidi for a while and her technique is top notch, she is using her feet even more than before.  She is very musical and her ballroom training has served her well in her very fluid and sexy slinky way of moving.  On top of that, a down to earth person and a very good instructor.

Here's a video of Heidi and her cousin Benji Schwimmer performing their 2005 US Open Swing Dance winning routine ... in 2007.  Much tighter and slicker, more fire than when they competed with this same routine in 2005

2007 Heidi and Benji West Coast Swing

2005 Heidia and Benji's winning routine at the Showcase Division the US Open Swing Dance Championship before competing in Season 2 of "So You Think You Can Dance" in 2006. 

Heidi came to the public eye with 4th place at "So you think you can dance" Season 2, 2006.  I loved her fire and spunk and fluid movement.  Heidi came 4th and her cousin and partner Benji Schwimmer won that year (his dad is the famous Buddy Schwimmer who invented NightClub Two Step and is hugely responsible for teaching millions of people West Coast Swing).

Regards,

Ballroom dancing in Maui

Just posted on my ballroom blog: a report on the ballroom dancing scene in Maui

Please click on this link to read the article:
http://ballroomdancingclasses.us/ballroom-dancing-classes/ballroom-dancing-in-maui-ballroom%C2%A0social-dancing-and%C2%A0ballroom-dancing-classes

Regards,
Karen

ps. If you are a learning ballroom, please check out my
blog http://ballroomdancingclasses.us/ which contains useful tips on learning
ballroom dancing.  Please stop by and say Hi!

cool ballroom choreography - The Matrix by Max and Yulia

This is one of my favorite ballroom choreography by Max and Yulia - a tribute to the 'Matrix' movie.  I love how they captured the essence and spirit of the movie.  The running sequence by Yulia reminded me of the way Trinity ran in the Matrix I and the slow-mo parts just reminded me of the slow motion sequences in the movie that made it so special for me at that time.

Max is Maxim Kozhenikov - he's retired from competing and is doing showdances with Beata.
Yulia is Yulia Zagoruychenko - Yulia is competing with Riccardo Cocchi and is currently ranked #2 in world in International Latin.


Regards,

my favorite rumba routine

Here is my favorite International Rumba routine by Joanna Leunis and Michael Malitowski.  They have performed this same routine in other venues but Joanna is much softer in this presentation which is more suited to the music IMHO.  They are currently ranked #1 in the World for International Latin.

A little bit of ballroom trivia: for those of you who watch DWTS - Dancing with the Stars (US), Joanna Leunis was Louis van Amstel's professional partner in 2001-2002.

Joanna and Slavik Kryklyvyy won the World's Amateur International Latin Competition in 2000.  Slavik used to be my all time favorite male International Latin dancer - fluid and relaxed.  He's in the top 4-5 in the World's professional rankings in International Latin.

Regards,
Karen

http://ballroomdancingclasses.us

Ballroom competition - corruption, injustice and inspiration at Embassy Ball 2010

Last night at the Embassy Ball Dancesport Championships 2010, we were looking forward to a night of great ballroom dancing with the IDSF Grand Slam Amateur Latin and the World Cup Professional Standard competitions.  The dancing was great, but it was the judging we had problems with.  

I have competed in enough ballroom competitions and attended many of them to be used to the subjective judging.  There are many times when I have not agreed with the judge's choices and that's because they are looking for different things from me.  I can usually understand why they favor particular couples even if I don't agree.  However, after what happened last night, even I was in shock.  And so were many others who were there.  You can read more about this here ... the real story behind the results of the World Cup Professional Standard Ballroom Competition

useful info for ballroom beginners on private dance lessons and group classes

Just posted on my ballroom blog: useful information for ballroom beginners on private dance lessons and group classes.

Please click on this link to read the article:

http://ballroomdancingclasses.us/ballroom-dancing-classes/ballroom-dancing-cl... lessons

Regards,
Karen


ps. If you are a learning ballroom, please check out my blog http://ballroomdancingclasses.us/ which contains useful tips on learning ballroom dancing. Please stop by and say Hi!