BLACKPOOL 2013

Wednesday May 29^th

On Wednesday night at the Empress Ballroom in the Winter Gardens, Blackpool the Open To The World Professional British Latin Championships are held.

The result was mostly as expected. Michael Malitowski with Joanna Leunis (England) won the competition overall leaving Riccardo Cocchi with Yulia Zagoruychenko (USA) again holding second place. However, Riccardo and Yulia did manage to take 1^st place in the Samba and Jive from Michael and Joanna. Ricardo and Yulia had a terrific night and could have easily taken it all the way but it was not in the cards. The most excitement between these couples and possibly during the comp was when Joanna Leunis took a nasty dive in the middle of the Paso Doble, but of course with couples of this caliber she recovered very fast This fault was rewarded in the final where they won the Paso Doble with Riccardo and Yulia taking 3^rd place behind Sergey Surkov with Melia (Russia) who placed 3rd overall. Maurizio Vescovo with Andra Vaidilaite (Canada) took the Samba and Jive from Sergey and Melia and finished in 4^th position. Into fifth place from Slovenia were Andrej Skufca and Melinda by placing 5^th in all dances. The biggest surprise of the final was the inclusion of Stephano DeFilipo with Daria Chesnokova who are now dancing for the USA. This couple has been representing Italy. Daria was the former Amateur Latin partner of Valentin Chmerkovskiy (now better know as “Val” from DWTS). When they terminated their partnership Daria turned Professional and danced for a very short time with Slavik Kryklyvyy. She now is competing successfully with Stephano who is from Italy. Stephano and Daria finished 6^th in all dances.

1^st Michael Malitowski with Joanna Leunis (England)

2^nd Riccardo Cocchi with Yulia Zagoruychenko (USA)

3^rd) Sergey Surkov with Melia (Russia)

4^th Maurizio Vescovo with Andra Vaidilaite (Canada)

5^th Andrej Skufca with Melinda (Slovenia)

6^th Stephano DeFilipo with Dariya Chesnokova (USA)

A favorite performance of the night was that of the USA formation team from BYU University. Taking first place with choreography that was a “10” and illuminating costumes that changed with the mood of the moment. They received a standing ovation from the audience. Congratulations to Team Directors Lee & Linda Wakefield and guest choreographers, Alain Doucet & Anik Jolicoeur for their well deserved win.