21st Come Dancing Cup

The organization of 21^st Come Dancing Cup was reminiscent of 1^st Come Dancing Cup 20 years ago when Gertrude & I had to perform five Latin Dances and one Ballroom Dance! Today, I was more relaxed as I only performed one Latin Dance with my student. This year, in addition to its pre-planned Super Stars Professional Latin Final, WDC AL City Open Amateur Championships (Latin) was installed with the sanction of WDC AL & ADC.

Similar as last year, this year's Come Dancing Cup also clashed with several competitions – one by a local organizer (same clash as last year), one WDSF Open in Thailand, one WDC Open in Taiwan, not to mention the several small competitions in China. Still though, I was lucky enough to have more entries of competitors compared to last year with country recognitions from Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Philippines, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Slovenia, Denmark, Russia, Belorussia, Italy, Ukraine, China.

Already established as Come Dancing Cup traditions, of the four major Finals, three were held in the afternoon & one (this year was Open Professional Latin Final) was made the highlight in the evening Dinner Party with the Pro-Am Demonstration by my student & myself. The below four major champions all had their names in their own field. I must take this opportunity to show my appreciations to them as they all danced this year's Come Dancing Cup with lower prize money than they normally received :

Professional Latin – Jurij & Jagoda Batajelj (Slovenia)

Professional Standard - Alessio Potenziani & Veronika Vlasova (Russia)

Amateur Standard - Diego Arias & Ekaterina Ermolina (Russia)

Amateur Latin - Sergei Maksiuta & Jenna Bagge Knudsen (Denmark)

Beyond any possible expectations bearing in mind that the prize money were trivial, this year's Open Amateur Latin event , the first time ever WDC AL City Open (Latin), ended up with six European couples occupy 1st to 6^th place! It was also the most closely fought event of the day with 1^st & 2^nd Place separated marginally !

Also for first time in Come Dancing Cup history, I arranged in the evening Dinner Party prime time, after Open Professional Latin Final was finished, all four Major champions to do their Honour Dances !

Lawrence (& Gertrude)
4^th August 2013

(a) Open Amateur Latin Prize Presentation - 1^st Sergei Maksiuta & Jenna Bagge Knudsen (Denmark) ; 2^nd Atanas Gendov & Anna Lisova (Italy) ; 3^rd Artem Klimenov & Giulia Nuzio (Ukraine) ; 4^th Alexander Andreichev & Kristina Nikiforova (Russia) , 5^th Euheny Lesov & Polina Rays (Belorussia) ; 6^th Matej Kralj and Olesya Mokrova (Russia)

(b) Open Professional Standard Prize Presentations

(c) Open Professional Latin Prize Presentations