Big Surprise: Justinas Duknauskas and Anna Melnikova split!!!!

NOTE: Rumor is that Anna Menikova and Nino Langella will be dancing together. They should be on fire! 


Wow just news that  Justinas Duknauskas and Anna Melnikova have split!

What a surprise! They were married and both intend to continue with new partners. A

Justinas and Anna at their wedding

All the content in this blog posts are property of Ballroom Dance Gossip. 

Could this mean they broke up in their professional life as well? I know they have a daughter together and I was wondering what happened to Justinas on Anna's instagram as there recently there have been very few pictures of him. None since 5 months ago anyways!

I am saddened by this and I hope they both continue their respective dance careers. Any thoughts on who they should partner next?

Should Slavik try again with her as a partner? I just watched Ballroom Dancer again and it really did seem like he loved her and then lost her to Justinas. He needs to be gentle with her though and dance with her and not do all the solos he does in a competition.

If Slavik wants to come back, I think that he should dance with Anna or any other amazing girl, but he should lower his expectations a bit initially. I think they could have been in the Top 3 if he had persevered and not been as hard on her. Sometimes winning is about waiting for the couples above you to retire...

I don't want to speculate, but I am guessing a rift might have been caused due to the fact that Anna and Justinas dance results were quite disappointing and they didn't seem to gel together as dance partners the way Anna used to with Slavik or Stefano or Justinas did with Ekaterina.

Comments are Youtube were always quite critical about this partnership and about the fact that Anna was simply more talented than Justinas. I don't necessarily agree with that that was the reason their partnership failed,  as I just think that as a couple, Anna and Justinas' dance styles didn't match that well and it showed in their results.

For instance arguably, in the partnership of Sergey and Melia, Sergey is the better dancer; in the partnership of Yulia and Riccardo, Yulia is the better dancer; and in the partnership of Michal and Joanna, Joanna is the better dancer. However, these couples still shine because the individual styles in the partnership complement each other.

Anna's dancing became more subdued with Justinas, and Justinas is not grounded or intense enough for her in his movements and he seems to make a lot of extra movements. She needs a dancer that brings out her fierceness and is a very masculine figure to her. In her partnership with Justinas she almost became the masculine figure because her style is so different from his. I still like her the best with Stefano, but she was also great and developing well when she was with Slavik. Justinas looked fine with Ekaterina because she's a softer dancer and she does a lot of extra movement as well, so they actually complement each other. Watch the videos to see if you agree with me.

Please comment if you here of any other news!





Slavik and all his solo wwhile dancing with Anna



Slavik holding Anna closely at the end.



Stefano and Anna looking amazing at the World Champions!



Justinas and Ekaterina

Results for WDC World Championships- Riccardo and Yulia are up on top!

Yulia Zagorouitchenko and Riccardo Cocchi are rising to the top!!! With their recent win at Internationals, I think they are solidly ranked as the best dancers in the world.

They were just crowned the new World Championships! Congratulations to them both!

Michael Malitowski and Joanna Leunis were second, Sergey Surkov and Melia were third, 
Maurizio Vescovo  and Andra Vaidilaite were fourth, Andrej Skufca and Melinda were fifth and Justinas Duknaukas and Anna Melnikova were sixth.

The general trend at the moment appears that Andrej and Melinda have dropped to fifth place and Maurizio and Andra have risen to fourth.

Franco Formica and Olga and Stefano di Filippo did and Daria did not compete in the World Championships!  

Thank you very much for reader electricblue for directing me to the results for WDC World Championships! I look forward to hopefully catching this on Youtube! 

Surprises at Blackpool 2011: Joanna and Michal win again and some notable couples are missing!

Sorry for being away for so long...was busy with real life.

I am going to write about how I honestly felt about the Blackpool results...sorry if this offends anyone, but these were my thoughts.

Michal and Joanna take first place in all six dances at Blackpool 2011

Photo credit: www.malitowskileunis.com

So the battle between Joanna Leunis and  Michal Malitowski and Yulia Zagorouitchenko and Riccardo Cocchi wasn't a tight race after all with Joanna and Michal placing first in all five dances. Last year, Yulia and Riccardo won the jive. I don't think any couple can come close to the Yulia and Riccardo's jive, so for me no doubt Joanna and Michal's unanimous victory leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

Personally, I prefer the way Yulia and Riccardo dance. They are a lot softer and I think Yulia dances with more feelings than Joanna does. In addition, it's very evident that Riccardo is technically superior to Michal.

Btw, interesting note at the World Championships, Michal and Joanna were clearly very disappointed and did not speak to Yulia and Riccardo when they were standing on the podium. It's around 6:18 minutes. Yulia and Riccardo only spoke to Sergey and Melia. Michal and Joanna did not stay to watch Yulia and Riccardo's honor dance.

Here is the video:



Looking at dance politics, when Slavik Kryklyvyy and Karina Smirnoff were in the finals with Bryan Watson and Carmen Vincelji, Slavik and Karina could never beat them. Will Michal and Joanna win every year at Blackpool even when Yulia and Riccardo are winning the World Championships?

In addition, I have to point out that Sergey Surkov and Melia, as usual placed third. Sergey is a great dancer, but Melia in all honesty, is technically worse than any of the ladies in the top 20. She lacks hip action in the samba, cha cha and rumba and her jive lacks any bounce action.

I know everyone says she dances with great expression and feeling, and I think she does and I do enjoy watching her dance,  but does someone this level of technique deserve to be third in the world beating out exceptional female dancers like Melinda?

If any of you readers are professional dancers please explain to me what makes her technique even comparable to the top ladies like Yulia, Joanna or Olga. I know they train with Donnie Burns, but I find it shocking that someone so technically inferior can be a world finalist. For me, an interesting situation would be if Yulia and Riccardo and Joanna and Michal retired. That would make Sergey and Melia first in the world...even with her being a worse dancer than any of the top 20 ladies!!

Couple to watch out for: Stefano di Filippo and Olga Urumova placed fifth in the Blackpool Professionals. He looks like he has the most fun out of all the finalists and his hip action, energy and his choreography brings an authentic Latin flavour to the final. Olga is very good as well and they are very compatible together.

Notable missing couples: Some of my favourites in the Latin Amateur division that didn't compete (I am guessing due to IDSF restrictions) include Andrei Zaitsev and Anna Kuzminskaya and Zoran Plohl & Tatsiana Lahvinovich making the Amateur competition seem a bit emptier than the past few years.

Alexei Silde and Anna Firstova also were absent from the Professional division, and we won't be seeing them at any WDC competitions competing with other top 6 pairs. Sad...they are both so good!

So what did you think of my assessments of Blackpool? If you disagree with anything I said please let me know, eager to listen to some other opinions as well!

WDC Latin Championship: Yulia are Riccardo beat Joanna and Michal, Sergey and Melia beat Franco and Oxana and Justinas and Anna debut

 Riccardo and Yulia are now the official champs! 

Photo credit: Thomas Morton 

So the King and Queen of Latin Ballroom are officially Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagorouitchenko.

Riccardo and Yulia beat Michal Malitowski and Joanna Leunis at the WDC World Professional Latin Championship 2011 yesterday.

Michal tweeted " Here we go again. We gave our best as always. Some things we can not control. Thank You for your support. Means the most to us. Love. M&J"

The last competition that Michal and Joanna beat Riccardo and Yulia was the UK Open last January. Riccardo and Yulia beat Joanna and Michal for the first time at WDC World Professional Latin last November.

I am glad that Riccardo and Yulia are they new champs and I think they are more creative Michal and Joanna. I respect them for continuously coming up with new routines and I prefer the fluid nature of Yulia's dancing, over Joanna's more technical, but stiff movements. However, I am sure these two couple are the undisputed top pairs.

I am still curious to see if this will be the same result at Blackpool.

There were some other surprises as Sergey Sourkov and Melia beat Franco Formica and Oxana Lebedew. Personally I think that Franco and Oxana are a much stronger pair and should have been third.

It was also the first competition for Anna Melnikova and Justinas Duknauskas. The pair placed just outside of the finals and were 7th.

So who do you think deserved to be first? 

Funniest World Super Star Dancing Parody!!!

 After spending hours on youtube...I came across this gem.



It's a parody of some of the World Super Star dancers. They nail dead-on Melia's bad foot actions (and dramatic poses), Slavik's love of dancing solo, Bryan's enthusiastic jive and finally Michal and Joanna's abstract shapes during their techno music performances. Missing noticeably are Riccardo and Yulia....but you will still laugh so hard.

It is very funny, but as a warning only dancers who have watched the WSS videos one too many times will get the performances.

Happy watching!

Slavik still has a chance...if his new partner is Ekaterina Lapaeva

UPDATE: Ekaterina has decided to retire, so Slavik is now out of a partner! 

UPDATE: Thank you very much to the kind readers that have alerted me that indeed Slavik has a new partnership with Ekaterina. 

Few weeks ago, I had said that Slavik Kryklyvvy's dance career was over because the chances of him getting back to competition with Karina Smirnoff were slim. 

However, the only top and single lady left,  Ekaterina Lapaeva ( the former partner of Justinas Duknauskas) is really underrated and luckily very good.

This lady hasn't received that much attention, but just by watching this rumba of her and Justinas, you can see how special she is. She is very dramatic in her expressions like Karina and some of her intricate body movements remind me of Joanna Leunis. She also is very emotional like Melia, but with much better technique.