Are Franco Formica and Olga Muller in trouble?

Finally videos of Franco Formica and Olga Muller are up! Watching them...I have to wonder if this pair is in trouble.

The pair will be competing tomorrow at the International Championships...so I can't wait to post the results!

Here is their rumba:




The Youtube comments have not been very positive. There have been many remarks that her age has limited her flexibility and that Olga is not as good as Oxana was. There have also been people saying it looks very pro-am...with Franco being the Pro! I have to say I do prefer Oxana, as I think her technique allowed Franco to be more creative with the choreography. I found their choreography less dynamic and interesting.

To me, this partnership looks reminds me of the one that Slavik had with Hanna. I think Olga just hasn't danced for a while and this does show. Her technique is different from the younger girls and when you watch her rumba, you can see she takes smaller steps and her back is less flexible. But at 40 her dancing is still quite good.

The only question is whether this pair is good enough to crack the top three in world competitions. My prediction is that this pair will end up in 6th place or the semi-finals. However, given that Melia doesn't have perfect technique, yet her and Sergey are ranked well, maybe Franco and Olga have what it takes!

I absolutely adore Franco and I had hoped this partnership would be dynamic, but I have to say I am a bit disappointed.

Do you guys disagree with my analysis? Let me know!

Other videos:

Samba:


Jive:


Paso:

How ironic...Stefano di Filippo and Dariya Chesnokova dance together

Looks like another one bites the dust for Slavik Kryklyvyy....his partnership with Daria Chesnokva fizzled out and they broke up shortly after. According to Dancesportinfo they broke up in June. 

In some strange twist of fate, Daria will be dancing with Stefano di Filippo. Back in 2009, Slavik had convinced Anna Melnikova to break up with Stefano to dance with him. Now it loos like Slavik's ex girlfriend has left him to dance with Stefano. Daria and Stefano are also a couple in real life!

The dance universe is small indeed!

I am very happy that Stefano is back! He's insanely talented and he could easily make the finals with Daria. I wonder if Stefano will continue to do Dancing with the Stars in Italy...

What do you think will happen with Slavik next? I am now almost 100% sure his competition days are over. I would love to see some dance shows of the classic routines Slavik once did with Karina...he has never found a partnership that could match what he had with her.

Also thanks for all the readers who has emailed me about this! I am so sorry I have been MIA!

WSDF lifts sanctions for participating in "Non-WDSF Events"

Very exciting news! Maybe dancers will finally get the freedom to dance.

WDSF announced yesterday that it would be allow dancers to participate in non-WDSF competitions. They had a General Meeting to resolve this issue. For the past few months, WDSF also allowed Facebook users to discuss this issue.

In the past, dancers such as Stefano di Fillipo and Valentin Chmerkovskiy have spoken out against these restrictions.

So perhaps the Amateur and Professional dance field will be more exciting?

I hope to see all dancers do Blackpool and World Championships next year. That would be definitely make things more interesting for me....

Let me know your thoughts!

Franco Formica and Olga Müller-Omeltchenko are still gong to compete!

I recently found out that the reason that Franco Formica and Olga Müller-Omeltchenko were not at Blackpool was because they have decided to wait a bit longer!

That's definitely a relief for me! Franco is too good/young to retire this early in my opinion!

This was their message:

Dear Facebook Community, Danceworld, Fans and Friends,

...... Olga and me have decided to wait with our first competition and not compete in Blackpool.

We need just a bit more time.

Love
Olga and Franco

Would it be quite the shock if Franco and Olga or Slavik and Daria were to compete at Blackpool and not even make the finals?

The longer they are away, the more likely that is to happen, so I hope I see both couples soon!

Is the partnership between Slavik and Daria over?

I just learned today about the new partnership between Slavik Kryklyvyy and Daria Chesnokova. They will be representing the US.

They were supposed to be at Blackpool competing in the Professional Latin division at Blackpool but they were a no show!

Apparently they had performed at the Sunshine State Dancesport Championships in Miami at the end of April and performed three dances. However although the MC had said they would return to perform more dances, apparently they just left.

A person on Dance Forums says:

they only danced 3 dances and received a standing ovation for Rumba, after doing Cha Cha and Samba......however, in the middle of the 5 dance show, they announced that Slavik and Daria were coming back after a costume change and would be back out (also note that never at any point did Slavik and Daria get a final send off from the MC....they never said anything more about why Daria and Slavik weren't coming back out, everything just ended and I asked a few people why they didn't come back out and you just got kind of a shrug, no explanation....
 It was very strange, even now I never found out what happened, but I kind of felt something happened right in the middle of the show...Then Daria and Slavik are registered for these comps and now the whole partnership is supposedly off...

However, according to their respective Facebook statuses, they are both a romantic couple. 

In my opinion, I think the two most talented guys in in the Pro Latin division are Slavik and Franco! Hopefully we find out what soon whether or not they will be back to compete!

Professional latin results: Michal and Joanna emerge on top!

Blackpool winners: Michal and Joanna 

It was no surprise for me that Michal Malitowski and Joanna Leunis won Blackpool 2012! Congrats to the fabulous couple!

Also congrats to Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagorouitchenko who placed second and Sergey Sourkov and Melia that were third! 

However there were some notable surprises. Where were Franco Formica and Olga? I was surprised they didn't compete. Hopefully that doesn't mean that Franco has decided to retire :S

Also, the Canadian pair, Maurzio Vescovo and Andra Vaidiliate  placed ahead of Andrej Skufca and Melinda Torokgyorgy for all five dances! Normally Andej and Melinda are always ahead!

What do you think of the results?

Will Blackpool ever be the same again?

 Blackpool Latin 2012 winners! 

Neil Jones and Ekaterina Solokova

Photo credit: Peter Suba

Hi everyone,

Sory I have been so inactive lately- life has been crazy!

I have been reading about the Blackpool results and I am eagerly anticipating the Professional Latin results that will be out very soon! I have a feeling that we all know who is probably going to win, but you never know!! I am very excited see how Franco Formica & Olga will do!

But on an interesting note Amateur Latin at Blackpool has really changed due to dance politics. The winners were Neil Jones and Ekaterina Solokova as expected, but I really miss the time when the top dancers from the World DanceSport Federation could compete as well. I feel that the competition would have been much more exciting with Andrei Zaitsev & Anna Kuzminskaya, Nino Langella & Khrystyna Moshenskaya and Martino Zanibellato & Michelle Abildtrup!

Martino and Michelle did dance at Blackpool last year and were only ranked 4th-perhaps that is also another reason why they chose not to compete this year. I am sure WDF is not happy with dancers that try to also attend the Britisah competitions.

The last amateur Latin Blackpool competition that had all the top dancers was in 2009, when Stefano di Filippo and Anna Melnikova took the crown! In 2010, Alexei Silde and Anna Firstova along with Andrei and Anna didn't go...and then it has gotten worse.

So what does everyone think? Will there be any changes soon to revert back to when dancers could dance at all the coveted competitions?