Dance Legends in New York this weekend!

Hello dance lovers,

Just wanted to let you folks know that Dance Legends will be in New York this weekend!

If you are in New York or close by it should be a good show as there will be so many well-known dancers there, such as Yulia and Riccardo. I see it as kind of a Japan World Super Stars Dance Festival but in North American! 

If anyone ends up coming let me know how it goes! I think it's pretty exciting retired couple Mirko Gozzoli & Edita Daniute will be there. I heard they were going to perform last year, but couldn't make it after they broke up.

Here are the photos from last year's event:

Rest in peace Julia Iveleva...you will be missed!

I just received news that beautiful standard dancer Julia Ivleva has passed away after a battle with lung cancer.

My condolences go to her husband, Igor Litvinov and her family and friends who are going through this tough time.

Here a few videos of her dancing in her memory:



The lovely Dancing with the Stars tribute to her story



Igor Litvinov and Yulia Ivleva dancing the Foxtrot



Igor Litvinov and Yulia Ivleva at the Ohio Star Ball



Lady Gaga Show Dance

You will be missed Julia! Thank you for your beautiful dancing.

Anna Melnikova and Justinas Duknauskas may be expecting a baby!

Hello dance lovers,

The rumour is that Anna Melnikova and Justinas Duknauskas are expecting a baby!

This was her Facebook message to her fans:

Dear all..

Me&Justinas we would like to share our great news.. letting you know that we will take a bit of the break in our dancing career:))..
the reason for that are very exciting family issues!;))
But surely,competitive dancing will always be our great passion!So we will be looking forward to see you all in 2014!!;))..
...
Stay happy..stay real..stay sincere..Trust in everything what you do...

With love,
Justinas Duknauskas&Anna Melnikova

Congrats Anna and Justinas! I hope to see them back on the dance floor soon :)

The saddest words are "what it might have been": The partnership between Slavik and Daria

Hi dance lovers,

Sorry it has been so long. Life has been very busy!

I was look at Youtube videos and I found the videos of Slavik Kryklyvyy & Daria Chesnokova.



Samba



Cha-cha



Rumba


They actually looked quite good together I thought...she definitely has the potential to consistently make the finals at world competitions. Slavik still still looked like he had his technical powress as well. I think they could have made an excellent partnership.

I think Slavik still wants to come back on the dance floor. The question is...who can he dance with? I think he needs to accept that he will unfortunately never be #1 again.

On another note, Michal and Joanna won UK Open, so it look likes the fight for being the #1 Professional Latin Dancer in the world is still debatable!

Ekaterina Lapaeva retires from competitive dancing!

Much apologies for my delay in the latest news with the Slavik and Ekaterina partnership!

Ekaterina just announced last week that she will be retiring from competitive dancesport

Very sad news for all the fans we had eagerly anticipated this partnership to blossom!

I wonder what was behind her decision to quit? In her  letter to Dancesportinfo she mentions that she wants to  continue her education of psychology and philosophy, together with study of literature and creative art....so perhaps those were her reasons. Her dancing will sadly be missed!

Does anyone know what will happen to Slavik now? I hope he finds a suitable partner soon...

Stefano and Daria at the Internationals

So the debut of the new partnership between Stefano di Filippo and Daria Chesnokova is finally on Youtube!

I think they look great together! A lot of people commented that Daria kind of dances like a combination of Anna Melnikova and Olga Urumova. I think Stefano always brings out the sexiness in his ladies ;)

Here is it for your viewing pleasure! What do you think?

Slavik Kryklyvyy will be dancing with Ekaterina Lapaeva

Slavik Kryklyvyy will be dancing with Ekaterina Lapaeva! How exciting! I had written about this being a potentially good match more than a year ago here.

I do not think they are involved in a romantic relationship, so I hope that they will have the chemistry to make this partnership work. His partnership with Hanna Karttunen definitely needed this!

Thanks to a very astute reader for sending me a link with an interview with Slavik to alert me of this new partnership! Thanks to another reader for his comment to my post that alerted me to this!

Slavik definitely has a good chance with Ekaterina. She is a seasoned pro and  I hope they will make this partnership work. He definitely needs to dance with her for more than a year to establish this partnership first then see if they can progress further in the ranks. I am predicting that they should make the finals at least.

This girl is fabulous I think! Just look the passion and charisma she brings in this WSSDF Latin video with Anton Karpov! She definitely has a style all her own for sure.




This is definitely Slavik's last chance to rise to the top I think. His age is catching up, but he is still a brilliant dancer. I think Ekaterina is definitely a better woman to reach for the top with than Franco's choice to dance with Olga Muller. I have high hopes for this partnership! (Please make it work Slavik, if you reading this!) What do you guys think? Will he finally find someone he can rise to the top with?