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? 

Anna Melnikova and Justinas Duknauskas debut in Hong Kong

Anna Melnikova and her new husband, Justinas Duknauskas debuted a full out show with five dances in Hong Kong. Forgive the video for being pretty dark.



Anna's hair has gotten really long with extensions, so she actually looks a bit like Karina Smirnoff from far away. Her dancing and her style in the video reminded me a bit of Ekaterina Lapaeva, especially if you watch the cha cha portion. It appears she really wants to move on from her old partnership and create a unique style of her own with Justinas. She is still amazing and would deserve to be one of the top six ladies in the world.
 

Youtube comments were fairly harsh comparing Justinas to Slavik Kryklyvyy and Stefano di Fillipo. Of course, when you are being compared to the legendary Slavik, it will be hard to measure up on the first try.


Like I said before, Justinas is very young. They have potential. Will they make it into the finals in a major competition? Probably not yet with them being so new, but definitely in the top ten.

Karina Smirnoff will go nude for Playboy!

It has been confirmed...

Karina Smirnoff will be in Playboy

Credit: People magazine

Karina Smirnoff will go nude for playboy!

"I'm fearless and love the adrenaline rush," said Karina to Playboy magazine. She also said that
"Sexy is the confident energy a person produces and being "comfortable feeling of being who you are."

What do you think of her bold move?

People are saying it could cost her the Dancing with the Stars gig. I hope not, she is one of the reasons the show is worth watching.

UPDATE: Apparently DWTS knew about her spread all along. She will continue to be dancing on the show. 

Daria Chesnokova is Slavik Kryklyvyy's new girlfriend

Slavik and his new love, Daria

Looks like Slavik has moved on from his recent split from Anna with another beautiful lady.

His new love is Daria Chesnokova, a Ukraine dancer. She has been in an amateur partnership with Valentin Chmerkovskiy, the younger brother of Maxim Chmerkovskiy since 2008. The pair placed 3rd this year in the UK Open and are consistently finalists at major competitions.

Let's hope that Slavik doesn't break up this successful partnership and he finds a partner of his own.

Wish the pair well and we will see if Slavik will continue competing.

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!

Karina Smirnoff is opening her own dance studio!

Karina Smirnoff has announced she will open her own dance studio called Karina Smirnoff Dance.

In interviews, she has said that it was a lifelong dream of hers to open up her own dance studio. She follows in the footsteps of other well-known dancers who have opened their own studio such as Karen Hardy.

The studio will be located in Woodland Hills, California and will offer a combination of social and competitive classes. 

Although the website doesn't say who the instructors are yet, I have a feeling some she will bring in some well-known instructors.

She will be offering a free dance lesson for those who sign up online for a limited time.

Paul Richardson and Olga Rodionova get married!

It has been the time of the year for dancers to get married.

 Dancers in love: Paul Richardson and Olga Rodionova
Credit: Dancesportinfo.net

Dancesportinfo.net just announced that Paul Richardson and Olga Rodionova, former British Closed champs tied the knot last month in Houston, Texas where they had met. They had dated for seven years.

Other famous dancers that attended the wedding were Corky Ballas and Maurizio Vescovo

I know their dance partnership was over when Paul retired in 2007, so I was not sure if they stayed involved romantically.

I am glad they did... partnerships that work out off the dance floor make me happy.