There are three WDSF World Open events this weekend.

Kyiv, Ukraine hosts World Open Latin on Saturday and World Open Standard on Sunday. There are 93 couples, representing 30 countries competing for Latin and 87 couples representing 24 countries competing for Standard. In addition to World Opens, there are WDSF Opens for Senior 1 Standard, and both Youth and Junior 2 Standard and Latin. The first rounds of both World Opens start at 16:30 local time (15:30 CET). The event in Kyiv has started already on Friday with national competitions. You can watch the live stream from the International Convention Center Kyiv below.

Brno, Czech Republic is hosting World Open Standard on Saturday and International Open Latin on Sunday. The organiser reported us with a huge smile on his face that they have been flooding with registrations as they have more than 800 starts from more than 500 couples. Due to high interest in their event, the organisers have been preparing a second dancefloor, second panel of Adjudicators, scrutineers etc. to fit the whole event in one weekend. 103 couples are competing for the World Open Standard on Saturday, and the first round begins for them at 14:00 CET. 93 couples are registered for the International Open Latin on Sunday, and their first round begins at 13:30 CET. In addition to these two competitions, the weekend includes many WDSF Opens, DanceSport Europe Children’s GrandPrix and some local specialities. You can watch the live stream from Masaryk University Campus Brno, below.

Tokyo, Japan, hosts World Open Standard and International Open Latin, and PD Super GrandPrix Standard on Sunday. We have Mr. Helmut Roland from WDSF Communications team there to capture the best moments with his camera at the Komazawa Olympic Park General Sports Ground Gymnasium. This is the first time the PD couples will be introduced to the Duel format.

Last, but certainly not least, there are two events in the Russian Federation during the weekend. Moscow Region hosts WDSF International Open and WDSF Youth Open Standard on Saturday, and WDSF International Open and WDSF Youth Open Latin on Sunday.

Novosibirsk hosts WDSF Open Standard and Latin for both Adult and Junior 2 age groups. What makes the Novosibirsk event interesting is the presence of the reigning World Champions: Zharkov-Kulikova and Tsaturyan-Gudyno are there for a show number, and Gorodilov-Bergmannova are competing. We are looking forward to some photos after the event!

By the look of it, this weekend will be fabulous with so many wonderful events and the two live streams. Enjoy!

Live from Kyiv, Ukraine:

Live from Brno, Czech Republic:

The Moldovans Nikolay Darin - Natalia Seredina started their competition year in Tokyo - and with a win. The couple started their final with an amazing waltz, taking a lead with 0.95 points. They never gave up the lead and ended up on the highest step of the podium with a margin of 3.012 points over the silver medalists, Andrey Motyl - Ekaterina Kim (RUS). Cheng Dan - Li Zhenni (CHN) ranked third, Alessandro D'Amora - Maria Gorelik (ITA) ranked fourth, their fellow Italians Alessandro Ilarioni - Aurora Sbardella fifth, and Marts Punins - Dana Jakobsone (LAT) sixth.

Helmut Roland from WDSF Communications team was there to capture the best moments with his camera and we will continue uploading the photos on Sunday and Monday. The first round photos are already uploaded. We also have the Winners' Interview coming up, so stay tuned!

Tokyo, Japan, set the stage for the World Open Standard on Sunday. 57 couples started the competition. Francesco Galuppo – Debora Pacini (ITA) were the winners, Anton Skuratov – Alena Uehlin (GER) runners-up and Edgars Linis – Eliza Ancane (LAT) won the bronze. For all couples of the top three it was the second competition of the year, and a good preparation for the upcoming GrandSlam Series.

International Open Latin in Tokyo attracted 27 couples to the starting list. Timur Imametdinov – Nina Bezzubova (GER) were the winners, Andrey Gusev – Vera Bondareva (RUS) ranked second and Winson Tam – Anastasia Novikova (CAN) third. Winson and Anastasia surely had a full day with all dress changes, as they ranked sixth on World Open Standard. They had two competitions on the same day, and made it to the final in both of them!

A short report on PD Super GrandPrix Standard in Tokyo can be found here. 

We were able to watch the events from Kyiv live. World Open Latin had 73 couples registered on Saturday. Marius-Andrei Balan – Khrystyna Moshenska (GER) won the competition, Marek Bures – Anastasiia Iermolenko (CZE) ranked second and Yan Bangbang – Du Yujun (CHN) third. World Open Standard had 72 couples on the starting list on Sunday. The gold medals were presented to Madis Abel – Aleksandra Galkina (EST). Marco Sirocchi – Kilin Dora (ROU) ranked second and Yahor Boldysh – Irina Averina (BLR) third.

We were also happy to enjoy the events from Brno live. 96 couples took part in the World Open Standard competition on Saturday. The home crowd was happy to hear the results as David Odstrcil – Tara Bohak (CZE) were announced winners. Daniil Ulanov – Kateryna Isakovych (CYP) won silver, and Qiu Yuming – Wei Liying (CHN) started their competition year well by winning bronze medals. For International Open Latin, 82 couples started and after five rounds Charles-Guillaume Schmitt – Elena Salikhova (FRA) were announced winners. It was their first event of the year and it couldn’t have gone better as they won all five dances in the final. A new combination, Timur Yusupov – Valeria Remina (RUS) started their career together with a silver medal and Stefano Mendolia – Alexandra Koldan (ITA) won the bronze.

Moscow Region had International Open Standard on Saturday and International Open Latin on Sunday. 74 couples competed for Standard, and after five rounds Ilya Gasanov – Liudmila Raevskaya (RUS) were announced as winners. They won four dances out of five in the final. The runners-up, Alexey Barkov – Anna Vaniashkina (RUS) won the Waltz, ranked third in Quickstep and ranked second in three dances, and the whole competition. Vladislav Kozhevnikov – Eleonora Metelitsa (RUS) ranked third. For International Open Latin, 76 couples started. After five rounds Mikhail Koptev – Alexandra Atamantseva (RUS) took home the gold medals. Artem Efanin – Anna Efanina (RUS) ranked second and Vladislav Nikishin – Polina Golubeva (RUS) third.

WDSF Open Standard in Novosibirsk on Saturday had 41 couples on the starting list. Evgeny Nikitin – Anastasia Miliutina (RUS) were the winners, Konstantin Gorodilov – Dominika Bergmannova (EST) ranked second and Pavel Kopaev – Anastasia Vaniukova (RUS) ranked third. WDSF Open Latin on Sunday had 35 couples. Reigning Latin World Champions, Armen Tsaturyan – Svetlana Gudyno (RUS) were the winners, reigning Ten Dance World Champions Konstantin Gorodilov – Dominika Bergmannova (EST) took home the silver medals and Artem Semerenko – Valeriya Kachalko (KGZ) ranked third.

Again, it was a weekend full of high level DanceSport around the globe. And, if you look at the calendar... this is just the beginning! After this weekend, all the top couples are turning their focus on Bucharest. They will leave behind the trophies and medals they just won, and face each other in the first Big match of the season: the GrandSlam.

Almost two years have gone since Breaking was recognized by the Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation as a sport discipline of DanceSport. It was a turning point for Breaking to become a sport developed and promoted by the All Russian Federation of DanceSport and Acrobatic Rock’n’Roll (FDSARR) alongside with Standard, Latin and Rock’n’Roll. 

Breaking is one of the very spectacular disciplines of DanceSport with many successful Russian B-boys, B-girls and crews, and with a huge fan base in all regions of the Russian Federation. B-boy Bumblebee (Sergey Chernyshov) became the first ever gold medalist in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires (ARG) opening a new page in the history of DanceSport; while B-girl Matina (Kristina Yashina), who is featured in the latest issue of Olympic Review Magazine, won the silver medal at the 2018 WDSF World Youth Breaking Championship in Kawasaki (JPN). 

The first international Breaking competition hosted by the FDSARR – the Russian Open Breaking Championship 2018 (ROBC) – was a great success featuring incredible battles amongst the world’s top breakers. More than 250 kids took part in the ROBC Kids and Kids Show groups, and about 600 B-boys and B-girls representing 11 countries joined the event for three days in Moscow. The event included workshops led by B-boy Junior (FRA), B-boy Dyzee (CAN), B-boy Reveal (USA), B-Boy The End (KOR) and B-boy Thesis (USA). 

2018 was a year of new prospects opened for Breaking, and the FDSARR is developing a strategy aimed at attracting new athletes into the federation by giving them an opportunity to take part in high-level international sports competitions. Thus, the Russian National Breaking Championships will be held this year for the first time from 28^th February to 1^st March in the city of Kazan. The Russian National Breaking Team will be nominated based on the results of this National Championship and will take part in all WDSF’s international Breaking events. The first one being the 2019 WDSF World Breaking Championship in Nanjing (CHN) on the 23^rd of June. 

The FDSARR will also organize the Sochi Open 2019 (June 23-30), a global DanceSport event which will unite Acrobatic Rock’n’Roll, Standard, Latin and Breaking into one big and friendly family on the Black Sea side. The Sochi Open will feature international competitions in all these disciplines culminating with the FDSARR Cup on June 30^th, 2019. 

Following the success of 2018, the Russian Open Breaking Championship 2019 (ROBC), will be held again on October 18-20, 2019 in Moscow. 

Today, Breaking is gaining more and more fans and making the Olympic prospects for our sport closer to its ultimate goal. 

The All Russian Federation of DanceSport and Acrobatic Rock’n’Roll (FDSARR) invites all WDSF National Member Bodies to the FDSARR Breaking events to be held in the Russian Federation this year.  

The World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) warmly welcomes today’s announcement from Paris that Breaking has been proposed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for inclusion on the sports programme of the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

Our Associate Member WRRC organises the opening event of the season in Valbonne Sophia Antipolis, France, on Saturday. World Cup in Boogie Woogie Main Class, Juniors and Seniors has attracted a good number of couples to start their international season of 2019. As there has been a break of almost three months since the 2018 World Cup Finals, couples have had plenty of time to rest, practice and to design new figures. We are looking forward to seeing them in action!

About an hour flight northwest, in Lyon, France, there are more than 400 couples shining on the dance floor of the Palais Des Sports. 65 couples are on the starting list of WDSF International Open Latin on Saturday, and 43 couples have registered for the WDSF International Open Standard on Sunday. In addition to these two competitions there are WDSF Opens in Youth and Senior 1-4 age groups as well as many French Open competitions during the two days.

In Lisbon, Portugal, latin rhythms fill up the venue on Saturday as all age groups have their Portugal Open Latin competitions during the day. The cherry on the cake will be the WDSF World Open Latin which will start at 16:20 local time (15:20 CET). WDSF Youth Open Latin with some national championship competitions will complete the weekend in Lisbon on Sunday.

Last, but certainly not least, there are WDSF International Open Standard and Latin, WDSF Open Youth Standard and Latin, and WDSF Open Rising Star Standard and Latin events in Moscow Region, Russia during the upcoming weekend.

With these amazing events we will say goodbye to the winter and start preparing for the spring season. There is a lot to look forward to… but before that, let’s enjoy this weekend in full! Good luck to all competitors, and for the organisers we wish a great success with your events!

Our associate member, the World Rock’n’Roll Confederation, started their competition season in Valbonne Sophia Antipolis, France, on Saturday. World Cup in Boogie Woogie Main Class turned out well for Jonathan Haug – Emma Danielsson (SWE), who started the season with a win over their fellow Swedes Viktor Edlund – Wilma Edlund and the Italians Simone Corsi – Giulia Cornelli. The young Russian couple Fedor Klimov – Diana Leonteva won the World Cup in Juniors and the French couple Raphaël Dupas – Laurence Nograbat won the World Cup in Seniors.

Lisbon, Portugal, hosted the second World Open event in February. 62 couples started the first round of the World Open Latin competition at Casal Vistoso Sports Hall. After five rounds our reigning World Champions in Ten Dance, Konstantin Gorodilov – Dominika Bergmannova (EST) were announced as winners while Winson Tam – Anastasia Novikova (CAN) ranked second and Artur Balandin – Anna Salita (GER) ranked third.

WDSF International Open Latin in Lyon, France, had 63 couples registered for the first round on Saturday. Maxim Elfimov – Evgenia Churikova (RUS) took home their first win of the year at Palais des Sports de Lyon. On the following day, on Sunday, 54 couples had registered for the WDSF International Open Standard. After five rounds Alexey Glukhov – Anastasia Glazunova (RUS) were announced as winners.

Moscow Region, Russian Federation, hosted two WDSF International Open events during the weekend. A respectable number of 155 couples participated the International Open Latin competition on Saturday. Viacheslav Benko – Elena Klepikova (RUS) were announced as winners after a six-round competition. Evgeny Nikitin – Anastasia Miliutina (RUS) won the International Open Standard on Sunday, which also had a good number - 110 - couples on the starting list.

With another weekend of DanceSport behind us we can now start preparing for the events in March. The 2019 GrandSlam Series kicks off at Bucharest, Professional Division Super Grand Prix -events take place in Tokyo and Pieve Di Cento, and there are five World Opens on the calendar (Brno, Kyiv, Tokyo, Pieve Di Cento and Skopje). With all these, combined with International Open and Open competitions, it will be a busy and wonderful month in DanceSport and we are already looking forward to it.

The 3rd Edition of the RushDoc International Documentary Festival has awarded WDSF documentary ”We Dance TOGETHER” the Best Sports Documentary Award 2019.

It is the second WDSF DanceSport production by award-winning director Pedro Toro, a WDSF Communications team member since 2012. With his previous film ”Do Your Dance” he won the first prize award at the Baku International Sport Film Festival in 2014.

The one-hour documentary tells the story of some of the 150 dancers who represented their sport in the 2017 World Games. ”We Dance TOGETHER” portrays the exceptional dancers in their respective quests for gold. Their rhythms may be different, the attires too, but at the core it is all one and the same. They all dance TOGETHER!

Many congratulations to WDSF, to Pedro and to us all!

Watch the trailer:

The announcement of the 2019 WDSF World Breaking Championship has created positive vibes within our National Member Bodies (NMB) as national qualifiers have been organised and many more are expected to be held in March.

As reported earlier, our Russian National Member body, the FDSARR, has put together the Russian National Breaking Championship last weekend in Kazan. The Russian National Breaking Team for Nanjing will be nominated based on the results of the qualifiying event, and the team will also represent Russian Federation in other WDSF’s international Breaking events.

Other National Member Bodies, which have scheduled their qualifiers for the 2019 WDSF World Breaking Championships include for example: Colombia, Germany and Austria. The German Breaking Championship will be organised on March 24th in Aalen, qualifying the winners and the runners-up from Germany to participate in the World Championship.

And, that is not all, there are some National Member Bodies who have already selected their representatives and are about to send the entry forms to the Chinese DanceSport Federation way ahead of the deadline.

We can only wish the best of luck to all B-girls and B-boys who still have the qualifiers ahead. And congratulations for all who have already qualified!

There are three WDSF World Open events this weekend.

Kyiv, Ukraine hosts World Open Latin on Saturday and World Open Standard on Sunday. There are 93 couples, representing 30 countries competing for Latin and 87 couples representing 24 countries competing for Standard. In addition to World Opens, there are WDSF Opens for Senior 1 Standard, and both Youth and Junior 2 Standard and Latin. The first rounds of both World Opens start at 16:30 local time (15:30 CET). The event in Kyiv has started already on Friday with national competitions. You can watch the live stream from the International Convention Center Kyiv below.

Brno, Czech Republic is hosting World Open Standard on Saturday and International Open Latin on Sunday. The organiser reported us with a huge smile on his face that they have been flooding with registrations as they have more than 800 starts from more than 500 couples. Due to high interest in their event, the organisers have been preparing a second dancefloor, second panel of Adjudicators, scrutineers etc. to fit the whole event in one weekend. 103 couples are competing for the World Open Standard on Saturday, and the first round begins for them at 14:00 CET. 93 couples are registered for the International Open Latin on Sunday, and their first round begins at 13:30 CET. In addition to these two competitions, the weekend includes many WDSF Opens, DanceSport Europe Children’s GrandPrix and some local specialities. You can watch the live stream from Masaryk University Campus Brno, below.

Tokyo, Japan, hosts World Open Standard and International Open Latin, and PD Super GrandPrix Standard on Sunday. We have Mr. Helmut Roland from WDSF Communications team there to capture the best moments with his camera at the Komazawa Olympic Park General Sports Ground Gymnasium. This is the first time the PD couples will be introduced to the Duel format.

Last, but certainly not least, there are two events in the Russian Federation during the weekend. Moscow Region hosts WDSF International Open and WDSF Youth Open Standard on Saturday, and WDSF International Open and WDSF Youth Open Latin on Sunday.

Novosibirsk hosts WDSF Open Standard and Latin for both Adult and Junior 2 age groups. What makes the Novosibirsk event interesting is the presence of the reigning World Champions: Zharkov-Kulikova and Tsaturyan-Gudyno are there for a show number, and Gorodilov-Bergmannova are competing. We are looking forward to some photos after the event!

By the look of it, this weekend will be fabulous with so many wonderful events and the two live streams. Enjoy!

Live from Kyiv, Ukraine:

Live from Brno, Czech Republic:

The Moldovans Nikolay Darin - Natalia Seredina started their competition year in Tokyo - and with a win. The couple started their final with an amazing waltz, taking a lead with 0.95 points. They never gave up the lead and ended up on the highest step of the podium with a margin of 3.012 points over the silver medalists, Andrey Motyl - Ekaterina Kim (RUS). Cheng Dan - Li Zhenni (CHN) ranked third, Alessandro D'Amora - Maria Gorelik (ITA) ranked fourth, their fellow Italians Alessandro Ilarioni - Aurora Sbardella fifth, and Marts Punins - Dana Jakobsone (LAT) sixth.

Helmut Roland from WDSF Communications team was there to capture the best moments with his camera and we have uploaded dozens of photos of the event to our Gallery.

The Winner's Interview:

The Final reel:

The Semifinal-reel:

Tokyo, Japan, set the stage for the World Open Standard on Sunday. 57 couples started the competition. Francesco Galuppo – Debora Pacini (ITA) were the winners, Anton Skuratov – Alena Uehlin (GER) runners-up and Edgars Linis – Eliza Ancane (LAT) won the bronze. For all couples of the top three it was the second competition of the year, and a good preparation for the upcoming GrandSlam Series.

International Open Latin in Tokyo attracted 27 couples to the starting list. Timur Imametdinov – Nina Bezzubova (GER) were the winners, Andrey Gusev – Vera Bondareva (RUS) ranked second and Winson Tam – Anastasia Novikova (CAN) third. Winson and Anastasia surely had a full day with all dress changes, as they ranked sixth on World Open Standard. They had two competitions on the same day, and made it to the final in both of them!

A short report on PD Super GrandPrix Standard in Tokyo can be found here. 

We were able to watch the events from Kyiv live. World Open Latin had 73 couples registered on Saturday. Marius-Andrei Balan – Khrystyna Moshenska (GER) won the competition, Marek Bures – Anastasiia Iermolenko (CZE) ranked second and Yan Bangbang – Du Yujun (CHN) third. World Open Standard had 72 couples on the starting list on Sunday. The gold medals were presented to Madis Abel – Aleksandra Galkina (EST). Marco Sirocchi – Kilin Dora (ROU) ranked second and Yahor Boldysh – Irina Averina (BLR) third.

We were also happy to enjoy the events from Brno live. 96 couples took part in the World Open Standard competition on Saturday. The home crowd was happy to hear the results as David Odstrcil – Tara Bohak (CZE) were announced winners. Daniil Ulanov – Kateryna Isakovych (CYP) won silver, and Qiu Yuming – Wei Liying (CHN) started their competition year well by winning bronze medals. For International Open Latin, 82 couples started and after five rounds Charles-Guillaume Schmitt – Elena Salikhova (FRA) were announced winners. It was their first event of the year and it couldn’t have gone better as they won all five dances in the final. A new combination, Timur Yusupov – Valeria Remina (RUS) started their career together with a silver medal and Stefano Mendolia – Alexandra Koldan (ITA) won the bronze.

Moscow Region had International Open Standard on Saturday and International Open Latin on Sunday. 74 couples competed for Standard, and after five rounds Ilya Gasanov – Liudmila Raevskaya (RUS) were announced as winners. They won four dances out of five in the final. The runners-up, Alexey Barkov – Anna Vaniashkina (RUS) won the Waltz, ranked third in Quickstep and ranked second in three dances, and the whole competition. Vladislav Kozhevnikov – Eleonora Metelitsa (RUS) ranked third. For International Open Latin, 76 couples started. After five rounds Mikhail Koptev – Alexandra Atamantseva (RUS) took home the gold medals. Artem Efanin – Anna Efanina (RUS) ranked second and Vladislav Nikishin – Polina Golubeva (RUS) third.

WDSF Open Standard in Novosibirsk on Saturday had 41 couples on the starting list. Evgeny Nikitin – Anastasia Miliutina (RUS) were the winners, Konstantin Gorodilov – Dominika Bergmannova (EST) ranked second and Pavel Kopaev – Anastasia Vaniukova (RUS) ranked third. WDSF Open Latin on Sunday had 35 couples. Reigning Latin World Champions, Armen Tsaturyan – Svetlana Gudyno (RUS) were the winners, reigning Ten Dance World Champions Konstantin Gorodilov – Dominika Bergmannova (EST) took home the silver medals and Artem Semerenko – Valeriya Kachalko (KGZ) ranked third.

Again, it was a weekend full of high level DanceSport around the globe. And, if you look at the calendar... this is just the beginning! After this weekend, all the top couples are turning their focus on Bucharest. They will leave behind the trophies and medals they just won, and face each other in the first Big match of the season: the GrandSlam.

General Secretary Nenad Jeftic confirms that the WDSF Sports Commission has established an Enforcement Committee.

According to Mr. Jeftic, the mission of the committee is to make the Adjudicators aware that they are accountable and could very well be made responsible for their actions. The mission includes making the Adjudicators aware that the WDSF Sports Commission is responsible to take actions against them for safeguarding our sport.

Mr. Jeftic: ”The Enforcement Committee officials visit competitions to oversee the running of the competition by the organizer, and to observe the overall conduct of the Chairperson and the Adjudicators. The committee officials identify Adjudicators, who produce scores that are way under or over the average score of the computer detection system. The officials debrief and make a group assessment and recommendation after the debriefing session. Other measures include the Chairperson’s assessment of the Adjudicators’ conduct during each granted competition.”

The enforcement debriefing team consists of a chairperson, Mr. Nenad Jeftic, and the Enforcement Officers: Mr. Michael Eichert, Mr. Glenn Weiss, Mr. Gheorghe Raducan and Mr. Alberto Rodrigues.

The task of the debriefing team is to go a step forward to enforce a practice of strict monitoring of our Adjudicators’ performance, and to:

• identify the honest and well-performed Adjudicators 
• identify the Adjudicators who performed below expectation either with the intention to manipulate or simply incapable of a good assessment
• identify Adjudicators who simply use competition to make a point that they are different thus pen their assessment in an unusual manner
• present the findings to the Sports Commission
• make corrective recommendations such as removing Adjudicators who perform badly from the selection pool for a limited period, or long term

The Sports Commission had their meeting in Bucharest on Friday and Saturday.

The six-day event has already started in Pieve Di Cento with a two-day Adjudicator Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday, and many WDSF Open events on Thursday and Friday.

On Saturday it will be time for the WDSF PD Super GrandPrix Latin and WDSF World Open Standard. 41 couples have registered for the Super GrandPrix and 335 couples for the World Open Standard. The first round of the World Open begins at 10:14 am and the PD couples get to work at 17:53 in the evening.

On Sunday it is time for the WDSF PD Super GrandPrix Standard with 43 couples and WDSF World Open Latin with 334 couples. The WDSF World Open Latin starts at 10:26 am and the PD Super GrandPrix kicks off at 16:54. All times CET.

We have many of the WDSF Communications Team members present at Palacavichi, and we are able to send you some updates live. And that is not all, there is a live stream of the event through our partner Flodance.

Two-day events in Riga, Latvia, and Chelyabinsk, Russia offer WDSF Open competitions for Youth age group and Junior 2 age group (Riga only). These smaller international events might be a big stepping stone for the young athletes on their way to the bigger competitions. They all have to start somewhere, and who knows, there might be future World Champions on the starting list!

Last, but not least, there are 1086 entries to the two-day event in Kyiv, Ukraine! Many national competitions are brought to the same weekend as WDSF Open Standard and Latin for Adults and Youth. While the WDSF Opens are scheduled on Sunday, the organisers will surely have their hands full at Pochayna Event Hall during the whole weekend!

Best of luck to all couples who are competing this weekend!

On Saturday, the WDSF PD Super GrandPrix Latin Series kicked off with the first competition of the year. The reigning World Champions, Gabriele Goffredo – Anna Matus (MDA), returned to the international dance floor after a nearly five months break and secured the win. In the winners’ interview (see below) they said it was like coming home and they really enjoyed the event. Vincenzo Mariniello – Sara Casini (ITA) ranked second and Hou Yao – Zhuang Ting (CHN), the bronze medalists of the 2018 World Championship, ranked third.

On Sunday, the WDSF PD Super GrandPrix Standard Series had the second event of the year. On their first competition in 2019 and the first competition since the victorious 2018 World Championship, Bjorn Bitsch – Ashli Williamson (DEN) opened their season and dominated the event from the first round till the final. Winners of the first event of the Series in Tokyo, Nikolay Darin – Natalia Seredina (MDA) ranked second, and Cheng Dan – Li Zhenni (CHN) renewed their third position.

The weekend in Pieve Di Cento had gathered many of the best couples to the WDSF World Open competitions. Francesco Galuppo – Debora Pacini (ITA) won the World Open Standard (234 couples) on Saturday. Evgeny Moshenin – Dana Spitsyna (RUS) ranked second and Madis Abel – Aleksandra Galkina (EST) ranked third. On Sunday, Armen Tsaturyan – Svetlana Gudyno (RUS) won the World Open Latin (274 couples). Marius-Andrei Balan – Khrystyna Moshenska (GER) ranked second and Andrey Gusev – Vera Bondareva (RUS) third.

There were also events outside Italy. In Chelyabinsk, Russia there were WDSF Youth Open events on both days. Yaroslav Kiselev – Sofia Philipchuk (RUS) continued their fantastic year with another win in Youth Latin. The couple had competed in Italy on Thursday (ranked second) and just two days later they won the event in Chelyabinsk. Winners of the WDSF Youth Open Standard were Semen Ezhov – Marianna Butuzova (MNE).

In Riga, Latvia there were WDSF Youth Open events on both days aswell. Kaspar Kaldaru – Agneta Pukk (EST) won Standard and Aleksis Visockis – Kerija Keita Ziemele (LAT) won Latin.

In Kyiv, Ukraine, WDSF Open winners were Oleksii Halaktionov – Olha Shadrina (UKR) in Standard and Dmitry Marchenko – Anastasia Rybalko (AZE) in Latin. WDSF Youth Open Latin winners were Tim Grabenwoeger – Natalie Cremar (AUT) and WDSF Youth Open Standard winners were Andrii Buhlak – Anastasiia Ushenko (UKR).

This is just a scratch of all the events and competitions in different age groups during the weekend. There were hundreds of dancers in these different events who had prepared well for this weekend, and yet remained unmentioned. Congratulations to all couples, to those who were mentioned and also to those who were unmentioned!

Entries are already rolling in as many of the National Member Bodies have held their qualifyers during March. 

The WDSF Sports Commission has confirmed the names of the WDSF Breaking Technical Delegates and Judges for the 2019 WDSF Breaking World Championship in Nanjing (CHN) in June. 


  

The WDSF Breaking Technical Delegates for the Nanjing World Championship:

• Amjad (SUI)
• Bojin (TPE)
• Ken Swift (USA)
• Renegade (GBR)

The Judges confirmed for the 2019 WDSF Breaking World Championship:

• Ken Swift (USA)
• Yan The Shrimp (RUS)
• Danny (CHN)
• Hurricane (FRA)
• Freeze (SWE)
• Katsu (JPN)
• Movie1 (ESP)

• MC: Amjad (SUI)  

• DJs: Plash1 (POL), Vientiane (FRA)

• Organisers: Chinese DanceSport Federation, Social Sports Administration Centre of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing Sports Bureau, Lishui District People’s Government of Nanjing City

The terrible news were delivered by his long-term colleague Mr. Cor van der Stroet on early Sunday morning, and were confirmed by the NADB President Mr. Jeffrey van Meerkerk later on Sunday afternoon.

Mr. Boutkan served as a member of the NADB Sports Commission, as Ambassador of NADB and as WDSF Adjudicator.

Mr. van Meerkerk writes: ”Cees was a beloved person all over the world. We are going to miss him enormously. On behalf of the presidium of the NADB, I want to wish his wife Therese, their family and all friends, colleagues and students all over the world lots of strength in dealing with this big loss. 

Cees, we thank you for all you have done for the development of DanceSport in the Netherlands and for the NADB. ”

WDSF Communications pays homage to the memory of Mr. Boutkan and joins the grief by sending heartfelt condolences to the family and close ones of Mr. Boutkan.

The announcement of the 2019 WDSF World Breaking Championship has created positive vibes within our National Member Bodies (NMB) as national qualifiers have been organised and many more are expected to be held in March.

As reported earlier, our Russian National Member body, the FDSARR, has put together the Russian National Breaking Championship last weekend in Kazan. The Russian National Breaking Team for Nanjing will be nominated based on the results of the qualifiying event, and the team will also represent Russian Federation in other WDSF’s international Breaking events.

Other National Member Bodies, which have scheduled their qualifiers for the 2019 WDSF World Breaking Championships include for example: Colombia, Germany and Austria. The German Breaking Championship will be organised on March 24th in Aalen, qualifying the winners and the runners-up from Germany to participate in the World Championship.

And, that is not all, there are some National Member Bodies who have already selected their representatives and are about to send the entry forms to the Chinese DanceSport Federation way ahead of the deadline.

We can only wish the best of luck to all B-girls and B-boys who still have the qualifiers ahead. And congratulations for all who have already qualified!

There are three WDSF World Open events this weekend.

Kyiv, Ukraine hosts World Open Latin on Saturday and World Open Standard on Sunday. There are 93 couples, representing 30 countries competing for Latin and 87 couples representing 24 countries competing for Standard. In addition to World Opens, there are WDSF Opens for Senior 1 Standard, and both Youth and Junior 2 Standard and Latin. The first rounds of both World Opens start at 16:30 local time (15:30 CET). The event in Kyiv has started already on Friday with national competitions. You can watch the live stream from the International Convention Center Kyiv below.

Brno, Czech Republic is hosting World Open Standard on Saturday and International Open Latin on Sunday. The organiser reported us with a huge smile on his face that they have been flooding with registrations as they have more than 800 starts from more than 500 couples. Due to high interest in their event, the organisers have been preparing a second dancefloor, second panel of Adjudicators, scrutineers etc. to fit the whole event in one weekend. 103 couples are competing for the World Open Standard on Saturday, and the first round begins for them at 14:00 CET. 93 couples are registered for the International Open Latin on Sunday, and their first round begins at 13:30 CET. In addition to these two competitions, the weekend includes many WDSF Opens, DanceSport Europe Children’s GrandPrix and some local specialities. You can watch the live stream from Masaryk University Campus Brno, below.

Tokyo, Japan, hosts World Open Standard and International Open Latin, and PD Super GrandPrix Standard on Sunday. We have Mr. Helmut Roland from WDSF Communications team there to capture the best moments with his camera at the Komazawa Olympic Park General Sports Ground Gymnasium. This is the first time the PD couples will be introduced to the Duel format.

Last, but certainly not least, there are two events in the Russian Federation during the weekend. Moscow Region hosts WDSF International Open and WDSF Youth Open Standard on Saturday, and WDSF International Open and WDSF Youth Open Latin on Sunday.

Novosibirsk hosts WDSF Open Standard and Latin for both Adult and Junior 2 age groups. What makes the Novosibirsk event interesting is the presence of the reigning World Champions: Zharkov-Kulikova and Tsaturyan-Gudyno are there for a show number, and Gorodilov-Bergmannova are competing. We are looking forward to some photos after the event!

By the look of it, this weekend will be fabulous with so many wonderful events and the two live streams. Enjoy!

Live from Kyiv, Ukraine:

Live from Brno, Czech Republic:

The Moldovans Nikolay Darin - Natalia Seredina started their competition year in Tokyo - and with a win. The couple started their final with an amazing waltz, taking a lead with 0.95 points. They never gave up the lead and ended up on the highest step of the podium with a margin of 3.012 points over the silver medalists, Andrey Motyl - Ekaterina Kim (RUS). Cheng Dan - Li Zhenni (CHN) ranked third, Alessandro D'Amora - Maria Gorelik (ITA) ranked fourth, their fellow Italians Alessandro Ilarioni - Aurora Sbardella fifth, and Marts Punins - Dana Jakobsone (LAT) sixth.

Helmut Roland from WDSF Communications team was there to capture the best moments with his camera and we have uploaded dozens of photos of the event to our Gallery.

The Winner's Interview:

The Final reel:

The Semifinal-reel: