Calgary Journal Online

Alberta couples have best showing to date

It was two nights of glitter, glitz and glamour as the best ballroom and Latin dancers in Canada competed in Calgary over the Easter weekend.

The event, held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, brought more than 200 couples from across Canada to compete in the 2010 Canadian Closed Amateur DanceSport Championships.

Grace Jefferies, co-ordinator of this year’s championships, said in an email that the event this year was more successful than anyone anticipated.

Alberta had its best showing in the competition to date over the weekend, and that will set the tone for next year’s event in Toronto, she said.

Three Calgarian couples made it to their respective finals, but only one pair managed to score high enough to place on the podium.

Jim Deglau and Elena Sinelnikova, from Edmonton, competed in the Senior I Standard and Senior I Latin categories. They finished seventh in the Standard, but held on to first place in the Latin category for the second year in a row.

Photo: Tessa Clayton/ Calgary Journal

Mateusz Bawol and Mariya Markovina finished third in the Junior Standard category, while Sefan Badea and Madalina Varlam placed sixth in the Youth Standard category. Alexandre Moreau and Patricia Moscibrodski placed sixth in the Adult Latin and Standard category. It was the best finish for any Alberta couple in the Adult Latin category in the competition’s history.

“I’m feeling great, I’m feeling wonderful right now,” Moscibrodski said.

“It feels so good, two final places in both (categories). I wasn’t expecting that. I mean,

I was hoping, but when it happens you’re like ‘what?’ so it feels really good.”

Having the hometown advantage also helped, she said.

Moscibrodski added: “It’s the best feeling ever having everybody scream for your (competition) number. You get so much more energy."

“I mean, you go to different competitions and when you don’t have that crowd that’s when you try and impress people but when you already know that they love you, you dance so much harder cause it’s your own.”

“It was a really good ambiance,” Moreau said. “People were really good and us representing Calgary, whenever we were on the floor everybody was yelling, which was awesome because they knew we were from Calgary.

“When you stepped onto the floor the energy level went up all over. You could feel it all through your body, and you just go, you can’t stop yourself. It’s a crazy feeling.”

Moreau also had some hometown support, as his parents flew from Montreal to watch the pair compete. His father, Serge Moreau, was especially impressed with the performance, having danced competitively himself, and said that he was glad he made the trip to Calgary to watch his son compete.

“I feel that when I saw them (tonight) they were really much better than when I saw them at the last competition (in Montreal),” Serge Moreau said.

“There was a big, big difference from Montreal. That was only one month and a half ago and that’s amazing. They are at the point that when they’re dancing they’re sure, they’re confident and they’re doing everything without thinking.

“Everything’s perfect, with lots of energy and chemistry between them.”

The dance team placed third overall in the Ten Dance standings in Canada.

Edmontonians Jim Deglau and Elena Sinelnikova kept their title in the Senior I Latin category, and the Ontario pair of Anton Belyayev and Antoaneta Popova was once again crowned champions in both the Adult Latin and Standard categories.

Mosibrodski and Moreau will take time off to let Moscibrodski recover from a previous toe injury and then it’s back to training, as they plan on competing in Palm Springs, Fla. this summer.

Hopes are high as the pair only expects to go up in standings from here.

“That was just opening the door to so much more so hopefully next year if we continue working like this, you never know what could happen,” Moscibrodski said.

A total of 44 Calgary couples competed over the weekend. The winners will represent Canada at the different International DanceSport Federation World Championships.

Close to 1,700 tickets were sold over the two-day event, putting it on par with the championships held in Montreal last year. According to Jefferies, it was by far the biggest dancesport event Calgary has ever hosted, with twice the number of competitors attending than in 2005.

Results from the weekend’s events can be found online.

For more photos from the event visit the photo gallery.