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Before
I return to the Winter Garden floor in Blackpool I would like to mention a few Internet matters.
Adam Socik's website begins to play a very big role in getting fast and reliable news. A lot of new things have appeared on the site.
We can read a lot of commentaries and reports from the most important dance events in Poland and abroad.
Today his web successfully cooperates with a few major services in the world, holds auspieces over many
big tournaments. The latest example - the auspieces over September Polish Cup. "Twist.home" is winning the race in the
fastest access to the news in the dance world. A few months ago I got a call from Zbyszek Swirski from London
who with his wife Bozena operate one of the best information service www.dancesportinfo.net.
He offered a cooperation with Polish internet services. Now, thanks to this cooperation we have the possibility
to see photo galleries from the most important tournaments (especially Polish) and also there is a very quick
flow of information and fast access to the results of tournaments all over the world. The first major challenge
was delivering the results from Blackpool. In a few minutes the results in Winter Garden appeared on the service page.
As far as I know there was no quicker internet service.
Let's come back to the dance floors. Polish accents were even more noticeable in this year's tournament. We expected Aneta and Derek to win the Latin youth category. We were not disappointed. They won in a very impressive style. In amateurs standard dancing Agnieszka Kazimierczak and Benedetto Feruggia took 12th semi-final place. Then there were the professionals. Latin was one of the best days in the history of Polish dance due to a couple: Joanna Leunis and Michał Malitowski. They joined the finalists with no respect. We were equally pleased with the 3rd place of the couple dancing for Slovenia: Iwona Golczak and Sergiej Milicja in the category "Rising Star Latin". In the "Rising Star Modern" Justyna Kozinska and Craig Draper also took the 3rd place, and it was another Polish-British accent. Then the category bringing the greatest number of viewers - amateurs Latin. The semi-final and final was quite predictable and well consolidated. The winners were, of course, Oksana Nikiforowa and Franco Fornica. The greatest emotions that day were evoked by the struggle for the 2nd place. Traditionally it used to be reserved for the Danes: Victoria Franova and Klaus Kongsdal. It was very disappointing for us and especially for them to see them on the 4th place. This time the second place was for the American pair: Maria Manusove and Eugene Katsevman. Among the winners on the third place were the experienced Italians: Joanne Wilkinson and Riccardo Cocchi. Finally, on the 5th place Agnieszka and Sergiej. Julia and Przemek were 10th in the semifinals. We, Poles, had two reasons to celebrate that day. Both pairs claimed that they had compensated for the Losagne. Except for the dance floors attractions I will remember the activities behind the stage - the couples' "divorces", secret rehearsals with the new partners, all bigger rooms in hotels booked (that is where the rehearsals took place). "Why are you so surprised?" - asked one of the American coaches. -"Blackpool has been the capital of "the divorces" for years". I was really sorry that I had to leave England after a week of dance feast. 
Joanna Leunis & Michał Malitowski Iwona Golczak & Sergiej Milicja Oksana Nikiforowa & Franco Formica |
