On
November 1st a beautiful capital of Switzerland, Bern, held the European Championships in salsa.
We watched a competition between 38 pairs representing 11 countries: Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland,
France, The Czech Republic, Turkey, Germany, Croatia, Belgium, Sweden and one from Poland
- Piotr SOJA i Martyna RACKO.
A seven-person jury consisted of judges from The Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland,
Denmark and the USA. Except for the salseros competition they also had to judge pairs dancing discofox,
who had their World Championships at the same time.
The great dance gala took place in Kursal Arena, on the top floor of this luxurious hotel. It lasted 12 hours and finished before 2 am.
The
hot atmosphere of the Championships as well as sewn up arrangements made this day memorable for the
dancers and the spectators who accompanied the dancers persistently to the very end. I think it is worth
stressing that although we were the only pair from Poland and the youngest couple in the tornament,
we did not feel alienated or lonely because the aura spread by other pairs and incredibly warm reaction by
audience gave us the sense of being among friends. Additionally the tournament, despite its high rank,
lacked the pressure of stiff competition, which was replaced by kindness and mutual support of the competitors.
One
of the most touching moments for us was the opening ceremony, when suddenly the lights went out and
in the glow of rainbow-colour spotlights, to the sound of music by the group "Europe", a round stage,
which had been lowered earlier by about 5 meters below the tables, started to rise. The stage held all the
representatives from Europe and among them us...
We were thrilled by this magical trick of the organizers. Our emotions were even more intensified a few
minutes later, when after a very warm welcome we were leaving the stage with the sign "Polen" and a voice
coming from the audience stopped us.
"I am Polish and come from Opole. I am glad you are here and I will keep my fingers crossed for you."
Our
emotions grew together with the qualifications to the next rounds. After the first round we manged to
qualify to the final fifteen skipping the play offs. We could not believe we would get to the finals because
we had to beat a lot of famous names - salseros having their own schools of salsa and holding
the championship titles of their countries. When just before the finals we saw on the screen the qualified
numbers we were simply shocked because ours was among them. It was already a big success for us.
We were unable to predict, however, that we were going to achieve even more -
the third place in the finals of the European Championships in salsa !!
Our success was applauded by the audience. We were only beaten by the British and Italians.
The
winners from Great Britain - Jaclyn Spencer and Juan Christobal Marquez
gave a charming show dance but we were just behind them. After the tournament and our return home
we received by e-mail congratulations from the organizers and other pairs we met on the tournament.
We came back to Poland with huge cups and even greater experience.
Martyna RACKO
28th November 2003
|
Piotr Soja and Martyna Racko - the third pair of the European Championships in salsa - represent the Dance Center "Fan Dance" led by Anna and Grzegorz Depta from Gorzow Wlkp.
Martyna is an eighteen-year-old girl from Gorzow and she started her adventure with dance at the age of 12.
Piotr is 20 years old and comes from Miedzyrzecz. He has been dancing since he was 9.
They both have been taught by Anna and Grzegorz Depta and thanks to them they achieved their "S" category - in Latin last year, and in Standard this year.
They learned about the salsa tournaments during one of the dance tournaments. They got really fascinated
by this dance and began learning and practising it so hard that they became the third pair of the European
Championships.
Anna Depta prepared them for the Championships but they also had some consultation by Michal Malitowski.
Currently they are training salsa as part of their preparations for the World Champioships which take place in December of this year.
Notes by Adam Socik
|
|
PUBLICYSTYKA Twist Service
|
|
FORUM Twist Service
|
|
