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• ADC Amateur League Open Dance Championship
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• Swinging The Night Away

ADC Amateur League Open Dance Championship

by Hoo Sze Yen (9 May 2010)

The inaugural ADC Amateur League Open Dance Championship was held recently at the Panasonic Sports Complex on 9th May 2010. Hot (literally) and exciting, the championship ended on a high note and proved to be one worth watching in years to come.

It was a rainy Sunday afternoon when I pulled up into the compound of the Panasonic National Sports Complex in Shah Alam. I would have come earlier, but due to a sudden change of plans (which initially would have prevented me from coming at all) turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I was able to make it for the inaugural ADC Amateur League Open Dance Championship.

Jointly organized by A&C Dynamic Danceworld, William & Luisa Danceworld, and Taipan D’dance World - three big names in the local dancesport industry – the competition hosted a wide range of events for the modern and latin ballroom competitors ranging from beginner to amateur, and included age categories for the young ones under the ages of 12 and 16, and seniors over the age of 40. The competition was held on 9th May 2010 and scheduled to start at 9am.

I arrived in time to watch the finals which began at 2pm. The competition was held at a much smaller scale compared to many of the existing annual dance competitions organized by other studios, but it was no less exciting. The highest skill level in this competition for both modern and latin was the amateur level (as the name of the championship implies), which also proved to the most exciting events. Even the other skill levels and age events were not lacking; we saw an incredible amount of talent and enthusiasm on the dance floor.

The ADC Amateur League Championship however kicked up the excitement a notch by introducing “visual marking” which is rarely seen in other dancesport competitions, if at all. “Visual marking” is commonly seen at other sports competitions such as gymnastics, figure skating and diving; it is where each judge publicly shows his or her judging results immediately upon completion of the event. In this case, judges did not give marks – rather, they ranked each couple from 1st place to the 6th or 7th place, depending on the number of competitors in the finals (there are usually 6-7 couples in each final event). As most skill levels required dancers to dance more than one dance, what the judges would do is to rank each competitive couple for each dance, and would show their results after every dance. For example, the amateurs would have to dance five dances in a set; therefore the judges will have to show their rankings five times – one for each dance.

It must be quite nerve-wrecking for the competitors, as they get to see their rankings even before they’ve finished competing the entire event. Highly-ranked competitors will of course know that they need to maintain their performance to stay at the top; but lower-ranked competitors must keep their spirits up and keep fighting in the hope to rise in the next dance. Fortunately, “visual marking” was done only for the pre-amateurs and amateurs who must be experienced enough by now to handle such stress on the competition floor.

The champions for the modern and latin ballroom performed an honourary dance each, which were simply captivating and proved why they were champions. The modern champions, Johnston Lim and Nicole Tan danced a beautiful waltz whereas the latin champions Billy Yong and Carmen Choo danced a passionate rumba.

The competition was slated to end at 6pm, but the smooth handling of the events by the organizing committee led by emcee Bronya Bishorek saw all events finished by 5pm and the prize-giving by 5.20pm… allowing everyone to rush home for their respective Mother’s Day dinner celebrations.

All in all, the ADC Amateur League Championship was a resounding success, and it is a competition that people will look forward to in years to come.

Coming soon: A brief write-up by Bronya Bishorek.

Complete winners list can be viewed at http://www.adcamateurleaguekl.blogspot.com
View more photos at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=165720&id=280446264686