Swiss International Dance Sport Festival Chiasso 2005:

Ballroom Dancing at its Best - Edition No 7

 

Svetlana and Dr. Gino Di Paolo have done it again: once more, for the 7th time, they organized their fabulous dance festival, the Swiss International Dance Sport Festival in Chiasso.

There is a saying mainly in politics and business that behind every strong man there is a strong woman. This can be true in the dance business as well and is certainly the case for the Di Paolos: not only Dr. Gino Di Paolo does a marvellous job but also Svetlana Di Paolo who works for four, before the festival, at the festival and after the festival. At the festival she is ultra present, organizing, calling, helping, caring, being wherever she is needed. Together they are an unbeatable team, and the Swiss and international dance scene can only be very thankful for the tremendous effort they undertake year after year!

This year the organizers concentrated more than ever before on the IDSF International Open and IDSF Open Competitions, offering not less than 10 IDSF Competitions:

These competitions attracted 456 participants (228 couples)!

The other competitions such as the International Open Professional Caribbean (combined and Salsa), the Open Competitions C and B grade for Senior I, II and III Standard, Youth Standard and Latin, Junior Standard and Latin and Juveniles 3 dances attracted approx. 480 participants (240 couples)!

The number of participating couples in the Open Caribbean Competitions for Amateurs is not known but, as always, was quite large too.

Very few couples danced in two or more competitions. Nevertheless the total number of participants must have been very close to 1'000 people (500 couples). What an achievement - a new record! And what a deserved reward for the organizers!

Victory Ceremony for the International Open Professional Caribbean Dancers

The winners: Stefania Ressia and Georgio Bocca from Turin, Italy

(© Michael Scherer)

(© Evelyne Scherer)

The very friendly professional photographer from Naples (Italy) was again working very hard and has taken thousands (!) of photos. On Sunday night, after the caribbean competitions, he drove back home by car (the trip from Chiasso to Naples takes at least 8 hours!). Some of his photos (4156 photos) can (could) be found on the website of Photo Emotion.

The IDSF International Open Competitions were each judged by 13 adjudicators from 13 different nations. This, together with some of the facts mentioned above, allowed the couples to collect many points for the IDSF world ranking list.

Two (!) IDSF chairmen were present: Mr. Heinz Spaeker from Germany and Mr. Milan Tomasovic from Slovakia. This is a very rare event and shows not only the importance of the Chiasso Dance Festival but also the appreciation of the International Dance Sport Federation.

Mr. Heinz Spaeker and Mr. Milan Tomasovic,

the IDSF chairmen in Chiasso 2005

(© Photo Emotion)

In the IDSF International Open Competitions (Standard and Latin) couples from not less than 20 different countries participated: Austria / Croatia / Czech Republik / England / France / Germany / Hungary / Israel / Italy / Japan / Luxembourg / Philippines / Poland / Russia / Serbia and Montenegro / Slovakia / Slovenia / Spain / Switzerland / Ukraine!

The music was mostly very good but much too loud, in fact so loud that one of the IDSF chairmen had to intervene and some of the spectators even left the hall. The loudness of the music seems to be a problem that cannot be solved - with one exception: at the TISSOT Swiss-Inter-Cup / IDSF International Open Latin and Standard in Zurich-Regensdorf, an event that can also be highly recommended (this year it takes place on 5th November / see link below).

Most heats consisted of not more than 8 couples. This was very much appreciated by all. It guaranteed plenty of space for the dancers, more time for the adjudicators to compare the couples and much more pleasure for the spectators and photographers.

Presenters Gabriella Cavalli and Willy Beutler

(© Photo Emotion)

IDSF Open Senior 3 Standard

Not so long ago there was just one senior class and it was not at all unusual that 35 years young couples competed against 75 years old ones. This unfair system fortunately no longer exists and the 55 years and older must be very happy about it.

Some very fine dancing could be seen from these experts of dance, some of whom have been dancing for decades. The Italian couples clearly dominated the field and the winners, Antonella Gioia and Sergio Mauri, won all dances but were strongly challenged by the runners-up, Ariana Cardin and Gianfranco Fait.

The Swiss representatives, Elf Heinzelmann and Gunter Rudack, unfortunately could not show their best form as they were both ill.

Gunter Rudack needs a special mention: He has danced his first competition on 8th May 1949, 56 years ago! Since 46 years he has danced with various partners in the highest category, has participated in 36 Swiss Championships, was several times Swiss Senior Champion (in the 1970s with his wife Ursula) and is still competing!

Victory Ceremony for the IDSF Open Senior 3 Standard Finalists, from left:

Gianfranco Fait, Ariana Cardin / Antonella Gioia, Sergio Mauri / Lucienne Thibaut, Ottavio Tosiani /

Mara Zaza, Livio Bagiolo / Rosella Colombo, Felice Paa / Rosella Ginotti, Mario Moracchiato

(© Michael Scherer)

IDSF Open Senior 2 Standard

In short:

High standard in this class. The crowd liked it very much and showed it accordingly.

Maddalena Merelli and Fabio Pilon from Italy, in previous years a very successful senior 1-couple, start now in the senior 2-field and were easy winners in Chiasso by collecting 45 first places from the 13 judges. Nevertheless more attention should be paid to the gentelman's footwork in the tango. There were quite a number of missing heels there.

The top couple from Switzerland, Susanne and Walter Varisco, had a bad day. Under "normal" conditions they would undoubtedly have made the final.

Victory Ceremony for the IDSF Open Senior 2 Standard Finalists, from left: Svetlana Di Paolo /

Rosa Nucia Capello, Luciano Ceruti / Maddalena Merelli, Fabio Pilon / Cinzia Del Santo, Silvio Bettinelli /

Patrizia Nardini, Tiziano Giugni / Loredana Agostini, Carlo Leone / Sylvia Schaefer-Nouza, Robert Dub

(© Michael Scherer)

IDSF Open Senior 1 Standard

39 entries - the winners were Antonietta Vitolo and Giovanni Petrosino from Italy, Ymke Lemmens and Rene Ewals from Belgium were runners-up and Rie and Massimo Fersini from Switzerland also made the final - this category was one of the highlights at the Chiasso Dance Festival with very good dancing indeed.

Rie and Massimo Fersini from Switzerland danced at their very best. What an attractive young couple and what progress they have made in the last two years! They fully deserved the numerous 2nd and 3rd places (and even two 1st places) they received in the final. With a little more luck they could easily have finished into third place. Very well done!

Karin Streckeisen and Jurgen Stein from Switzerland made the semi-final.

Massimo and Rie Fersini, Switzerland

(© Evelyne Scherer)

The results and details of the IDSF Open Senior 1 Standard:

Competition Report (Uebersicht)

Final Result (Rangliste)

Table of Results (Marksliste)

Marks in Final Round (Finalwertungen)

Summary / Skating Report (Finalauswertung)

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Victory Ceremony for the IDSF Open Senior I Standard Finalists, from left:

Ymke Lemmens, Rene Ewals / Antonietta Vitolo, Giovanni Petrosino / Anna Baisotti, Moreno Carnelli /

Maria Cristana Garon, Nicola Regnoli / Rie Fersini, Massimo Fersini / Inge Kolip, Stefan Kolip

(© Michael Scherer)

IDSF Open Senior Latin

Some former amateur dancers must have turned senior. The standard of dancing in this category is steadily improving. There were some very attractive couples and most ladies were dressed beautifully.

Juvenile 3 Dance

In the Juvenile 3 Dance competition more or less all couples were winners because the judges didn't place the couples but gave them marks (1 for very good, 2 for good). Most couples got 1. Well done!

(© Evelyne Scherer)

IDSF Open Youth Latin and Standard

On March 20th, 2005, the Grand Lady of Ballroom Dancing in Switzerland, Mrs. Trudi Schmucki, celebrated her 80th birthday. Since 1979 she has written her famous Christmas letters for relatives and friends (in English). In the Christmas letter of 1992 she wrote e.g.:

"At the end of May I spent a week in Blackpool as representative of SwissDance (= Swiss professional dance teachers association). There was a World Congress and the ICBD meetings during the day and competitions to watch in the evenings. It was all very interesting, but what impressed me most was the dancing of the under 21's. The level is incredible. They must breathe, eat, drink and sleep dancing."

This is the category we are talking about here, the youth standard and latin. And the words of Mrs. Trudi Schmucki can only be underlined: these young dancers have so much talent, show such dedication, are mostly well-matched, young and beautiful. Most of them are in the best hands and their parents and teachers can only be congratulated. And who knows: among them may well be a future World Champion!

One of the 18 couples in the IDSF Open Youth Latin were Svetlana Guggenbuhl and Mark Popkov from Switzerland. They did very well indeed making the final in this strong field and finishing in 5th place. Very well done! And there is more to come: in the IDSF Open Junior Latin they did even better...

Ekaterina Vaganova, Gabriele Goffredo

(© Michael Scherer / ex video)

Victory Ceremony for the IDSF Open Youth Standard Finalists, from left:

Rossella Piccolo, Denis Nordio / Daniela Rossetti, Andrea Bencivenga / Victoria Akinina, Ilia Potapov /

Laura Brugin, Thomas Fusetto / Ana Kiseleva, Dmitry Rykov / Barbara Bilkivikova, Jakub Jancina

(© Michael Scherer)

IDSF Open Junior Latin

1st Svetlana Guggenbühl and Mark Popkov, Switzerland

(© Michael Scherer)

Svetlana Guggenbuhl and Mark Popkov were convincing winners. The junior latin stars from Switzerland showed again great improvement and danced very well indeed. What a promising young couple for Switzerland! Very well done!

The results and details of the IDSF Open Junior:

Competition Report (Uebersicht)

Final Result (Rangliste)

Table of Results (Marksliste)

Marks in Final Round (Finalwertungen)

Summary / Skating Report (Finalauswertung)

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Victory Ceremony for the IDSF Open Junior Latin Finalists, from left: Svetlana Di Paolo /

Natalia Glosikova, Simone Vertuccio / Svetlana Guggenbuhl, Mark Popkov / Martina Markova, Tomas Marek /

Anna Mateu, Roger Romeo / Natalia Makulova, Ilia Mazurov / Sara di Modugno, Fabio Giudoccio

(© Michael Scherer)

The Shows

"Isibizione Polka, isibizioni Ballo di Capitano, Chihuahua, Ruslana, isibizione Hip-Hop, isibizione Circo Bambini" - these were the various shows, and the kids were just lovely. Most of them are trained by Svetlana di Paolo, the organizer, and what a good job she has done. All the children loved it, were nicely dressed and danced so well. And the young circus artist was just breathtaking. The audience was entranced and rightly so!

Isibizione Circo (© Photo Emotion)

IDSF International Open Modern

Megumi Saito

This was one of the absolute highlights of the festival. A lot of couples danced very well, but the winners, Silvia Pitton and Paolo Bosco from Italy, were just superb. Their technique and quality of dancing combined with their tremendous entertainment value was outstanding and very rare indeed. Paolo Bosco must have an incredible leading ability and Silvia Pitton is just phenomenal and must be one of the best lady dancers ever! She follows her partner like nobody else which is not easy at all because Paolo Bosco moves like a whirlwind, has many ideas as to what to do, where to go, how to play with the music, the other couples and the spectators.

We salute them for their magnificent performance! I am sure we were not the only spectators who experienced more than once a shiver running down the spine watching this fabulous couple.

Advice to other couples: don't try to copy Silvia Pitton and Paolo Bosco! However good you copy them, they will be better. They are unique, and their style only fits themselves. Find your own individual style, this is a much better idea.

Victory Ceremony for the IDSF International Open Standard Finalists

from left: the organizers Dr. Gino Di Paolo, Svetlana Di Paolo

Tkasa Vulic, Luca Bussoletti / Silvia Pitton, Paolo Bosco / Joanne Clifton, Marco Cavallaro /

Cinzia Birarelli, Isaia Berardi / Olga Urumova, Dmytro Wloch / Megumi Saito, Masayuki Ishihara

(© Michael Scherer)

The finalists gave a solo dance at the beginning of the final. This was very much appreciated by the audience. Couples representing 5 different nations participated in this international final (4 gentlemen were Italian):

(© Evelyne Scherer)

6th Masayuki ISHIHARA / Megumi SAITO, Japan - very good indeed, should have been placed higher.

5th Dmytro WLOCH / Olga URUMOVA, Ukraine - the most successful couple of the festival making both the standard and the latin final, well done; lovely hairstyle of the lady.

(© Evelyne Scherer)

4th Isaia BERARDI / Cinzia BIRARELLI, Italy - had a lot of fans and a tremendous reception which they fully deserved, fabulous body swing.

(© Evelyne Scherer)

3rd Marco CAVALLARO / Joanne CLIFTON, England - marvellous dancing and marvellous atmosphere.

Tkasa Vulic

(© Evelyne Scherer)

2nd Luca BUSSOLETTI / Tkasa VULIC, Slovenia - very impressive, that's the way to dance the foxtrot.

(© Michael Scherer)

1st Paolo BOSCO / Silvia PITTON, Italy - just amazing.

IDSF International Open Latin

1st Anna Elnikova and Grigori Boldyrev, Russia

(© Michael Scherer)

The next highlight was the IDSF International Open Latin Competition. And it was a feast for the eyes: so many beautiful couples, attractive dancers, sexy ladies, fabulous dresses - the presentation could not have been better.

Among the top dancers was one of our favourite couples of last year's Dance Festival in Chiasso, Anna Elnikova and Grigori Boldyrev from Russia. They are so well-matched, their choreographies and movements are so very tasteful, they are harmonious in every moment of their performance. No wonder I followed them all day long with my camera - and almost missed another great couple, Kristina Horvatova and Marek Dedik from Slovakia, who also were very good indeed and danced equally well. Kristina Hovratova is such a lively and refreshing person, it is a joy to watch!

These two couples were well above the rest of the field, and although the Russian couple won all dances, the Slovakian couple got quite a number of first places as well. Very well done - to both couples!

Simone Franco, Sara Casini

(© Evelyne Scherer)

Five couples from Switzerland participated in this competition (only one in the standard section!). Eva Svobodova/Hendrik Benninger danced well and made the quarter final. Letizia Bevilacqua/Frederik Havez and Emilia Goldberg/Giuseppe Parlett danced one round less - Emilia Goldberg/Giuseppe Parlett showed great improvement. Nicole Durler/Lucien Krebs unfortunately had not a very good day.

Incomprehensible for us was the bad result of Yulia Arnet and Dmitry Klimenko in this competition. They showed international style and presented themselves very well and just didn't get the reward. Of course there is always room for improvement, their harmony is not yet perfect, but they were beaten by far inferior couples and should definitely have made the next round. The only possible answer is that they are not yet well-known internationally and were therefore missed by most judges, by the judges who otherwise did a very good job - at least in our opinion. Yulia Arnet and Dmitry Klimenko have great potential and it is only a question of time until they get the right results.

Victory Ceremony for the IDSF International Open Latin Finalists, from left:

Heinz Spaeker (IDSF), Gabriella Cavalli (presenter), Dr. Gino Di Paolo, Svetlana Di Paolo (organizers) /

Kristina Horvatova, Marek Dedik / Anna Elnikova, Grigori Boldyrev / Guy Rosen, Viktoria Fadina /

Olga Urumova, Dmytro Wloch / Romina Tumolo, Alessio Giammatteo / Chiaki Seko, Masaki Seko

(© Michael Scherer)

We liked the dancing of so many couples, it is just impossible to mention them all. Very attractive dancers were Ekaterina Vaganova and Gabriele Goffredo representing Italy. They missed the final by just a few marks (they were the winners of the IDSF Open Youth Latin Competition). We liked the lady's naturalness and femininity, and the gentleman thrilled us with his outstanding technique and balance. He is capable of unique and amazing pirouettes turning 5 or even 6 times in approx. 2 seconds! In the past we have seen some of the best ballet dancers ever. Most of them would have had problems doing such pirouettes! What an achievement! Fantastic!

The solo dance of the latin finalists was a samba and it was very interesting to see the different approach to and the interpretation of this dance by each couple. All the finalists were from a different nation - very international indeed:

6th Masaki SEKO / Chiaki SEKO, Japan - very good indeed, should have been placed higher.

5th Alessio GIAMMATTEO / Romina TUMOLO, Italy - good presentation.

Olga Urumova

(© Evelyne Scherer)

4th Dmytro WLOCH / Olga URUMOVA, Ukraine - they had already been in the standard final on the previous day, we liked their latin better; unfortunately the lady's dress (in the final) did not underline the very good movement of her body.

(© Evelyne Scherer)

3rd Guy ROSEN / Viktoriya FADINA, Luxembourg - very good lady with a lot of rhythm; although it should not be a judging criteria: we didn't like the gentleman's hairstyle.

2nd Marek DEDIK / Kristina HORVATOVA, Slovakia - what an attractive couple, what fabulous and rhythmical dancing.

(© Michael Scherer)

1st Grigori BOLDYREV / Anna ELNIKOVA, Russia - very attractive, sympathetic, harmonious and tasteful, they have so many positive attributes, a joy to watch.

We missed quite a number of couples we are great fans of, such as Anastasija Novozilova and Misa Cigoj from Slovenia and Lisa Darby and Gregor Rebula from England, to name but a few. And where were the number 1 and 2 couples from Switzerland? We hope to see them all and many more at next year's Dance Festival in Chiasso and at the other international competitions in Switzerland. Please!

Anna Elnikova

(© Michael Scherer)

We thank the organizers, Svetlana and Dr. Gino Di Paolo and their team, wholehearted for this 7th edition of the Swiss International Dance Sport Festival and are very much looking forward to the 8th edition...

Michael Scherer

Michael and Evelyne Scherer

(© Photo Emotion)

Many thanks to: Dr. Morrin Acheson, our friend from The Queen's College, Oxford, for his comments on the manuscript.

More thanks to: Felix Stadelmann, Fellow IDTA, our friend and web server, a dance enthusiast like ourselves, who made our homepage possible!

Grigori Boldyrev, Anna Elnikova

(© Michael Scherer)

Ballroom Dancing in Switzerland