USA Dance 2010 National DanceSport Championships

The entry list is up for the 2010 USA Dance National DanceSport Championships that will be held at the J.W. Marriott Hotel at L.A. Live beginning Friday, April 9, 2010. This is an all amateur couple event and there are three confirmed entries from Hawaii. We're still hoping for a fourth.

The very best Junior, Youth, Adult, Senior I, Senior II, and Senior III couples from all over the United States will compete to be selected as the United States Champions and to represent the USA in the 2010 International DanceSport Federation Standard, Latin, and 10-Dance World Championships.

Glenn Okazaki and Anne Ho will be shooting for the Senior II Standard Championship title again this year. The top two couples in each category get to represent the United States in the World Championships. Some of you may remember that Glenn and Anne represented the US in the World Championships in 2007. Last year, they unfortunately were unable to finish due to injury. Let’s wish them the best of luck again this year.

If going for the title in Senior II isn’t tough enough, Glenn and Anne have also entered the Senior I Championships, which is the 35 and older category. If they also win that title, it’ll be quite an accomplishment.

Jackson Cho and June Choong have also entered the National Championships in the Adult Syllabus Standard category, competing in both Bronze and Silver. This will be their first entry at the National Championships. The Adult category is the largest and toughest category of all so let’s give them a lot of encouragement so they’ll get out there and do their best.

Yes, Debra and I have entered the competition. We will be competing, in the Senior II Novice and Pre-Champ in both Standard and Latin. This will be our third time at the Nationals. We made a good improvement last year, over our first entry. Hopefully, the judges will see an even greater improvement this year.

There is another entry from Hawaii (well, she’s relocated to Baltimore to train with her new partner Thomas Yu so technically, she’s entering from Maryland). Yuko Yamane, a former student of Al Franz, an avid supporter of the Hawaii Star Ball always been seen at the side of Mrs. Haruko Torii who comes every year from Japan to compete in the Hawaii Star Ball, will also be competing at the Nationals.

Yuko & Tom have been entering a lot of competitions on the mainland recently to prepare for the Nationals. In spite of the snowed-in conditions from winter storms, they competed in the Manhattan Amateur Classic. They just took First Place out of 12 couples in the Senior II Championship (they also took 2nd Place out of 9 couples in the Senior I Championships) at the Mid-Atlantic Championships held in Bethesda Maryland. Their next stop before the Nationals will be at the Maryland Dancesport Championships, which was postponed from February to April. They’ve only been dancing together for a little over a year and moving up the ranks very quickly.

When it comes to preparing for competition, the mainland competitors have an edge over Hawaii competitors because it is easier for them to enter a lot more competitions throughout the year. We were just talking to another competitor, Winston Chow from California, and he told us that he and his partner, Lilly, average about 1 ½ competitions per month (18 competitions a year), with most of the competitions within driving range or a short domestic airplane hop away.

With that in mind, you have to give a lot of credit to Glenn and Anne who have to fly to the mainland for every competition, except for the one Star Ball we have here in Hawaii, and try to get in top coaching while on these trips. Can you imagine the cost of doing 18 competitions a year having to fly to the mainland and pay for all the fees and lodging - cost prohibitive for most amateur competitors. In spite of this “handicap”, they too have been winning First places in recent mainland competitions and are in the running for winning the Championships at the Nationals. They deserve a lot of credit for what they have accomplished.

Even if you’re not a competitor, if you like to watch competitions and great ballroom dancing, you should think about attending the upcoming National Championships just to watch. This will be a 30th anniversary extravaganza and they have planned a special show: USA Dance undefeated champions; Victor Fung 12-time Standard Champion, with his current partner Anastasia Muravyova, and 13-time Latin Champions - Eugene Katsevman & Maria Manusova, will be performing during the Saturday night session.

This event can’t get any closer to Hawaii, without being in Hawaii. It is in Los Angeles, and in a great venue with lots of other activities and great restaurants, just doors away (just Google L.A. Live and see what it has to offer). There's still time to get tickets and hotel reservations. Hope to see you there.