Western Australian Open Dancesport Championship
November 1st, 2007 | by lissie |Well we spent all day and night on Sunday watching the WA Open - which is their biggest competition of the year. Very slick operation - lots of sponsorship - they even get $12k a year from the WA government! Hardly surprisingly the standard was very high especially in the Open Events, but it was great to see the little Christchurch boy, Arkady Barkenov and his partner Rosa win the open latin for the 2nd year in a row, rumour has it they placed 5th in the Rising Star at Blackpool too. Also we were surprised to see Kevin Flowers dancing Open Adult - he made it to the semi, dancing against Bryce who made the final! The photos aren’t great, Kelvin’s partner has the peach dress.
Couple of tips I thought worked well for any competition organizers in NZ reading this:
- big events such as the Opens were sponsored by individual sponsors, who got a plug everytime the event was announced and also got to give out the placings in that event and their photo taken with the finalists.
- the lights were dimmed between dances and event - its a nice touch when the lights come up on the dancers again - I think Nelson used to do this.
- a professional DJ/radio announcer did the evening performance - he obviously knew something about Dancesport but he managed to be a bit more excited about announcing it than someone who had been watching competitions for years.
- The dancers got a cheaper entrance ticket ($25) than the general public($35) but only if they entered on time!
What do you think? Leave a comment - I feel like I am talking to the hand sometimes!
