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The Dance Review - Mark Elsbury reports on the Professional American Smooth at the International Dance Festival 2024

Updated: Oct 8


The beautiful venue of the Royal Albert Hall played host to the International Professional American Smooth competition for the first time, making history. It’s only fitting that these talented dancers had the opportunity to showcase this beautiful style in such magical surroundings at the highest level to the wonderful music of Ross Mitchell, his band and singers. A vote of thanks must go to the organisers, Robin Short and Christopher Short for creating this opportunity for the dancers.


With many couples travelling across the globe to showcase American Smooth at the Royal Albert Hall, the audience were treated to a wonderful display of beauty, control, musical interpretation and exciting choreography, I’m sure this dance style will grow year on year.




The 2024 champions were Alexey Polovnikov and Olga Shcherbina - 1,1,1,2

As a seasoned American Smooth couple with a number of successes under their belt, they now add the International Professional American Smooth title to their resume. They are a couple that despite being smaller in stature use their clever choreography choices and attention to detail, particularly in timing and use of arm extensions, they found themselves taking hold of the trophy today. They really shined in the final with a change of outfits creating a different look and saving their best dancing until the most important round. Congratulations on winning this inaugural tittle.


Runners up were Leonid Burlo and Mariia Usan - 2,2,2,1

Travelling all the way from the USA, Leonid and Mariia provided a stunning display showing a vast improvement since the last time I saw them perform at the Emerald Ball in LA. Leonid has a calm but confident persona that combined with Mariia’s feminine style creates a mix that that could take them all the way. They also had a nice balance of choreography showing a beautiful combination of basic figures, while keeping the interest of the onlooker. I’m sure they will see more successes in their future.


Finishing in third place were Jang Don and Adele Don - 3,3,3,3

A couple who have also trained to the high level in both the ballroom and latin styles which shows in their graceful but powerful portability of American Smooth. Adele is a beautiful lady dancer who has the perfect partner for her in Jang. They performed a number of complex pieces in their choreography which captured the attention of the crowd and lifted them to Bronze position in this prestigious competition.


Fourth place went to Manuel FoglianiI and Aga Kuzma - 5,4,4,4

Manuel and Aga are flying the flag for Poland in the American Smooth style and continue to improve and develop on every outing. On this occasion they seemed to have developed a greater use of leg action, spending more time working through each leg resulting in longer extensions that showcased their musical interpretation. With their passion and endeavour that I know they have for this style I’m sure they will continue to go from strength to strength.


Taking fifth position were Vitaliy Matusyak and Irina Tiamkina - 4,5,5,5

Vitaliy and Irina are a very striking couple who covered the floor with ease. Although it was not just their quality of movement was clear to see but their use of body to make the audience feel and believe every action they did. It was a shame for them on this occasion that their best dancing was undertaken in the semi-final and they weren’t quite able to reproduce this in the final. I look forward to watching their development as I feel they could be one to watch for the future.


Completing this final were Vladimir Fedorov and Albina Chunosova - 6,6,6,6

Vladimir and Albina looked delighted to be included in this major final. They produced a clean line throughout the day which I think was a large factor in helping to achieve this position. Their use of choreography seemed to have a larger contingency of traditional ballroom material which played to their strengths. I’m sure with more time these strengths will carry them higher as they also develop a greater smoothness with the transition between actions. Congratulations on your inclusion in this prestigious final.


Once again congratulations to all the competitors on making this an amazing spectacle for the audience and I will look forward to seeing American Smooth back at the Royal Albert Hall in 2025.


Image: Tomasz Reindl

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