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A
fiesta of footwork In an effort to boost Ballroom and Latin American dancing in Sri Lanka, and to enable local dancers to gain exposure in the international arena, Footwork has been producing the Footwork Dancesport Championships, for the last eleven years. Being quite a popular event among dance circles, the championship has become a sold-out event with dance fans and competitors alike. Footwork, an event production company that has been active in the entertainment industry for the last fifteen years, has had long standing experience in organising and turning out numerous events. “Though we’ve been organising the Footwork Dancesport Championships for quite some time, this is the second time we are producing the International competition,” says Dharshan Wijesooriya, director, Footwork and organiser of the championships, adding that the first such was organised in 2002, with contestants from over fourteen countries participating in it. While Dancesport now is considered a “sport” internationally, and with it due to be included in the Olympic games in the near future, interest in the sport is now increasing rapidly, even in countries such as Sri Lanka. Divided into two main sections, Ballroom and Latin American, Dancesport includes numerous forms of dancing from the Waltz, to the Fox Trot, to the Rumba. The second Footwork International Dancesport Championship will be having about thirty international couples competing from about eight countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, Macau, Malaysia, Indonesia and China. The competition will also have thirty local couples and surely promises to be a well contested one. The local couples all come from the six established schools of dance, showing the increase of interest in the sport and the need to have been guided under a trained dancer, if you wish to participate in the championships. “While there are certain rules the competitors have to adhere to, the entry form includes all of that,” explains Dharshan. Amongst
the events scheduled for the championship are the Beginners, Juniors,
Seniors over forty, Novices, Pre-Amateur and the Amateur, for both
the Ballroom and the Latin categories. “The Amateur category
is the highest level in Sri Lanka, since we still haven’t
reached the professional level,” says Dharshan. While in the
Ballroom section, the beginners will be dancing the Waltz and the
Quick Step, the novices will be dancing the Waltz, Tango and Quick
Step. The Pre-Amateurs will be dancing the Waltz, the Tango, the
Fox Trot and the Quick Step, while the amateurs will be participating
in all five categories. In the Latin American events, the beginners
will be doing the Cha Cha and the Jive, the novices the Cha Cha,
the Jive and the Rumba, the Pre-Amateur the Cha Cha, Jive, Samba
and Rumba and finally the amateur, all five. The contestants’ parade in the Latin American section will be next, followed by the prize presentation for those events. The preliminary rounds will be held from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. during which twelve contesting couples will be chosen for the semi-finals, which would finally narrow the number down to six couples for the finals. The main show will take about three and a half hours. The grand finale of the Footwork International Dancesport Championship 2005 will be a floorshow by the World Professional Latin American champions, Carmen Vincelj and Bryan Watson. “Being the world champions, they are totally professional and all of you present will be able to witness them do routines from all five Latin American dance forms consecutively, taking just about three minutes to change their outfits. They are a treat to watch!” says Dharshan. The
box plan will be available at the Colombo Plaza from September 9,
while advance bookings could be made by calling Footwork on 4408822.
So for all of you lovers of professional dance, the Footwork International
Championship might be just the thing for an entertainingly pulsating
evening… |
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