LatinBallroom.net

If you have participated in a ballroom competition, you probably know how physically demanding a competition is. A typical competition runs from very early in the morning and until around midnight. If you are a lady competitor, you need to get up very early to do your hair and makeup and be ready for your first heat of the day. In addition, if you are doing any of the multi-dance events, be it 3 dance or 5 dance, you need stamina. Without stamina, you’ll be huffing and puffing toward the end and you may not be able to show off your true skills for the jive, a killer dance set for the last in a five-dance event. Endurance and stamina don’t come naturally. You need to build it. As competitive dancing is a sport as well as an art, so training tips for athletes are equally helpful for dancers. One of the most effective ways to build endurance is interval training.

Interval Training vs. Tradition Training
The traditional training method to build endurance is to do a moderate exercise for a long period of time, say 60 min., at a constant intensity level. Interval training, however, involves with alternating short bouts of high intensity workout and rest periods. One recent study shows that interval training is a time-efficient way to develop endurance.

Here’s a summary from the study quoted from here.

Researchers at McMaster University in Canada recruited 20 healthy men and women whose average age was 23. All of the study subjects rode stationary bikes. Some exercised five days a week, doing 40 to 60 minutes of moderate-intensity cycling. Others did four to six sets of 30-second sprints on the cycle, allowing 4.5 minutes of recovery time between sets; their total exercise time was about 15 to 25 minutes just three days a week.

After six weeks, the researchers found that the intense sprint interval training improved the structure and function of arteries as much as traditional, longer endurance exercise.

Time Efficiency
As are many other competitive ballroom dancers, I work full time, go to a gym regularly, and practice dancing every day. So, I am all for efficiency. I do want to economize my time at the gym but warm-ups (10 min.), main exercise (alternating cardio (30 - 40 min.) and weight training (50 min.)), and after-workout stretching (30 – 40 min.) add up fast. So, if I can do 20 – 25 min. of interval training at least twice a week, it saves me some time.

Structure of Interval Training
The structure of interval training is similar to a multi-dance event in a competition. Yes, the rest between the dances is shorter than typical interval training but it only lasts 10 miin. or so.

The Length of Each Portion of the Interval
If you look around the internet, you will see some set length for each part of the interval. But as a beginner in interval training, I use my heart rate as a guide and run on a treadmill at my gym because it has a nice cushion for running. I splint for at least 1 min. to raise my heart rate above 145 and walk as long as it takes for my heart rate to come down to 110 or so. I just started this regimen about 2 weeks ago, so I haven’t felt any immediate change but I’m hoping I’ll have more stamina in a few months.

I was stunned to see Kayla and Kupono were among the bottom three. I liked their routine and I thought they danced well even though the choreogrphy was a bit weird. They seems to dance well together, so I am looking forward to seeing them doing a partner dance. I hope they will stay in the final.

Up until last week, I was a bit disappointed with the show. I thought last year’s show was better because there are still some dances I remember from the last season. The departure of Ashley Valerio, who did an amazing routine as a crash test dummy early on, didn’t help. So were the somewhat weak ballroom dancers in this season. But I enjoyed today’s show. Finally! My favorite was the chacha by Brandon and Jeannette. Jeannette is a salsa dancer, which means she has a bit of advantages over other dancers whose specialities are completely different. Both Brandon and Jeannette captured the snappiness/sharpness of cha cha and their technique was good enough for non-latin dancers.

Now I’m watching the Quickstep by Karla and Vitolio….. It was not my cup of tea. When it comes to Standard dances, I like a more traditional routine. Maybe it’s just me.

Here’s the one I liked the best so far in this season. Ashley and Kupono’s crash test dummy routine.

(Photo by Attila Vogyi @ dancesportinfo.net.)

In my earlier post, I talked about the dress Yulia wore in the 2009 U.K. Open. I really liked the dress but I didn’t know anything about “VESA.” Then, I found about a pre-owned VESA dress for sale here. So, I did a google search and found VESA Design’s home page. I wanted to explore the site, but the links were not working for me, so all I could see were the home page itself. I used Opera, Firefox, and IE with the same results. Too bad.

Yulia is still wearing VESA dress as you can see her Blackpool photo from this year.

The top amateur couple, Stefano Di Filippo and Anna Melnikova, officially announced that they decided to end the partnership at the Blackpool competition, confirming the rumor that Anna is to dance with Slavik Kryklyvyy. They won the prestigious competition this year, and it looks like Stefano is still looking for a partner as you can see from this interview clip.

Another couple, Maurizio Vescovo and Melinda Torokgyorgy, also announced recently that they are going to split. They were one of my favorite couples and this announcement was a surprise for me. They just turned pro last year and I thought they were doing well. They’d been dancing together for 10 years. As is in most cases of partnership split, they didn’t give any particular reasons for their decision. Dancesportinfo.net reports a short note from Maurizio here.

Here’s another site for pre-owned dresses, Designs by Shellie. The owner is an active competitive dancer. She designs and makes high quality ballroom jewelry. When you are on a competition floor, the last thing in your mind should a wardrobe/jewelry malfunction. A malfunction happened to me once. My necklace got tangled with my pro’s button on his shirt and we needed to stop dancing to free it. A few months later, I saw my friend’s bracelet got caught in her pro’s shirts, leaving a few threads hanging from his shirt sleeve. So, if you want to have a peace of mind when you compete, jewelry offered at this site can be the answer.

This site also have a “consignment” link where several pre-owned competition-ready dresses are for sale. All of them are reasonably priced and look attractive.

These are some of my favorite Rumba songs.

Giles’ Salsa made my day! The man can move! I forgot to set my DVR again but I was at home, so I could watch the show. I am impressed with his dancing. I recently started to go social salsa dancing, so I could tell his salsa wasn’t really club-style. It was more structured and more on the ballroom side but it was excellent for a celebrity anyways.

Here’s a video clip of his salsa.

(Photo from dancesportinfo.net)

Dancesportinfo.net reports that Dmitri Timokhin and Natalia Petrova announced their retirement from competitions at the Russian Professional Latin Championship. Their partnership was rather short (but longer than Slavik and Hanna’s?). Their last competition recorded was the WDC Disney Resort 2008, in which they placed 5th. Their partnership started well, placing 2nd in Russion Championship, German Open, and U.S. Open but they stopped competing this year, starting with a no show at the U.K. Open. Dmitri is a manly dancer with solid technique and was fun to watch. Natalia is so feminine and was a good match to him. I will miss them. I was hoping they will come to Orland again this year…..

Results of Russian Professional Championship

1 Sergey Sourkov & Agnieszka Melnicka (Russia)
2 Evgeni Ryupin & Jana Pokrovskaya (Russia)
3 Alexander Berezine & Viktoria Rudkovskaya (Russia)
4 Aleksandr Ilinykh & Anna Afonenkova (Russia)
5 Vladislav Borodinov & Irina Garous (Russia)
6 Aleksandr Skarlato & Yulia Lesokhina (Russia)

Here are two video clips of the Victory, a show dance by Maxim Kozhevnikov and Yulia Zagoryuchenko. The Victory is a song by Bond, a British classical/pop fusion band. The second clip is a music video of the song.

Whenever I see Yulia dance, my eyes are glued to the screen. She has a rare combination of beauty/power/control and, at the same time, is very feminine. This show dance is from the 2007 World Superstars Dance Festival (WSSDF). I believe they performed the same routine in America’s Ballroom Challenge (Ohio Star Ball.)

Now here’s a music video of Bond. All four girls are very pretty. Based on what I read in wikipedia, Bond was created by two producers who wanted to “put together a quartet consisting of ‘four beautiful, talented musicians.’” I think they have achieved their goal. I really really like this music. It’s the last song in my previous post, My Favorite Samba. Here’s their music video.