Athens Dance Festival 2017
We travelled to Greece this weekend for the 2nd edition of the Athens Dance Festival . The greek capital has always been one of our favourite destinations as we cherish some great memories from the competitions we used to do there both as amateurs and professionals . In fact we won our first International title at the Acropolis Open as amateurs and also had some good times winning the bronze medals as professionals at The WDC Nations Cup .
This time we were invited as adjudicators for the WDC Amateur League Open To The World Championship and also as lecturers at the Training Camp prior to the event .
Being held for second year, the competition is part of The Champions Tour and gathered couples from the following countries : England , Russia ,Italy , Hungary , Moldova , Ukraine , Greece , Bulgaria , Romania and Cyprus . In the judging panel and teaching at the congress there were some top teachers from Europe sharing their knowledge and vision about latin and ballroom dancing .
The host of the event was our dear friend Zhivo Yankov who we know for more than 20 years and it was absolute pleasure to be part of his event . Have to admit Zhivo and his Zhivo Team did great job in organising everything in order to provide the best for the competitors and everyone involved .
Every time we attend such events , we keep reminding ourselves how fortunate we are to travel and meet great people through what we love doing - dancing . It is always good to share with people who have the same love and passion about our art form . For us it was great pleasure to meet and get to know Jason Rodithis . He has been inspiration for us for years not only because of his highly successful competitive career but also for being part of the first Burn The Floor cast . We remember watching the first dvd of the show many , many times , being inspired by all these amazing dancers and the production that to date, almost 20 years , has no equivalent in portraying ballroom and latin as dance spectacular . So happy that later on we also had the chance to become part of Burn The Floor family . The experience of working with these dancers, learning from them and being part of that cast was a turning point in our life and BTF will always have special place in our hearts . When we saw Jason , when our eyes first met even before speaking to each other ,we knew we have so much in common and so much to talk about .
We had one of our couples competing in the Junior categories of the event . It was the first competition abroad for Marin Martinov & Dilyana Dimitrova and their international debut was very successful . The kids , both being 12 years old , competed in the Junior under 16 years categories , basic and open programs , and won 1 gold , 4 silver medals and one 4th place ! They made very good impression and some of the judges noticed Marin & Dilyana " have musicality that is hard to find " ! Congratulations ,let it be just the beginning of a great competitive 2017 !
Lots of dance excitements on the way ! Looking forward to share them with you .
Live , love ,dance !
N&P
