Feeling Disappointed

Petter Engan - Kine Mardal, NOR

Dancers have been coming to China for years to take part in wold-level competitions that are held regularly under the auspices of WDSF all around the country. Recent World Championships in Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu come to mind. And the GrandSlam leg in Wuhan plus the GrandSlam Finals in Shanghai have become permanent fixtures in the WDSF calendar. That makes it all the more incomprehensible that - all of the sudden - some athletes applying for their visa at Embassies and Consulates of the People's Republic of China in different countries are denied visa and therefore entry into the country on inexplicable grounds ...

The members of the WDSF Communications team made their own experiences with the new (and frankly: very erratic) policies that seem to govern visa issuance since March 2016 (when they had applied last). A news item was published on it: click here!

We learned today that at least one couple was finally unable to travel: Petter Engan - Kine Mardal, who were supposed to represent Norway here in Chengdu, will not dance on Saturday. They tell their story on Facebook. A good thing that the Norwegian media take up on their story too! Not that it will help much other than by maybe correcting a slightly defeatist statement made by the two dancers.