Show more posts

Latest Posts

The Essence of Sport

Thrill of Victory | Agony of Defeat © Roland What thousands of followers of this blog got to see here on Saturday was "great sport." In every sense of the two words! The record participation in the 2012 WDSF World Championship Latin made yet another convincing statement about DanceSport's universality.

The enthusiasm of very young couples putting in their first appearance at the highest international level of competition bodes well for the continued development of DanceSport.

It was DanceSport at its very best that the six finalists showed the sell-out crowd at the Stadthalle in Vienna - and to the biggest cumulative audience ever following the 2012 World Latin through this blog, YouTube and the social media.

And that two couples kept everyone in suspense throughout four rounds, through all five dances in the final, and until the very moment that the master of ceremony pronounced country and names of the runners-up, it all reveals just how compelling this artistic sport can be.

"The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat," is how we titled an album (on our facebook page) with superb photographs taken by Helmut Roland of Andrey Zaytsev - Anna Kuzminskaya, RUS, and Aniello Langella - Khrystyna Moshenska, ITA, during the award presentation. Not everybody liked our choice of title (which we actually borrowed from a long-running sportscast on American network ABC). But all sports do have this trait. It is what makes them - and the athletes who play for high stakes, the winners and the runners-up - so great.

Andrey Zaytsev - Anna Kuzminskaya, RUS © Roland Andrey Zaytsev - Anna Kuzminskaya, RUS © Roland Aniello Langella - Khrystyna Moshenska, ITA © Roland Aniello Langella - Khrystyna Moshenska, ITA © Roland