65th Australian Open Championships 11/01/2011

At the kind invitation of the Australian Dancesport Society, I was asked to check out the DanceSport scene in the Dancesport Capital of Australia, Melbourne, Victoria. Let me assure you that dance and DanceSport are very vibrant in Melbourne, judging by the full capacity attendance at the Hisense Arena on the final day. They have the support from the Victorian State Government, the local television station and many corporate sponsors. The fact that they are in the 65^th year speaks volumes. The International Dancesport Federation (IDSF) Open and the Australian Nationals are held during three days, from 9 to 11 December 2011, with a total of 1,400 athletes taking part in the championship.  

Credit must be given to the Scrutineering and Marshalling Team of the 65^th Australian. The events ran with clockwork precision with hardly any delays. The results came out almost instantaneously.

Special mention must be made about the venue, the Hisense Arena. It is located within the Olympic park. The Arena was opened in the year 2000 and was used during the 2006 Commonwealth Games. It is such a popular venue for Dancesport that the Society has reserved the venue for the Australian Dancesport Championship for 10 years to be held in the second week of December.  The dance floor is beautifully laid and is made from the native Jarra and Karri timber. The floor measures 84 by 37.8 meters, and to give you an idea of the size, it is 3 times the size of an IDSF approved floor giving the dancers ample space to show their artistry.

The 2010 IDSF Open Latin Champion title went to Arkardy Bakenov and Rosa Filippello of Australia. Li Di and Zhou Lei (CHN) took silver, Jeremy Basile and Megan Wragg of AUS, bronze.

In the IDSF International Open Standard Bjorn Bitsch and Asli Williamson (DEN) took gold, followed by Markus and Maria Hirvonen (FIN) and Antonio Michili - Katerina Maximova (AUS).

The dance style that got me curious and is extremely popular in Australia is the New Vogue. I had Peter Todd, the Guru of New Vogue, explain to me this graceful dance form where the competitors dress in Standard attire and they dance in a sequence. The competitors dance to a certain fixed routine except the upper body movements allow freedom for artistic interpretation. Dances like Carousel, Tango Terrific, Lucille Waltz, Excelsior Schottische, Barclay Blues and Swing Waltz are accepted by the Australian Dancing Society as competition Dances at the higher level. The dancers move in an anti clockwise direction, it is not uncommon to see the judges standing in the middle of the floor observing in a clockwise direction to judge the competitors. An unusual sight that needs getting used to. 

New Vogue is very visual and it is a pleasure to watch the graceful movement of the dancers. I can assure you that during the intermission, the floor was crowded with the spectators moving in unison to a Carousel or a Barclay Blues.

New Vogue has been around for a very long time and is not just a passing fad, remarked Peter Todd. He did confirm that New Vogue evolved from the regimented English Old Times, however the form that it takes today is definitely an Australian creation.

Will New Vogue be the next great Australian export to the world? Most Australian coaches and athletes I spoke to hopes so. The ever charming and no nonsense Margaret Lonsdale the CEO of Australian Dancing Society’s vision for 2011 is to have a New Vogue Team event for Asia Pacific at the 66^th Australian Dancesport Championship. China, Korea, Japan, Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong already have a New Vogue Team and hopefully this will be the impetus that it needs to introduce it to the world.  

Article by John Fam (IDSF Communication Commission – Malaysia)

Photography by dancesportphoto.net