Dancesportlife

Reactions From The First WDSF Grand Slam Of The Year: DanceMasters 2019

by Matteo Del Gaone

Mar 22, 2019 •

Dancesport Life Was There!

The first Grand Slam of the year is a really important event as it determines the tone for the new season of competitions. For this reason, it sets a new Grand Slam Ranking that will bring the top 12 couples to the Shanghai Grand Slam Finals on 7-8 December 2019.

The Dancesportlife team was present at this historical event seeing that it was the first Grand Slam ever organized by Romania. We were truly impressed by the quality and enthusiasm of the dancers and by the dedication of the DanceMasters organizers.

If you want to see us interviewing some of the top 12 WDSF couples make sure to subscribe on our YouTube channel.

First Impressions From The Grand Slam DanceMasters 2019

We were super curious to see how did the dancers (and not only) feel about one of the most important events of the year. What better way to do that than to ask them directly?!

“We enjoyed the competition. We felt like home. The crowd was amazing, they were so supportive, they were so much on our side. And because of that, we didn’t have even a little bit of a bad feeling because we didn’t win. Of course we would have loved to be in the first place because it’s our home, especially Marius’s home, but of course thanks to the audience we are very pleased about our dancing. We enjoyed the atmosphere. I loved so much the dance floor, the lightning was amazing and generally, we have just positive emotions about the competition. Probably we’ll see you next year again at DanceMasters.”

Marius-Andrei Balan & Khrystyna Moshenska

New Winners In Standard

There was a new scenario in the Standard, on Saturday. For the first time after the long-reigning period of Dmitry Zharkov and Olga Kulikova winning 20 Grand Slam titles, judges had to choose their successors. All the expectations, of course, were on Evaldas Sodeika and Ieva Zukauskaite (LTU). They won their first Grand Slam title of their career with 3,546 points of difference from the runners-up Francesco Galuppo and Debora Pacini (ITA). It must be underlined that Evaldas and Ieva received four “10.0” and six “9.75” in Slow Foxtrot in the Final. That’s impressive!

“It was really well organized! I have to say that was a pleasure to dance there from the first round and especially in the evening section because the atmosphere was amazing and the venue was full of people!”

Francesco Galuppo & Debora Pacini

“We enjoyed the competition very much, the atmosphere was warm, the floor was very good and we always like competing among the best couples. Yesterday everybody from the top 12 world ranking was dancing so the competition was very strong. We enjoyed our dancing. Definitely, the audience had a lot of impact on the performance. We’re the type of couple that likes to interact with the audience so if we feel the energy back, our performance gets better. We usually enjoy very much the competitions in Asia, and this was a bit similar to those. The audience was really nice and welcoming. You had the feeling that people are close to you and you get this exchange of energies and this is what we enjoyed the most.”

Edgars Linis & Eliza Ancane

“Grand Slam in Bucharest was amazing, the public was on fire and they helped us to release our feelings on the dance floor”

Dumitrescu Razvan & Jacqueline Joos

Things Were Heated In Latin

In Latin American instead, as in 2018, the fight between the top two couples Tsaturyan – Gudyno and Balan – Moshenska continued. The results were really unpredictable until the very end. In the Final, they were equal in Rumba and only 0,041 apart in Jive. But at the end, Armen Tsaturyan and Svetlana Gudyno (RUS) won by only 1,122 points away from Marius-Andrei Balan and Khrystyna Moshenska (GER).

“ We were really shocked by the public, they were amazing! + perfect schedule!”

Andrey Gusev & Vera Bondareva

“A well-deserved competition for the Romanian dancers. As every year, very well organized, amazing crowd and absolute top couples. Just loved it !”

Laura Filipescu & Stefan Grigore

The Venue and The Organization

The competition has been held in the Sala Polivalenta, a 5300+ seats hall, just a few kilometers from the center of Bucharest, Romania. When you enter the building, you don’t see immediately the floor, because you are in the area behind the tribunes. There, you can find all the dancesport-related shops, some cafes and some food providers. The changing rooms for the athletes are downstairs, so is the warm-up floor and the main dancing floor.

“The competition was organized very well, all was perfect: the floor, the music, the audience was nice, everything on time. It is always a big pleasure to dance in a competition like this !!!”

Evgeny Nikitin & Anastasia Miliutina

All around the dance floor organizers placed evening-gala tables with catering service that perfectly recreated the warm atmosphere of an elegant ballroom hall. It was great because it filled the gap between the dancers and the spectators from the tribunes. As the evening session started at 19:30, the seats on both sides of the hall were full and all the tables were occupied.

“The competition was on a high level as always. We’ve been dancing here already for 4 years now. A very special atmosphere created by organizers, audience, DJ (great music in the 1st round by the way). Top couples surrounding us push this comp on a very high level. Always a pleasure to be a part of this event.”

Alexey Dolgushin & Ksenia Piatakhina

“It was a great pleasure to dance for the Romanian audience! See you next year! P.S. Hopefully the music next year will be just as good as in the first round ”

Winson Tam & Anastasia Novikova

“Actually, it felt very nice, because the atmosphere was wonderful! I especially liked very much music in the first two rounds... The public was very warm and energetic from the beginning of the comp. At least we were very appropriate to dance”

Armen Tsaturyan & Svetlana Gudyno

“I’ve been following this competition for many years and I could say that this competition is one of the best-organized competitions in the region. This competition had built a trademark as a really well-organized competition and very friendly, oriented to all the participants. And every year they have a very high quality of couples, of the dancers & athletes. And every year there are improvements in certain segments, certain parts of the competition. I could say I’m following this evolution and that’s why they came to the position to organize one of the most important WDSF events, which is a Grand Slam. This is the certain level of the trust for their quality organization and that’s why I’m sitting here now in this role as a Chairperson of Bucharest Grand Slam competition.”

Nenad Jeftic

Chairman of the WDSF Bucharest Grand Slam and WDSF General Secretary

Here Are Some Numbers

167 couples
26 countries
3 continents
2 days
10 rounds
2 re-dances
54 dances
36 solo dances
442 m2 floor (26×17)
34.100 € total prize money

“I came as a coach & also as a spectator. It was such a privilege to be there and see all those amazing dancers and I feel sorry for those who weren't there. I've never attended a Grand Slam and I was so impressed by the energy of all the couples. I almost felt like crying. So inspirational! I am so proud that our Federation managed to get the license for a Grand Slam. I hope that we will maintain that so it would happen every year. My opinion is that, while there's always room for improvement, it was such a great event overall. Sunday night I left with such happiness in my heart and such a fulfillment. I would have hugged everyone. I wanted to go and hug all the dancers and thank them for what they did on the dancefloor. And the organizers too, for their great effort and the success of this year's DanceMasters ... and the WDSF representatives.”

Camelia Tanasa

Coach and dance enthusiast

“It was such an entertaining competition. The couples and their dances were heavenly and I never wanted it to end. The quality keeps getting better and better and becomes more perfect each year. I am so impressed and it is my dream to one day be as good as those who took part in this competition.”

Diana Murariu

Dance enthusiast

We hope you enjoyed this year’s edition of the DanceMasters Bucharest Grand Slam. And if you weren’t present this year, make sure to come in 2020!

Find the author on

Matteo Del Gaone

Italian, dancing since the age of 5 and currently based in Moscow. With his partner Ekaterina Utkina, he is in the top 50 WDSF Adult Standard World Ranking, representing the Russian Federation.

Tags: DanceMasters latin standard WDSF