Issac Li and Emelia Gu with their winning certificate from the Rose City Dancesport Championship in Palmerston North.
Issac Li and Emelia Gu with their winning certificate from the Rose City Dancesport Championship in Palmerston North.
Big-time ballroom dancing with all the glitz and glamour took to the floor in Palmerston North at the weekend involving dancers aged between 9 and 75.
More than 200 competitive dancers from Auckland to Wānaka swung into action at Fly Palmy Arena for the 2024 Rose City Dancesport Spectacular.
Organiser Shirley Wall has been involved with the event for more than 25 years and said the competition was one of the highlights of the New Zealand dancing calendar.
New Plymouth dancers Grace King and Anook Rood.
Wall said the competition demanded a combination of glitz, glamour, dynamic dancing, exciting costumes and artistry, and a high level of fitness.
It involved three days of training and competing. The Thursday evening and Friday saw renown dance instructors Tim Mullayanov and Mill Fang hold dance workshops, providing a chance to learn from some of the best.
Keil De Buisson and Lisa Smith.
Mullayanov was a seven-time NZ Amateur Ballroom Champion and 2011 Asia and South Pacific Amateur Ballroom Champion.
The competition itself was top class, while one of the highlights was a teams match involving dance studios from around New Zealand, where the focus was as much on dancing as it was on dressing up and having fun.
The local pair of Nathan Haxton and Letitia Williams had a good weekend placing first in four different Masters categories.
Palmerston North dance couple Nathan Haxton and Letitia Williams.
While dancers whipped up a storm on the dance floor, for some the wild weekend weather outside wrecked havoc with their travel.
Delayed air travel from Auckland to Palmerston North mean some dancers didn’t arrive until Saturday afternoon.
A contingent from Ballare dance studio in Christchurch.
They didn’t fare well with return trips either, as cancelled flights forced some dancers to hire cars in order to get home.
Auckland dancers Nikolai Murray and Justin Liu.
Overall champion dance couple Justin Lui and his partner Maggy Hu were affected. They didn’t arrive until mid-afternoon on Saturday and missed a couple of earlier events.
Lui and Hu did well to drive straight from the airport - quickly change into their dance outfits - and take to the floor.
Wall said in spite of the hiccup they danced superbly and deserved their title.
“I admire them and the way they went about it,” she said.
