Washington State’s Ballroom Dance Fiasco
Seattle Star Ball is the biggest Ballroom Dance Competition in Washington State. The ball is a unique opportunity for all Seattle ballroom dancers to compete and show off their abilities in front of the local audience and, most importantly, perform for their friends and family.
Oh! What a great competition Seattle Star Ball was! A fantastic local ballroom dance competition. There is nothing better than to dance in front of a local audience, friends, and family. This year the competition was held in the brand new (only two years old) Hyatt on Lake Washington. Oh wow! What can beat a lake view from the dance floor? It was fabulous! Also, this was the most successful year so far! The ball is rapidly growing!
Seattle Star Ball could not have turned out any better. All of us professional dancers and our amateur students worked so hard to prepare for the local crowds, and it was all worth it. All my pro-am students delivered their best performances of the year and placed accordingly well.
- Rumi made a stunning comeback after her arm injury placing 1st in the Silver Latin- American Scholarship, showing beautiful and mature performance.
- Sue competed in Smooth where she placed 2nd and 1st in Latin- American. She remained true to herself and gave me a lot of surprises on the floor but overall excellent performance.
- Delilah looked beautiful on the floor with her stunning new dress and finished at a strong 2nd place in the Scholarship and 1st in the Championship after dancing very strong every single event.
Thank you, ladies, for trusting me with your journeys, I feel privileged to be able to help you grow!
I was done with all my events by the late afternoon. Quick shower and back to the ballroom to teach a quick lesson to a American Smooth couple I teach from Utah. After the lesson, I ran to the room to change for the evening session, black tuxedo it is.
I was not the only Professional Ballroom Dancer from Aria Ballroom who competed with students. Simeon and Lukas (in the back making a funny face) also had quite a few students. A cool fact- Lukas had the most entries of us all and won the Top Teacher 3rd place award. Here is a picture of Simeon with lovely Claudia after her Smooth Scholarship.
In the evening session, there were quite a few exciting events, including Open American Smooth Scholarships, Pro events, and the highly anticipated Top Awards. That turned out to be quite a success for our studio! We won the Top Studio Award! My pro-am student Sue also won the Top Bronze student award. That was amazing, we were all very pleased. They say hard work pays off, it is true!
Ballroom dance competitions are not just what it sounds. Not just a bunch of beautiful people, all dressed up, dancing and competing against each other. It is about much more than that. Meeting cool people, build and strengthen friendships.
This was one eventful Saturday that we would forever remember and cherish. I loved sharing the beautiful floor overlooking the lake with all my pro-am students, and winning the Top Studio just topped up the whole experience.
Aria Ballroom is about our students! Thank you, guys, you are the best!
Sunday- The Kids Day
A lot of ballroom dance studios in the country focus specifically on either the social aspect of dancing or the competitive. At Aria, we focus mostly on the competitive, but what's special is that we have as many adult competitors as we do kids.
We try our hardest to produce more competitive ballroom couples; sadly we have a shortage of boys and a surplus of girls. Thankfully, there is an excellent opportunity for our solo girls to go out on the dance floor to perform and compete with their teacher.
In this picture, I danced pro-am with Lea. This was her first competition. It is natural to be nervous but not her, she was a real champ, did way better than I expected.
Competitors on the floor, Friends off the floor.
Among many other things, Seattle Star Ball was also the first competition for Amanh, who just started dancing a few months ago and already a winner! He had a blast on the floor, and I’m so proud of him.
All of our kids ended up winning a medal. But the true achievement for all of them and us was Aria receiving the TOP YOUTH STUDIO award. If I recall correctly that is the 3rd time.
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.
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— PELE
