Just like the Olympics, the Embassy Ball DanceSport Championships has a reputation for attracting the heavy hitters: dancer-athletes of national and international caliber in the fox trot, waltz, rumba and more.
While the layman might have difficulty distinguishing one contest from another, the competitors certainly can. They know who all those heavily made-up ladies and tuxedoed gentlemen are and they know their rankings. If you’re serious about dance sport – as ballroom competitors call it – you want to have a go against the top-ranked dancers, said Melaina Larson, 27, of Santa Ana.
“It’s totally important. Because you can practice by yourself in the studio until the cows come home, but how do you know how good you are unless you compete against the best, and the best dancers will be here,” Larson said.
“Here” is the Hyatt Regency Irvine, where the Embassy Ball DanceSport Championships takes place Thursday through Sunday.
Run by Brian and Kristi McDonald, former international champions and leading coaches, the Embassy is the United State’s only “grand slam” competition, awarding $100,000 in total prize money. A grand slam is a championship that gives awards to both amateur and professional dancers. It’s a measure of the Embassy’s prestige that it attracts leading international dancers, said McDonald, who is the current president of the National Dance Council of America, the organization for United States professionals.
The public is also invited to the Embassy, though tickets are already selling out; tickets can be purchased at the hotel Thursday morning for daytime and evening sessions. The events begin at 8 a.m. some mornings and continue until midnight.
“It’s great for the audience because they really get to see some top-notch dancers,” said Maria Johnson, 34, who with her husband Hunter, 36, are Embassy defending champions of the competition known (in the unique vocabulary of ballroom) as the Open to the World Smooth Title, which includes waltz, tango, fox trot and Viennese waltz.
The Johnsons, who have choreographed for the Fox TV show “So You Think You Can Dance,” moved a year ago from Orange County to Houston, where they are opening their own studio. The couple, however, still occasionally flies back to Southern California to train with the McDonalds. Johnson said she wouldn’t want to miss the Embassy, in part because it’s an elegant competition, with better lighting and a bigger floor.
“It’s a little more exciting, the atmosphere. No where else in the U.S. do you get to see this level of dancing for three, four nights in a row,” she said. “It’s important for us in the world standings to have the top dancers come to some of our competitions. It makes you dance better.”
Originally from Scotland, McDonald started the Embassy 27 years ago in Santa Monica. It has jumped to different hotels several times, generally heading in a southerly direction with each move. It landed at the Irvine Hyatt Regency about 12 years.
McDonald maintained that he doesn’t do anything differently from any of the other competitions, but clearly the couple’s connections and status within ballroom dance are a factor in the Embassy’s popularity and international drawing power. Other competition categories include pro-am events, in which teachers (the pros) dance with their students; events for competitors over 35 and over 50 and for those under 21; and the United States Amateur Standard Formation Championship, which is for college teams. Brigham Young University’s formation team, winner of the prestigious British Open, will be competing against Utah State Valley College on Friday and Saturday night.
“The biggest changes (in competitive ballroom dance) is the volume (of competitors), not just because of the television show but because of the tremendous amount of young people really coming into dancing,” McDonald said. “The boys no longer think of dancing as a sissy thing. It’s very athletic. There are collegiate events all over the country.”
At the highest levels, however, competitive ballroom dancing in this country is still dominated by expatriates from England, eastern Europe and Russia; in some rare cases, they have paired up with U.S.-born dancers. Larson’s partner, for example, is Svyatoslav “Slava” Stefanov, who grew up in Bulgaria. He now resides in Huntington Beach.
Larson and Stefanov started dancing together one year ago and have been competing only since February. They compete in international standard category, which includes four dances, the waltz, fox trot, Viennese waltz and tango.
But Larson is also competing in the pro-am division with two of her students. The pro-am events are in the early morning; the professional contests get serious late at night. It’s not a weekend for sleeping, Larson conceded. She doesn’t care though.
“It’s really kind of bizarre and cool and weird. Sometimes, I just can’t believe that it’s happening. Oh, it’s so fun. The competitions are such a blast. For all professional dancers, the competitions are totally what we live for. We just thrive onstage and ultimately that’s where we’re all most at home and where we’re most happy is on the competition floor. The master of ceremonies says, ‘Competitors, places please for the waltz,’ and you’re like ‘Yes!’ It’s so fun.”
Contact the writer: 714-796-4976 or lbleiberg@ocregister.com
