| Latin
American Imperial Championships
The
Imperial Latin Championships Open to the World were presented
by Michael Stylianos and Lorna Lee at the Lakeside Country
Club, Frimley Green, Surrey on 10th October 2004.
The
car park was full with almost as many coaches as cars. When
the doors opened at 9am people poured into the hall, and just
kept coming. Couples were competing from Australia, Austria,
Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Denmark, England, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Ukraine,
Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands,
Poland, Russia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland,
Ukraine and the USA, in fact the whole world was there! This
being one of the busiest weeks in the year in the dance calendar
with world class competitions on every day of the week. Chairman
Bryan Allen with 12 adjudicators, many of them former World
Champions, were in for a very busy day.
 |
| Professional
line up |
There
were massive entries with a recall of 80 couples for the second
round of the Latin. While the competitions were in progress
and the day wore on, more and more spectators, many of them
former competitors came in to watch the wonderful displays
of dancing and the ballroom was packed to capacity. The Professional
Latin was danced in four heats with 24 couples recalled. Peter
Stokkebroe and Kristina Juel-Stokkebroe from Denmark won the
Amateur Latin. Darren Bennett and Lilia Kopylova from England
won the Professional Latin final.
 |
 |
| Professional
Latin Winners, Darren Bennett & Lilia Kopylova |
Amateur
Latin Winners, Peter Stokkebroe & Kristina Juel-Stokkebroe
|
Prize
presentations were made and the couples then performed the
honour dances. Greg de Wet played fabulous music as always
for this excellent day of dance, which ran like clockwork.
Starting at 10am and finishing at 11.30pm it was a privilege
to watch such talent from the Juvenile dancers through to
the Professionals. Michael, Lorna and the team are to be congratulated
on the Imperial Latin Championships.
Iris
Findlay
Photographs: Morrison Findley
|
