| Article | : | GOC Mannheim 2002 (2)
On the spot report by Werner J. Braun
Dr. Peter Kurz, Sports Mayor of the City of Mannheim officially opened the 16th German Open Championships in the Mannheim Congress Centre Rosengarten. He expressed the thankfulness of the Mannheim City Administration to the organisers for running this worldwide DanceSport event. He included the sponsors and the enthusiastic public. The hall was totally sold out and scrammed with about 5000 people. And then the opening show started. 30 Chinese couples performed an Opening Show of the finest. Glad in colourful original Chinese costumes they quirled over the floor to original Chinese music with a choreography of the German trainer Dirk Heidemann from Berlin. The couples were DanceSport students of the Beijing University selected out of 3000. It was a great exotic spectacle, which attracted the audience and ended with never ending applause and standing ovations. Gerd Weissenberg, Vicepresident of the German Professionals, explained the DanceSport situation in China and predicted a wave of well-trained Chinese competitors within the next few years. The Dean of the Chinese Dance Academy was honouree guest of the event as well and addressed the public and especially Michel Mauge, the Managing Director of the Mannheim Congress and Tourist Ltd and organiser of the German Open Championships to give him and his scholars the possibility to participate in the GOC. He related that at his Academy all kinds of Dancing from all over the World are lectured in 72 big halls. His words: the audience accepted „People come together by what they love - Dancing" by tremendous applause. Michel Mauge took the opportunity to thank the Members of the GOC Steering Committee for the assistance and the visible success and mentioned Karl Breuer, Donni Burns MBE, Harald Frahm, Wilfried Scheible and Gerd Weissenberg, who all were present.
As special VIP besides the many Members of the City parliament and the Sports Mayor I want to mention Gerda Brandt, Manager of the Sports Department of the City for her decisive help to the organisers. Further more we saw the British Consular General, Mr. Mark Twigg, from the General Consulate of Stuttgart, attentively following the events on the floor.
The huge hall of the Mannheim Rosengarten, the Mozart Hall, had a new decoration: Three huge television screens on which the audience could follow the actions on the floor. On those screens they also saw the results of the competitions which were directly put on to the central computer by what the judges marked by stick on to their hand computers or "game boys". This marking system was also created by Michel Mauge according to the headline of his Congress Centre Mannheim: "Tradition meets innovation"!
Three competitions were run at this first day:
Juniors II, Latin
Result:
1. Nikita Bazev/Natalia Borodaenko - Russia -- 5,0
2. Valentin Vorovov/Svetlana Goudyno - Russia -- 15,0
3. Gabriele Goffredo/Ester Spada Vecchia - Italy -- 16,0
4. Sergey Oseychuk/Oxana Lebedev - Germany -- 17,0
5. Andrey Kiselev/Daria Zviaguina - Russia -- 22,0
6. Frederico D´Agostinao/Sara Cibelli - Italy -- 30,0
It was a well deserved double win for Russia with great performances. And therefore the first national anthem of the 16th German Open Championships was the Russian one, well performed by Wolf Kaiser and his Big Band,
220 couples gave their eintries for this competition.
The judges:
Horst Beer - Germany
Nicole Burns - Scottland
Karolina Felska - Poland
Natalia Galperina - Russia
Asis Khadjeh-Nouri - Germany
Adalberto Dell´Orto - Italy
Espen Salberg Norway
Brian Torner - Canada
Hirotada Torii - Japan
Youth Standard: 1. Cosimo Caramia/Antonella De Carolis - Italy -- 9,0
2. Sergey Konovaltsev/Olga Konovaltseva - Russia -- 11,0
3. Abdrei Chubarev/Veronika Vlassova - Russia -- 12,0
4. Denys Drozdyuk/Polina Kolodizner - Germany -- 20,0
5. Sergiu Rusu/Mirona Gliga - Romania -- 24,0
6. Oliver Rehder and Jasmin - Germany -- 29.0
Judges:
Peter Beinhauser, Germany
Shu Ming Chen, China
Sergey Douvanov, Russia
Anne Gleave, England
Rüdiger Knaack, Germany
Guido Maero, Italy
Andrew Sinkinson, England
Jörg-Henner Thurau, Germany
Krzystof Wasilewski, Poland
227 couples made their entries to this competition. The finalist could state with their great performance, that they belong to the best Youth couples of the World
The third event was Professional Seque. Here the results:
1. Markus Klaus/Patricia Deutscher - Germany/Augsburg
2. Oliver Seefeld/Anna Moosmann - Germany/Berlin
3. Oleg Romanov/Elvira Romanova - Russia
4. Roland und Ekaterina Michtchenko - Canada
5. Chris Bernaards/Diaa De L´eau - Niederlande
6. Stefan Meißner/Maike Ebsen - Germany/Hamburg
For the first time in the history of the GOC one couple was disqualified because he had one lift too much in his performance. Despite a warning in the pre-rounds he did not change it. It was a pity because in my opinion this Seque was the best. The organisers acted very fair and gave the Russians Oleg Negru/Maria Ermatchkova the possibility to perform their Seque without marking after the competitions. They got a great applause which proved my theory.
10th GOC-Award "La Dance" to Jukka Haapaleinen and Sirpa Suutari
Professional top couple shortly before their last start of their career.
After 12 years success with the Professionals in the Latin American Dances Jukka Haapaleinen and Sirpa Suutari, the European Champions of 1997 and 1998, Vice European Champs of 1999 and 2000 and Vice World Champions from 1999 till 2001 will resign from actively participating in International DanceSport here in Mannheim at the GOC. In an interview of the Rhein-Neckar Television the two Finish Champions stated, that ending their career here in Mannheim has a special personal importance. Still to-day they are addressed because of their unique Rumba Seque in the year 1991. This performance was one reason that they were awarded during this years opening ceremony with the 10 years jubilee award. "There are many personalities who would have deserved this award. Even more we are honoured that we will be awarded this year. And it makes us so proud" was the comment of the two Professional dancers. "The German audience always accepted us very cordially" added Sirpa and Jukka continued, "that the phantastic atmosphere in the Mannheim Rosengarten" will always stay in their memory.
During their DanceSport career the two sympathetic Finnish dancers danced on all Continents and surrounded several times the Globe. Now that is finished! But they will stay with dancing. "There is a project with the Finish television and then we intend to intensively work as trainers and furthermore go on with dancing ourselves. Shows will be our main performances in the future. We are in connection with a musician who will compose music especially for us", added Sirpa and went off with a smile. Then they will participate in their last competition. The GOC is very proud. Dance News congratulates Jukka and Sirpa for the honourable GOC Award!
Werner J. Braun |
