Last month, Simeon and I travelled to Columbus, Ohio to compete at the 2018 Ohio Star Ball. This competition is the largest competition in the USA. Many Americans remember from the 1990’s and early 2000’s watching something on PBS called “America’s Ballroom Challenge”. Well, interestingly, “America’s Ballroom Challenge” was a completely made-up competitions based on footage gathered at the Ohio Star Ball. In fact, I’ve never actually seen “America’s Ballroom Challenge” on TV. I’ve only ever seen it from the competitors’ side of the Ohio Star Ball.
By the way, if you prefer to watch a video of our time at the Ohio Star Ball, you can do that on our YouTube channel right here!
I started going to the Ohio Star Ball in the early 1990’s, when my parents were competing. Even then, the competition was a monster. Nobody who was anybody missed this competition. When Simeon and I started competiting together, we danced at the Ohio Star Ball every year of our amateur career. Only as Professionals, we missed it twice because we needed to represent Bulgaria at World Championships when it was held on the same weekend.
Speaking of World Championships, we represented the USA at the 2018 World 10-Dance Championships, which you can read about here, or watch our video on our YouTube channel!
The 2018 Ohio Star Ball
This year, we competed at the 2018 Ohio Star Ball for the 19th time together. I have literally grown up at this competition. It’s so much fun to take students and kids with us and watch them dance the same events we danced when we were their age. When we danced the Under 21 events, we were in the top three of both events (Latin and Standard). It’s nostalgic to watch our students dancing those same events now.
One of our Youth couples, Anton and Maria, are showing so much potential and improvement! They have such great work ethic, they really push themselves to improve. Unfortunately, they did not make the final of the Under 21 event this year. But we thought they definitely could have. Still, they are a new couple. They have only been dancing together for 6 months, so we are positive that results will soon follow.
We also had a top Amateur couple from our studio go to Ohio Star Ball as well. This couple is a new edition to our studio and we are so excited to have them. They are amazing dancers and I’ll make sure to post some updates about them as well. Their names are Mikhail and Natallia, but you can just call them Misha and Natasha. As competitors, they have so much potential and I really feel they are going to go far! In fact, at this year’s Ohio Star Ball, they finished 2nd in the Open Amateur Standard! That is an amazing result and we are so proud of them!
Our Results at the 2018 Ohio Star Ball
Although we really enjoyed dancing the 2018 Ohio Star Ball, it was a bittersweet moment for us. We did not make the semi-finals of the Open Professional Standard this year, and that was definitely a disappointment. The Open Professional fields are packed with great couples these days, and it definitely makes it difficult to gain much traction with results.
To make things even more disappointing, we were unable to dance the Open Professional Latin due to Simeon getting a bad bout of food poisoning. On the day of the Professional Latin, he went to the competition to watch the kids and support our couples. On the way back to the hotel, we went to a restaurant to eat. Normally we are good about choosing the restaurants. We never eat seafood, and we stick to those restaurants that have good reviews.
Well, despite the good reviews, Simeon was soon curled up in bed with liquid rady to spew out of both ends. You now the feeling! Let’s just say… jumping and jiving when you’re leaking foul liquids is not the best idea! So we unfortunately had to scratch the Open Latin. Of course, after writhing and vomiting, he was great the next morning for our flight! In fact, he was starving and ready for a good breakfast! Such is the nature of food poisoning, right?
Heading Home from the 2018 Ohio Star Ball
We had an early flight Sunday morning. Early as in… at the airport by 5 in the morning! The best part about these huge competitions is seeing everyone at the airport. I always like to imagine what it’s like from non-dancers’ points of view. As we’re going through the check-in lines, security, etc, we keep saying “Good morning!” to each other, kissing each other on the cheek, and offering shared comisseration of our mutual exhaustion. I imagine it would be quite funny to other people.
Did you enjoy the article? Remember, you’re more than welcome to watch our video of the Ohio Star Ball on our YouTube channel right here. And if you really liked it, go ahead and subscribe to our email newsletter! You’ll receive post updates, exclusive dancesport content, and more! Until next time!
Follow me on social media:
