Rumba

Background story.. a 3-year lap!

UK Open Championships, January 2020

Successfully performing at the Semi-Final of the Professionals RS competition, Daniel and Zhanna, like many other dancers, couldn’t even imagine that their newly begun professional career would be followed by 1,5 year of closed borders, studios, home doors.

Covid-19 Pandemic was an extreme challenge:

2 months of solo training each in their own apartment — several months of solo outside training — another couple of months of again (!) outside training, being able to meet each other only 2 times a week, — all that and many other challenges for both mind and body. After a year of this sort of schedule they were able to return into studios, but on and off quarantine still would affect the work of dance training halls.

Only in June, 2021 they started to prepare for Blackpool Dance Festival, which was held that year in August, 2021. Quite great deal of obstacles in documentation and travel restrictions made the road to this competition far from easy. However, DZ made it and made Final in the Professionals RS competition and the following autumn was filled with a lot of dancing — comps, camps and great results.

Who knew, that right after that, because of the turbulence of this world, Daniel and Zhanna would not be able to travel. Again.. for 4 months at first, then only partly, but up until May 2023. Although in the previous summer they managed to dance several competitions, including winning a comp in Portugal and being 8th at the European Championship, for another 9 months no travelling was possible.

19th of May 2023 — 13 days before the day of their competition — is when DZ knew that they can go back to compete. As history repeats itself, again, in total after 1,5 year of not being able to train with any teachers or participating in major competitions in UK Daniel and Zhanna are back in Blackpool.