The Championships
The main focus of the competition year for all athletes are the four major championships held at regular intervals, where the very best couples in Adult and Professional compete for the honour of each Championship title:
The International Championships
The Universal Championships
The Star Championships
Only the best is good enough for the couples that aspire to reach the top and the Championship events cater for this necessity - the best dance music, the most prestigious judges, an atmosphere of elegance and glamour, lights and a specially-mounted dance floor over a four-day festival of the best of dancesport.
International Championship 2021 - Professional Latin (Left to Right): Olga Cacciari, 1) Gabriele Goffredo & Anna Matus - Moldova, 2) Mario Cecinati & Rosaria Messina denaro - Italy, 3) Giovanni Cavallo & Maldivia Polini - Italy, 4) Luca Santoro & Elettra Paniccia - Italy, 5) Manuel Longhitano & Moira Lorenzon - Italy, 6) Alex Salvador & Alice Chiocchi - Australia
The championship season begins with the Italian Open Championships, held in June in the beach-side Italian resort of Cervia, where dancers, judges and teachers can take in the sun before absorbing the atmosphere of this competition, which inlcudes 10-dance events for dancers who compete in both international styles. At the beggining of autumn, dancers head to the famous resort town of Porto Roz in Slovenia for the Interntaional Championships where the glamour of a competition can fully be appreciated. January sees the Universal Championships held in the Veneto region and dancers flocking to Padua to compete for this important title. The competition season reaches its climax with the Star Championships, held together with the Syllabus World Championships in spring, and is this title to which all dancers aspire.
International Championship 2021 - Professional Standard (Left to Right): Claudia Koehler, Olga Cacciari, 1) Nikolay Darin & Natalia Seredina - Moldova, 2) Andres Liiv & Kristin Vaha - Estonia, 3) Domenico Aliberti & Roberta Cardone - Italy, 4) Igor Ammosov & Liubov Vasileva - Russian Federation, 5) Marco Chieregato & Giulia De Maio - Italy, 6) Jacopo Casotto & Patricia Martinez - Spain
At each championship, the main title events, Adult and Professional Standard and Latin American have an extra element of excitement added: the dancers are called to the final dance by dance, meaning every mark counts. Emotions run high after each dance as each couple hopes to be called to the floor while those already on the floor hope to hear those famous words: 'Stay on the floor!'
International Championship 2021 - Adult Open Latin (Left to Right): Olga Cacciari, 1) Marius-Andrei Balan & Khrystyna Moshenska - Germany, 2) Charles-Guillaume Schmitt & Elena Salikhova - France, 3) Edgar Marcos Borjas & Alina Nowak - Poland, 4) Stefano Mendolia & Oxana Kononova - Italy, 5) Francesco Esposito & Svetlana Kononenko 6) Raffaello Brancato & Mishel Magera - Italy
The importance of these championships is highlighted not only by the highest quality dancing by the highest quality couples, but by the esteemed adjudicators, past champions and expert teachers in the world of dancesport who surround the dance floor to admire and encourage the dancers dressed in their finest gowns, enriching the feeling of greatness to which the dancers themselves aspire.
International Championship 2021 - Adult Open Standard (Left to Right): Olga Cacciari, 1) Francesco Galuppo & Debora Pacini - Italy, 2) David Odstrcil & Tara Bohak - Czech Republic, 3) Roberto Carano & Francesca Francini - Italy, 4) Emanuele Massacci & Jenni Heikkila - Finland, 5) FKazuki Sugawara & Laura Collavizza - Japan 6) Egor Starchenko & Daria Rodina - Russian Federation