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The doors to the lobby of the Manhattan Center opened at 2:30 pm on Friday afternoon, January 18, to receive the first group of MAC 2008 attendees. Two days later, on Sunday evening, the last event, the Junior II Championship Latin was danced at a few minutes past 9 pm. By 10:30 pm, the stage was taken apart, the dance floor -- which withstood the pounding of more than 1000 pairs of feet over the weekend -- was disassembled and carted away. All the equipment and paraphernalia used to run the country's largest all-amateur multi-age multi-category DanceSport competition were boxed up and put into the trunks of cars and backs of vans. The graceful movements and the elegant costumes, the pounding beats of the music, the din of the excited spectators in the stands all seemed like a distant dream.

Yet between the start and end of the biggest MAC to date, we saw not just the largest number of couples to compete at any MAC ever run, we saw some wonderful dancing. From MAC to MAC, the quality of dancing at all levels seems to just get better and better. It is gratifying to see couples that started dancing the MAC as newcomers only a few years ago now excelling either in silver or gold events, perhaps even open events. A similar sense of gratification can be felt on Sunday, during the junior portion of the MAC, as we see kids who started at pre-teen now dancing in junior or youth as teenagers, developing into some strong, fine dancers. As MAC turned 18, so it seemed did many of its competitors.

On Friday night, our flagship event was the Adult Latin, which saw the appearance of Eugene Katsevman and Maria Manusova, not as competitors, but as presenters of the Latin Perpetual Trophy that they endowed. The first winners of the Eugene and Maria Latin Trophy are Stanislav Savich and Elijah Piker. Congratulations to Stas and Elijah, whose names will be first ones engraved on the base of that new perpetual trophy.

On Saturday night, our flagship event was the Adult Standard, and we were treated to a first round of nearly 40 of the best Standard couples from not just the Northeast but all different parts of the country. After that first round was danced, Tony Meredith and Melanie LaPatin, former United States Professional Latin champions and 12 time representatives of the United States in world competition, were on hand to present the awards to the finalists of the Youth Latin Championships, the event that they sponsored. A couple of hours later, after some strongly contested quarter- and semi-finals, the final round of the Adult Standard was danced, and the team of Ronen Zinshstein and Mariam Izmaylova took first place. Bill Davies, former United States Professional Standard Champion and sponsor of the Standard Perpetual Trophy, was on hand to present the awards in that event.

On Saturday afternoon, after a full day of syllabus events that started at 8:00 am, we closed the day with the MAC Grand Slam Team Match. The perpetual trophy in that event was endowed by the Greater NY Chapter of USA Dance, and after dancing a semi-final with 12 teams, Team Dance Chelsea took first place to be the second team to have their names engraved on the Team Match trophy.

All the results from all the events have been posted and available on-line.

We thank everyone who participated in MAC 2008 -- the competitors, spectators, judges, officials, donors, VIPs, vendors and volunteers, all of whom made the biggest MAC to date possible. I would like to thank especially the Board of the Greater NY Chapter and the members of the MAC Organizing Committee for putting in all the long hours necessary to pull off MAC 2008. We could not have done it without your dedication and energy. Thank you!

(Photo, above r., by B. Sherman.)

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Notes from the NDCA Gala Lectures: A couple of weeks ago, at the NDCA 60th Anniversary Gala at the Roosevelt Hotel, one of the activities that was open to the public were a series of lectures presented by some of the top dance professionals in the country, including United States Rhythm Champions Jose DeCamps and Joanna Zacharewicz and Latin champions Max Kozhevnikov and Beata. If you were not able to make it, Eva Wu has kindly agreed to write up her notes from the lectures and share them with us. To see Eva's notes, read this post. (Thanks, Eva!)

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On the social front:

• Tonight, Jan. 22, LIDance Salsa Contest at Club 56 in Farmingdale, LI. Win cash prizes and prestige! Doors open for dancing at 7 pm, contest starts at 8:30 pm. For more details, check this post.
• Saturday, Jan. 26, Swing 'n Salsa at Club 412/YSBD, on 8th Ave. and 31st. Dancing starts at 8 pm. Details available on this post.

For other suggestions, see Wayne's Dance Commentary and NJoyDancing News & Notes.

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Reminder: America's Ballroom Challenge premieres next Wednesday, January 30, on PBS. Check your local listings.

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That does it for this edition. See you on the dance floor!

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Yang Chen
President
Greater NY
USA Dance
(NYUSABDA)
www.nyusabda.org
www.nyusabda.org/forums-df
yang.chen@nyusabda.org