Memories of the Roseland with Daria Zotova and Dmitri Dolgolpolov

This year's Empire Dancesport Championships were held at the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square. I've attended this event several times over the years and have enjoyed the many changes. While attending this year, I thought back to the many memories that I've had attending this event.

Unlike other events which are more settled with tradition, Empire seems to keep changing with each passing year. The event has changed ownership, location, style, size, hotel, and website.

This year's location was definitely top notch, although I do miss the days when it was held in the Historic Roseland Ballroom. 

Here's a link to an earlier blog entry about the Roseland's closing:

http://ballroomdlist.blogspot.com/2014/06/roseland-ballroom-closing-nyc.html?m=1

I danced my first ever professional events at the Roseland Ballroom when Empire was held there. I was dancing with Daria Zotova at the time, this was years before she met, and later married, Kirill Gorjatsev.

Here's a photo of the Roseland when it was host to The Empire Dancesport Championships.

Here's a photo from our first trip to Empire. Next to me are fellow dancers, Jose Salva, Daria Zotova, and Dmitri Dolgolpolov. Daria and Dmitri were dating as long time sweethearts, at the time. They had known each other since their school days, and had come to America together. Daria, with an extensive ballet background, was working for a family as a nanny. She had never danced ballroom before, when she answered a newspaper ad for Arthur Murray Severna Park. Later, the studio made us partners in training class.  Dmitri came to the U.S. on a student visa. He also lived with Daria's host family at that time, and worked as a gas station attendant. Although he did competitive trampoline jumping in Russia, he also had no ballroom background when he came to America. This photo was taken before the Dmitri even started dancing. He accompanied us on the trip to New York, and I believe that it inspired him to start his dance career. When we returned from New York, Daria was adamant that the studio hire him, which they did a few weeks later. It wasn't long after Empire, that the studio scheduled me to give Dmitri his teacher training classes. He learned very quickly, and now he's a very successful dance professional today.

Our trip to NYC and the Roseland Ballroom was a happy time for me. I enjoyed working at the studio in Severna Park. Ron Bennett had sent me there, after many years of his coaching me as an amateur competitor. I never thought that I could achieve a professional career so late in life, after wasting so many years in the Navy, the last two which were spent recovering from a near fatal accident in the Indian Ocean, which nearly took my right leg.

Dancing with Daria at the Roseland was beyond a bucket list item, beyond what I ever dreamed. After my accident in the Navy, I couldn't have dreamed the possibility.

We were scheduled in the Future Champions Division. At the time this was a division offered for professional development, in other words,

It was a division for Professional Newcomers! Although it sounds like a contradiction of terms, it's really not.  It was a category created for people dancing pro for the first time. I really wish that more events would offer this division, it would do wonders for the industry.

When we arrived in NYC I got to meet Sarwat Kaluby for the first time, he was very welcoming. At check in, we learned that our division had been moved from the evening, the next day, early Sunday morning. So we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening exploring NYC.

When we arrived the next morning, we realized that we were dancing to an empty ballroom. There were other couples in the division but zero people in the audience. At the end of our rounds, there was one person clapping in the audience. After we got dressed, that one person who was seated in the audience, took the time to introduce himself and thank each and every person for coming. That person was Edward Simon.

Daria and I were both so impressed that the organizer of the event would wake up  so early, just to thank the dancers in a newcomer division, for their support. It was an inspiring moment for both of us, especially after seeing him for so many years from an audience point of view. Edward Simon gave all the pro couples feedback that morning before they left the ballroom, I think everyone who participated that day left feeling inspired. Although it's sad that the Roseland is gone now, it's nice to have so many happy memories there.