Showtime In Seoul

A Report by Shawn and Gladys Tay

Ten of our champions in the WDSF Standard, Latin and Professional Divisions will remember the ”Hyundai Card Super Match 12 – DanceSport” as a most important event whereby our DanceSport champions were honoured at one of the greatest DanceSport shows in the world.

The “Hyundai Card Super Match 12-DanceSport” is certainly the biggest DanceSport show ever staged. The 8,000-strong audience set the stage for a most memorable performance for both our top athletes as well as their fans who packed the newly renovated SK Handball stadium in the Olympic Park of South Korea over the 2-day show.

The organiser, SEMA Sports Marketing, is a top marketing agency in Korea that represents Hyundai Card, a subsidiary of the business giant Hyundai. SEMA is also an event organizer that has brought in renowned names like Andrea Bocelli and Whitney Houston to Korea. The Super Match is a sports event organized annually by SEMA, which has included the superstars in Golf and Tennis in past events. This year, SEMA has introduced DanceSport into their Super Match series.

SEMA first contacted KFD, our member body in Korea, Sutu Ok from KFD was tasked to coordinate the project between SEMA and the WDSF. The plan was finalized only in early October. I had the unenviable task of putting up a team that will impress the organiser in just one week.

All athletes arrived two days before the event and spent a day rehearsing the show in the stadium. There was a special request from the organizer to have all our athletes dancing to a very famous Korean song “Nobody”. All our athletes put in great effort in learning the closing show number. Both my wife Gladys and I had the greatest pleasure of choreographing and working with the team of most enthusiastic champions. In the evening, 4 couples - Domenico and Gioia, Benedetto and Claudia, Alexei and Anna, Zoran and Tatsiana - were invited to run a special workshop in the most up-market shopping arcade ‘The Time Square’. Many entries were received from the eager participants. Through a special selection process which included me as a judge through the internet, 6 couples were selected to receive free coaching during the Dance Box workshop at the Times Square. The organizer set up a very elaborate stage with a first-class dance floor and a full video wall with TV coverage. The public was given a chance to watch a short demonstration by our champions and witness how a DanceSport lesson is being conducted.

On the first day of the show, all couples presented three of their favorite show numbers. The crowd was extremely warm and receptive, making it a little difficult for each of our champions to leave the floor after every number. Eventually three numbers were cancelled as the show exceeded the broadcast time of the television. The entire event was broadcasted by two out of three television stations in Seoul.

The second day of the show was held earlier at four in the afternoon. The crowd seemed to be even more energetic than before. Each couple performed two numbers of their own. In all, the closing number with the Korean song made the audience go wild. It was really a most memorable number as there will not be another occasion that ten famous WDSF champions will come together for such a performance. At the end of the show, while we were taking a group photo, hundreds of fans rushed down to the floor but had to be stopped by the security guards. Some were lucky enough to get to shake hands with our champions and this is definitely a moment for all to remember.

For me, seeing four of our PD champions working together with six of our Standard and Latin champions in great harmony gave me the greatest satisfaction and the assurance that we are in one big WDSF family.

And Shawn also sent us a video!

Very often when news cannot get the best pictures, they still have to use whatever material they can get! This is what I have got from my own camera in between organising the show - just in case we get nothing in the end. You should use this and if we are lucky enough, SEMA marketing will keep their promise to give some videos to us ...

Shawn

Published on 1 December 2011