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Holland Masters is known to be one of the most prestigious dance competitions in Europe. The tournament is held in the large Topsportcentrum Rotterdam, which is part of the city’s stadium complex, which forms the daily setting for the football team Feyenoord Rotterdam. With participation from some of the world’s best dancers, it was a weekend full of excitement, first-class performances and as many as three championships – including two with participation from Bendixen Dans.
7 dancesport couples from Bendixen Dans had made the trip from Copenhagen to Rotterdam, which with its rich culture and history formed the perfect background for this event. Our dancers represented the club and Denmark with pride and elegance.
European Championships Youth Standard
As usual, each country can qualify a maximum of two couples. Once again, both qualified Danish youth couples were from Bendixen Dans. Our talented couple, Tobias & Aleksandra, delivered a strong performance and secured their place in the semi-finals. Here they were placed 12th. The couples in the semi-final are extremely close, which is clearly seen among the judges’ markings, where only a few marks separate 10th-12th places. This marks the couple’s fourth championship semi-final this year. Ahead now await the World Championships in Latin and the World Championships in 10-dance for Youth U19 in respectively November and December, where we hope for at least equally good results.
Valdemar & Amanda, who are still new on the international scene, achieved a good 45th place. The couple got off to a rather unfortunate start and had to go through the redance. The chairperson had decided that only 36 couples should qualify for the 1/8 finals and thus the judges had only 5 marks to give for the next round which must be distributed among 21 couples in the redance. Still, they got enough marks to improve their standard result from the World Championships Youth Standard in Hungary 3 weeks ago by a whopping 3 places.
Great senior results
At the world championships for Senior IV, a total of 120 couples participated, of which one couple was from Bendixen Dans. Kim & Solveig, who took part in their first World Championships for Senior IV Standard, achieved a 94th place and on Sunday they followed up with a 60th place in the Senior IV Open.
For the Senior IIIs, this year they had chosen to do two open tournaments, Saturday and Sunday respectively. Stig & Olga participated both days with great success. The couple danced well and had a great 20th place on Friday. For Saturday’s competition, more couples had joined and the field seemed stronger, but still Stig & Olga managed to hold on to their position and danced their way to a 21st place. Kim and Solveig also decided to dance in the Senior III tournament on Saturday, where they were placed number 53.
A bit unlucky in Rising Stars and International Open
In the adult category, our couple once again showed great dancing. However, the weekend started a bit unluckily with the results in Rising Stars Standard. Lucas & Amalie ended up in a very nice 7th place, but only one mark from the final. The same happened to Valdemar & Amanda, who finished in a nice 26th place, but only two marks from the quarter-finals where 25 couples qualified. The organizers had appointed a total of 17 judges for this category, and therefore it was very unfortunate that there were so few markings missing for the next round. Gustav & Victoria finished on a very approved 9th place in Rising Stars, where a total of 42 couples participated.
Unfortunately, the unlucky results continued a little longer on the next day at the adult standard competition, where the level was extraordinarily high for an International Open. Alexander & Mie ended up in 14th place, just outside the semi-finals. However, the couple delivered great dancing throughout the day which could easily have taken them to the final – but not what the judges wanted on this particular day. Gustav & Victoria and Lucas & Amalie were number 32 and 33 respectively. Thus they beat several couples who were ahead of them in the Rising Stars tournament the day before. Valdemar & Amanda completed Bendixen Dans’ successful weekend with a 64th place in the International Open Standard where as many as 85 couples registered.
In the Latin competition for adults, the level was also higher than usual for an International Open. Still, Lucas and Amalie danced to a great 32nd place, thus repeating their result from Brno last weekend where they got 31st place at the World Open.
Great atmosphere
In addition to the many great results, the weekend offered a good atmosphere and good teamspirit among the Bendixen dancers. It was nice to have so many Bendixen couples, Danish officials and relatives at this competition who could cheer and wave the Danish flag. We have collected some highlights and atmospheric photos from the tournament in this reel: