Nathan and Polina - Seattle Ballroom Dancing Kids

February 2011.

A big thank you to all our "Dance With Us!" guests and performers!

From the bottom of our hearts we want to thank all our "Dance With Us!" guests and performers for an unforgettable evening of live music, gymnastic performances and of course, ballroom dancing!

A warm thank you to our teachers Yegor Novikov and Ekaterina Zakharoff (yegorekaterina.com), Elena Zakharova, and a very special thank you to our teacher Sergei Nekrasov who led the dance lesson intermissions and also performed with Nina Nikolova, Alyssa Murstein, Jessica Petrochuck and Kristina Endrikhovskaia. We thank Paul Stoval and Leah Garakanidze, Danilo Kurgan and Margarita Krivocheva, Nicole Garakanidze and Maria Bessonova, Ivan Shneerson and Polina Zaytseva and all talanted dancers who stepped out on the floor that evening (including you, our guests, for dancing with us during the blitz dance lessons!).

Our special thank you to Vidas Svagzhdis, the "VBB" Boys Band with soloist Nicole Garakanidze and International Rhythmic Gymnastics & Ballet Studio gymnasts Saffi Watson, Romana Vasilega and their teacher Tiana Grow.

We thank you for your generous support of our upcoming trips to the 2011 Junior Blackpool World Dance Festival in the UK and the US National Dance Sport Championship in Baltimore, MD in April 2011. What an incredible outpouring! We couldn't make it without you.
Thanks again for everything, but most especially your friendship.

Much love,
Nathan, Polina and families.

January 2011.

"Dance With Us!" Ballroom Dance Show on January 23rd at 3:00 pm.

Join us for an unforgettable evening of live music and ballroom dancing featuring regional, US national, and world champions and finalists: Yegor Novikov and Ekaterina Zakharoff (yegorekaterina.com), Sergei Nekrasov and Nina Nikolova, Paul Stoval and Leah Garakanidze, Danilo Kurgan and Margarita Krivocheva, Nathan Murstein and Polina Dickenson, and many other talanted dancers.

Also on program: Learn basic ballroom and latin steps in a fun-filled blitz dance lesson; Enjoy performances of "VBB" Boys Band with soloist Nicole Garakanidze; and performances of International Rhythmic Gymnastics & Ballet Studio gymnasts.

Our dear guests, we thank you for your generous support of our upcoming trips to the 2011 Junior Blackpool World Dance Festival in the UK and the US National Dance Sport Championship in Baltimore, MD in April 2011. What an incredible outpouring!

We are training hard and will try to win!

Thanks again for everything, but most especially your friendship.

November 5, 2010.

We are on KING 5 Evening Magazine

In November we appeared on the KING 5 EVENING MAGAZINE TV.

"Two ten year-olds, sparkling with sequins are making it big on the dancefloor at a National Ballroom competion in SeaTac.

You can gaze through the glare of the sequins and see that the smallest couple there are actually the ones going big! Despite their age, they're very serious and mature on the dance floor. They perform with confidence gliding across the floor to the tango, fox trot, and waltz with practiced confidence.

With a secret handshake and a talent for dancing they're well on their way to stardom."

Article by by MICHAEL KING, Seattle Evening Magazine.

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November 2010.

Excitement, Drama, Fun ... It's all here!

In October we had both competitions and performances. We competed at the Northwest DanceSport Regional Championships in Seattle. It was a qualifying event for the 2011 USA Dance National DanceSport Championships in April of 2011. We are looking forward (and are working hard!) to prepare for this big competition in Baltimore, MD.

We had a Halloween show at Oly's Dance studio in Everett. It was so exciting and funny! Everybody was dressed up in costumes. We perform our "Beauty and Hooligan" showdance choreographed by our coach Elena Zakharova. (You can watch video of the showdance in our "Video" page.) There also was a costume competition and everybody who dressed up did a parade. Although we didn’t win the Costume contest, we did do great in our dancing and we had tons of wicked fun!

We wish everybody a happy holiday season, and we wish our fellow teammates Tyler Goldman and Sophia Latessa, Erik Linder and Rickie Taylor best of luck on their upcoming media performance!

September 2010.

Autumn is here!

We had a nice summer and now we are looking forward to a new competition season!

In July we went to Los Angles for a lesson from world champions Sammy Stopford and Shirley Ballas. We enjoyed the lessons from them and we feel like we really progressed in our dancing during those lessons. Not only we had the lessons in LA, but also the competition in a (somewhat) neighboring city, Palm Springs. "I think the trip was quite exciting and fun, except for the three to four hour drive from Los Angles to Palm Springs in the arid desert!! (The car was air conditioned though!)" - Polina said. Read short story about Palm Spring and see some photos from the trip on the "Articles" page.

Another competition that was more recent is the Quest for the Best in our hometown Seattle! We have gone to the Quest for the Best many times, the first time in February of 2009! We did very well,placing: 2nd in Pre-teen II Standard, 3rd place in Junior Standard; A tie for 1st place in Pre-Teen II latin, and 1st place without a tie in Junior latin! We're very proud of how we did at that competition and we were impressed by the way some dancers in younger and older categories performed as well.
You can watch video of the jive from Quest for the Best in our "Video" page.

Much love,
Nathan, Polina and families.

April 15th 2010.

We're USA National Champions and Blackpool Semi-Finalists!

Dear Friends!

From the bottom of our hearts thank you for your support of our trip to the Blackpool International Dance Festival in UK and USA Dance National Championship in Los Angeles!

We returned home safely as USA National champions (we took first place in both the Standard and Latin Pre-teen II Silver division, and 3rd and 2nd in Pre-Teen II Gold) and were Blackpool semi-finalists in Cha-cha (best result for US juveniles ever)! More information, videos and photos are forthcoming.

What an incredible and memorable experience it was!!! We were invited to be on the Blackpool team USA next year, and are already hard at work perfecting our dancing. Our heartfelt thanks to our teachers Elena, Ekaterina, Sergei and Olga for their hard work, support and inspiration.

Thanks again for everything, but most especially your friendship.

Much love,
Nathan, Polina and families.

February 21st 2010.

Spectacular! Ballroom Dance Show was a great success!

Dear Friends!

From the bottom of our hearts thank you for your generous support of our upcoming trip to the Blackpool International Dance Festival. What an incredible outpouring! It's going to be a most memorable experience and we will train hard and try to win.

We also wanted to thank all of you who helped us to prepare and organize this event, who donated time and talent to make this show a fun and memorable event.

Our heartfelt thanks to all the performers: Ekaterina Zakharoff and Yegor Novikov (yegorekaterina.com), Sergei Nekrasov, Nina Nikolova, Nathaly Tsapenko, Erik Linder and Rickie Taylor (erikandrickie.com), Paul Stovall and Leah Garakanidze, Maria Bessonova and Nicole Garakanidze, Anna and Dmitry Vasilevsky (artsforhearts.org). You all did a fantastic job!

Thanks again for everything, but most especially your friendship.

Much love,
Nathan, Polina and families.