For the first time in a World Championship Jazz and Modern Dance, that took place in the Rittal Arena in Wetzlar, in the final no World Champion could be determined. In the category Solo female Juniors Kate Bonello (Canada) and Neja Horvat (Slovenia) had to dance again, fighting for the sought-after gold medal. In the end, Neja won the title with a four-to-three-decision by the judges. Chocolat Modern (ASV Wuppertal) made it to the final.
Patrick and Sabrina van der Meer were the only German couple that danced into a final in Helsinki, Finland. They finished 4th in the WDSF Senior II Standard competition. The award ceremony was accompanied by a fire alarm in the hotel, that was cleared shortly after as there had only been a disturbance in the car park.
Ten finals and two medals for Team Germany
The World Championship started with the ballet competitions in the categories Solo/Duo/Group and Formations. The first dancer started in the town hall in Wetzlar at 9 o’clock in the morning, the last award ceremony finished 12 hours later. The day included 15 finals and in the end auf the award ceremonies it was predominantly the Canadian national anthem that could be listened.
It was a first for the German Championship Senior to be organized only in the afternoon. The reason was a foreseeable low number of participating couples.
On the first day of the Jazz and Modern Dance Festival in Saarlouis the children and their German National Cup were the centre point. The freshly renovated and only recently reopened theatre offered a huge scene to the youngest JMD dancers.
On Saturday, 1.10.16, the first decisions at the pilot scheme “Jazz qualification” were made in Saarlouis. As in international competitions the categories Jazz and Modern are held separately and also in parts do have different rules, the DTV had decided to split the qualification for the World Championship this year that will take place in Wetzlar.
107 couples were starting at noontime in Berlin. Already from the beginning it was clear that there would be a new title holder as the reigning champions of the German National Cup did not take part in the competition. Without a star Bernd Farwick/Petra Voosholz showed already with their first dance their ambitions to the title.
In the Hungarian Kistelek Horst and Patricia Beckmann were taking part in the Senior II Standard competition and finished 2nd. As the only German couple Holger and Birgit Staub participated in the Senior II Standard competition in the Estonian Tallinn and were given the 6th place there.
46 couples representing 20 countries danced in the Stadthalle Wetzlar on September 24th for the title of Under 21 World Champion 10 Dance. Out of them also ten couples representing Germany. In the national ranking, Michael Ziga / Victoria Sauerwald took the lead, unfortunately they only finished 23rd. After the first round the WDSF judging system 2.1. was used, twelve adjudicators were employed.
German couples dominated the World Championship Show Dance Standard by winning the Gold and the Silver Medal for Tanzsport Deutschland. At the World Championship Show Dance Latin, the fourth place went to the Germany.