Some nice videos from Prague Open 2004

[Kaltas]

Hi there :) ... I shot 5 movies of samba performed by finalists of international competition Prague Open 2004 (Adult latin - 102 competitors from many countries).
Here you go, hope you like it :) :

1st - Peter Stokkebroe & Kristina Juel Stokkebroe (Denmark) (http://www.citric.cz/1.Peter_Stokkebroe_&_Kristina_Juel_Stokkebroe(DEN).avi)
2nd - Rafal Maserak & Kamila Kajak (Poland) (http://www.citric.cz/2.Rafal_Maserak_&_Kamila_Kajak(POL).avi)
3rd - Saulius Skambinas & Sandra Kniazeviciute (Lithuania) (http://www.citric.cz/3.Saulius_Skambinas_&_Sandra_Kniazeviciute(LIT).avi)
4th - Jan Voborsky & Albina Zaitseva (Czech Republic) (http://www.citric.cz/4.Jan_Voborsky_&_Albina_Zaitseva(CZE).avi)
6th - Piotr Szelest & Diana Klos (Poland) (http://www.citric.cz/6.Piotr_Szelest_&_Diana_Klos(POL).avi)

Excuse kinda bad quality - it was shot with my digital camera. Also excuse the missing of 5th place - Michal Kostovcik & Kamila Dostalova (Czech Republic) - I ran out of space at my storage card :( .

btw. there was also a couple from USA - Simeon Stoynov & Kora Uczekaj - they finished 38. It's quite unusual to see couples from overseas, it's a pretty long flight to Czech Republic :) ...

[pygmalion]

Thanks for the video. :D What's the ballroom scene like in Prague? Anything interesting you want to share? And, when you get a chance, have a look at the older thread on the cost of private lessons (in the beginners' frequently asked questions at the top of general dance, I think) and post your thoughts. I'm always interested to know how costs stack up from country to country. Makes for some interesting conversations.

[Kaltas]

You're welcome pygmalion :) . Sure I will look to the thread and try to give info about Czech Republic...
Maybe I can describe a ballroom system here in Czech Republic, because it's kinda different from for example USA - so if I told you about Prague's ballroom scene, it would look weird :D .
There is no division between professionals and amateurs. We have only as you would probably call them professionals. Usually you join a club, register in Czech Dancesport Federation, practise for about a year (let's say 3 times a week) or a little bit more and you're fairly prepared for your first competition. You start in the D class which is the lowest one and you have to gain 200 points (that means you have to beat 200 couples, but there are bonuses for good places - semifinals, finals, etc.) and be 5 times in first three couples (it's OK to be only in final round - not in the first three couples - if it's a big competition with great amount of competitors) to get the next class. There are classes D,C,B,A and M (that stands for International, so you can participate in international competitions)...
In Prague there are lots of professional dance clubs/studios especially good in smooth dancing, but the best studios for latin dancing are in Ostrava (which is a city in the west of Czech Republic). Also the Adult latin World Championship 2005 will take place in Ostrava.
We also don't have something you call Social dancing, there are courses teaching you basics of dancing, but it's designated for young people between 15 and 18 years and the quality is very very low. Maybe in Prague you could find one or two studios where they would teach you something like that, but even if you found a studio like that, you wouldn't have an opportunity to practise it, because there are only very few places where you could go and dance cha cha cha, salsa or something - none in my city for example.
The result is, that if you want to dance, you have to join a pro dancing studio and that means, soon or later, you will participate in competitions... This is a habit here :) ...

[Kaltas]

4pygmalion:
you wrote this in the "Cost of private lessons" thread:
My comment is on your medal test. I'm taking a medal exam this week,
and, although I'm working on the silver syllabus, I am required to take the lower-level bronze exam first.
What does this mean? I really don't understand this :shock: ... Could you please explain the system?

[pygmalion]

I promised I'd take a look at this video, kaltas, but haven't been able to. My media viewer doesn't recognize the .avi extension/file type. Has anybody been able to view?

And did you take a look at the ISTD exams thread? I believe, if I remember correctly, that everything about the US medal exams was explained pretty fully there. 8)

[Larinda McRaven]

no, seems the encoder is not compatable with video software I have

[Porfirio Landeros]

no, seems the encoder is not compatable with video software I have

These are encoded with DivX:

http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/

After I installed the minimum codec (be careful, because it asks if you want the google toolbar, and the stand alone DivX player), the videos played in windows media player fine, although, the audio was pretty blown out.

[Larinda McRaven]

Thanks Porfirio, I had tried opening them abut 5 different players. DivX worked great.

[Kaltas]

Yes, it's DivX encoded, because plain AVI file would have about 25 megs :)...

[akira]

hi,
links are not working

[pygmalion]

This is a pretty old thread -- I wonder if the original author even intended to maintain the links for eight months plus. :?