As Posted in:  Newswire.net April 14, 2014

The 9-day British Open to the World Blackpool Dance Festival is the world's first and most famous annual international ballroom dance competition. The number of participants from more than 60 different countries, is expected to be well over 3,000.

The British Open to the World Dance Festival covering a period of nine days is the largest ballroom competition in the world. The Festival covers Ballroom and Latin American dancing, incorporating the British Open Championships for Adult Amateur and Professional couples.

The 9-day Blackpool Dance Festival is the world's first and most famous annual ballroom dance competition of international significance, held at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, England since 1920. It is also the largest competition: in 2013 the event was 88th years and there were 60 countries represented. A total number of 2,953 entries in the 12 events.

It is to be expected that the number of entries this year will grow to well over 3,000. This means that more than 1,500 couples are already preparing for their most important competition of the season.

Ballroom dancing as a competive sport has grown in propularity among the mainstream audience. Not in the least due to the top ranking prime time television shows Dancing With The Stars in the U.S. and Strictly Come Dancing in England.

Dance competitors of all levels will compete at the British Open but it is to be expected that only national champions have a shot at the title. Professional Latin U.S. Champions and reigning Professional World Latin Champions Yulia Zagoruychenko and Riccardo Cocchi came in second last year, but are top favorite to go home with the title of British Open Champions Professional Latin this year.

To prepare for a prestigious competition as the Blackpool festival is a matter of careful planning and dedication in practice and lessons, but it also requires teamwork. This testify current Professional Dutch Latin ChampionsDebbie Krewinkel and Remi Janssen. They are finalist and semi finalist in multiple international competitions and state that their achievements would not have been possible without careful planning and teamwork. Krewinkel and Janssen are working for years with an international team of coaches Barbara McColl from England, Erik Kock from the Netherlands and Jean Dorff from the U.S.A. each are top coaches in their own field for expertise.

Remi Janssen says that the challenge and attraction of competitive dancing lies in the fact that it's not just about finishing your rounds, it is more so about dancing them as if it doesn't take any effort. Jean Dorff claims: where in many sports movement is just a mean to a goal, like scoring a point in basketball, this is not the case with competitive ballroom dancing. In dancing the movement itself is the goal and the dancers are judged on the quality of the movement whereas in other sports scoring a point is first priority.

With millions of dance enthusiast around the world in the social, amateur and professional arena, one can only wonder why dance competitions like Blackpool are not yet broadcasted on mainstream television. I'm sure that many people would like to see how champions like Ricardo and Yulia and Remi and Debbie defend their national colors on live television.

The Blackpool British open to the world ballroom dance competition will be held from May 22nd through May 30th 2014 as the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, England.