1st KL International Dance Festival 2007

The first of it's kind in Asia to bring together a wide variety of dance forms under one roof including Lion Dance, Hip Hop, Tap, Capoeira, Middle Eastern Dance, Break Dancing, Shuffle, Jazz, Ballroom, Latin, Salsa, Argentine Tango, and many more...

This was a celebration of music, of dance and of life. For one week from 4th -10th June 2007, dancers from all walks of life descended onto the Berjaya Times Square Shopping Mall Concourse sharing their passion for dance with the whole world.

DanceSport, which will include the prestigious IDSF World Ranking Open for the 1st time in Malaysia which will see couples from all over the world vying to maintain or improve their world ranking positions. It's going to be a tough battle for many of them which makes it all the more exciting to watch!

Here are some photos from the event.







Getting Personal with the participants


Amidst the sea of crowds at the event, I was fortunate to meet some international participants and spoke to them. 1st time in Malaysia, Chiu Hsiao-Te and Wu Chia-Ying came all the way from Taiwan to participate in the 1st Malaysian IDSF Open World Ranking DanceSport Championship. Chiu has been dancing for 6 years while Wo, for 3 years. It's also interesting to know that they have only coupled up as dance partners 4 months ago but they displayed incredible dancing skills during the competition.


I met this trio Diana, Abdo and Renata at the event too ... and not only they are friendly, I've learnt something from them too. That is ... Syrian girls are really cute. Ok, that wasn't meant to be said out loud but I did. So bite me.

But seriously speaking, I believe these folks are really young but their dancing skills are .... outstanding ! Words could not describe how beautifully they performed ! Bravo .. Syrians !
Of course, these folks went through years of practises .... ballet background I think. Professionally, they have been dancing and performing for 2 years.


A little about ISDF (International DanceSport Federation)

DanceSport denotes dance as a sport activity. Initially this term was applied to competitive ballroom dancing, in its International Style. Ballroom dancing was extremely popular during the 1910's.


The International DanceSport Federation, or IDSF, is an international governing body for amateurs, while the World Dance & DanceSport Council (WD&DSC) is an international governing body for dance professionals.

Amateur Dancesport is of a high standard around the world. Student dancesport in particular enjoys some great popularity around the world, particularly in the UK where some 20,000 students are members of the Inter Varsity Dance Association, or IVDA.

Since 1997 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has officially recognized the dancesport as sport, with IDSF becoming an IOC Recognized International Sports Federation. The IDSF strongly pushes for the inclusion of dancesport as a medal sport in the Olympic Games. However the decision of the IOC is negative so far. It is in force only until the 2012 Olympics and subject to reconsideration afterwards.

List of DanceSport dances available here.