Magazine-April-06-QXD6 (Page 1 - 2) - EADA

Katya: We always try to keep our mind open toother dance forms to have better understandingof dancing in general. At the moment we arebusy with learning swing dances such as boogiewoogie, lindy hop, to help us understand anddevelop our jive. We also do stretching - Neil isgetting a lot better!Whereabouts do you practice and havelessons?Neil: We have lessons with our teachers here inLondon. While we are in the UK we practice inSemley or in Dance Options, and while wetravelling abroad we just try to find a place forpractice, even if it is at a bus stop! In Russia wepractice mainly in the studio where Katya used todance.What is your favourite dance?Neil: I love jive the most, because of the energyand you can have fun with it and let go.Katya: I can't choose! I always try to findsomething in each dance to make it 'mine', bringmy style in it, especially when I don't feel onedance as much as another. I really enjoy thisprocess of searching and making it into myfavourite.Had you been focussing on something inparticular before British Open - or is there anypreparation you do for a majorchampionships?Neil: The two main things we do before anymajor championship are working on ourconnection and fitness training. To build upstamina we do lots of practice finals to make surethat we feel confident and ensure that our lastdance is just as good as our first dance on theday.Katya: Before Blackpool we were hoping to makethe semi-finals again after our UK Open result.Normally we set a goal we want to reach, beforethe UK open it was to win the Rising Stars and bein the semi final. So after getting this result wewanted to keep this semi for the whole year, butjust before Blackpool we changed our minds, anddecided why not trying to push for the final.What do you do when you are not dancing?Katya: I still study at the University of Culture andArts in St Petersburg, which is really hard for me18as I'm away a lot. If I have any free time I go backto Russia and try my best to cover everythingI've missed - I've got 2 more years of the courseto go.Neil: Dancing takes all our time because we alsotry to learn other dance forms as well, but if wehave time to relax we like to go to the cinemaand watch movies with friends.What do you think we need to do in thiscountry to get more English couples intointernational finals?Neil: The main thing is the dancers themselvesneed to change their mind set, there are noexcuses because we have the best teachers andplaces to practice, they just have to have thishunger to win. If we have bad result we don'tblame anyone, we just go back to the studio andwork even harder.Katya: Dancers as they growing up need tosearch for their personality and their individualityand build it up more and more, decide what dothey want to bring out to people, and have astrong belief in themselves.Kyle Taylor & Liis End3rd Under 21 Ballroom British Open 2009When and how did you start dancing andwhen did you start dancing together?Kyle: I started dancing when I was 4 years oldand at first I really didn't have any interest in it.My parents have their own dance school andwhilst they were teaching I used to have to cometo the dance school with them. One day a few ofthe older pupils invited me to try and join in theclass so I did and I actually found the whole thingquite enjoyable.Liis: I was a similar age when I started. Mymother owns a dance school in Estonia so I grewup with dancing in the family.Kyle: We started dancing together in Marchthis year.What is your typical practice/trainingschedule like?Kyle: We are lucky because my parents havetheir dance school we are able to practiseContinued Page 22