Blackpool begins – watch the Amateur Ballroom

Posted on May 31, 2017

The Blackpool Dance Festival is here! Opening on May 25, and running until June 2, the festival welcomes the ballroom world: more than 60 countries were represented at last year’s festival.

On May 30, new winners Ferdinando Iannaccone and Yulia Musikhina triumphed in the Amateur Latin championships.

You can watch a free livestream of today’s Amateur Ballroom event through DSI TV, free from 11am until 1.15pm. To see more from the competition, subscribe to DSI TV here. Coverage continues this evening, with expert commentary and interviews from 6pm until 11.15pm, and further coverage of the professional Latin and ballroom championships on June 1 and 2. Visit DSI TV’s channel to watch and subscribe.

In our May issue, Nicola Rayner interviews Latin star Maurizio Vescovo, Alison Gallagher-Hughes reports on her time as a dancing extra in the movie Away, which is set in Blackpool, and Jack Reavely looks back at the history of Blackpool Dance Festival. Look out for full coverage of the festival in our forthcoming July issue.

Picture: a standing ovation at the 2015 festival. Photograph: Ron Self

Zoe Anderson

Zoë was born in Edinburgh, and saw her first dance performances at the Festival there. She is the dance critic of The Independent, and has also written for The Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman and Dancing Times. In 2002, she received her doctorate from the University of York for a thesis on “Nationhood and epic romance: Ariosto, Sidney, Spenser”. She is the author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover’s Companion.