ABOUT THE CHAMPIONSHIP

Thousands of hours of training, streams of sweat and plenty of time spent looking for that perfect step to fascinate and captivate the audience with a few minutes of dance.

After four years, Lithuania will once again have the honour of hosting the WDSF World Championship Standard. On 30 November, the best Standard dancers in the world will meet on the floor of the „Siemens“ arena in Vilnius. Among the competitors, there will also be two Lithuanian couples – Evaldas Sodeika and Ieva Žukauskaitė, Vaidotas Lacitis and Veronika Golodneva.

Since the dancesport is not yet included in the Olympic Programme, the World Championship is the only place to see the greatest talents and performances of the highest grade. Therefore, it has been a tradition for each country to delegate two couples to this championship – the national champions and the runners up. Vilnius is waiting to welcome around 80 couples of dancers from over 40 countries.

Despite fierce competition and strong rivals, special hopes are placed with the Lithuanian couple of Evaldas Sodeika and Ieva Žukauskaitė for whom the experts predict the champion title. Currently this couple ranks first in the world ranking and, even though the taste of victory is very familiar to them, becoming the champions in their home arena would undoubtedly be an historic achievement for Lithuanian standard dancesport. Vaidotas Lacitis and Veronika Golodneva are not far behind the leading couple – they currently rank sixth in the world ranking and also have a real chance to compete for the podium.

This will be already the third WDSF World Championship Standard held in Lithuania. The highest level of competition was held in the „Siemens“ arena in Vilnius back in 2004 and 2015. The latter competition was actually the first event in then newly built arena.

This year, the organisers promise an impressive show. Along with the World Championship, the top level Latin American ranking competition will also take place, which should include the champions and runners up of this programme. In other words, the whole dancesport elite will gather on the dance floor of the „Siemens“ arena in Vilnius.

The next day after the Championship, on 1 December, the arena will host an international ranking competition „Lithuanian Open 2019“, where children, juniors, youth and adult athletes are going to compete in the programmes of standard and Latin American dances.

Thus, the winter will begin with a weekend of passionate competition and beautiful show. The excellence of dancers will move you and warm the deepest places of your heart and soul.