America's Ballroom Challenge

Last updated
America's Ballroom Challenge
Directed byAida Moreno
Presented by Tony Meredith (2006 - 2007)
Marilu Henner (2006 - 2007)
Jasmine Guy (2008)
Ron Montez (2008 - present)
Jean Louisa Kelly (2009)
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons4 (As of February 25, 2009)
No. of episodes13 (As of February 25, 2009)
Production
Executive producerMoreno/Lyons Productions
Production location Columbus, OH
Running timeVaries
Release
Original network PBS
Original releaseFebruary 1, 2006 (2006-02-01) 
May 8, 2015 (2015-05-08)

America's Ballroom Challenge is a competitive ballroom dance television series that aired on Public Broadcasting Service in the United States between 2006 and 2009.

Contents

It is part of the annual Ohio Star Ball, [1] a festival of DanceSport in Columbus, Ohio.

Each season typically consists of competitions in five categories, with the first four categories devoted to each of the major styles of competitive ballroom dance:

The last category is a "Grand Finale" with the four champion couples competing for the title of "America's Best" dancers.

Episode guide

Season 1 (2006)

Hosted by Marilu Henner and Tony Meredith.

Season 1AirdateCategoryChampions [2]
Episode 1February 1, 2006American SmoothBen Ermis and Shalene Archer Ermis
American Rhythm Tony Dovolani and Elena Grinenko
International StandardErminio Stefano and Liene Apale
International LatinAndrei Gavriline and Elena Kryuchkova
Episode 2February 8, 2006Grand FinaleAndrei Gavriline and Elena Kryuchkova

Season 2 (2007)

Hosted by Marilu Henner and Tony Meredith.

Season 2AirdateCategoryChampions [3]
Episode 1January 31, 2007American SmoothBen Ermis and Shalene Archer-Ermis
Episode 2February 7, 2007American Rhythm Tony Dovolani and Elena Grinenko
Episode 3February 14, 2007International StandardJonathan Wilkins and Katusha Demidova
Episode 4February 21, 2007International LatinAndrei Gavriline and Elena Kryuchkova
Episode 5February 28, 2007Grand FinaleJonathan Wilkins and Katusha Demidova

Season 3 (2008)

Hosted by Jasmine Guy and Ron Montez.

Season 3AirdateCategoryChampions [4]
Episode 1January 30, 2008American SmoothTomas Mielnicki and J.T. Thomas
Episode 2February 6, 2008American Rhythm Jose DeCamps and Joanna Zacharewicz
Episode 3February 13, 2008International StandardArunas Bizokas and Katusha Demidova
Episode 4February 20, 2008International LatinAndrei Gavriline and Elena Kryuchkova
Episode 5February 27, 2008Grand FinaleAndrei Gavriline and Elena Kryuchkova

Season 4 (2009)

Hosted by Jean Louisa Kelly and Ron Montez.

Season 4AirdateCategoryChampions [5]
Episode 1February 25, 2009American Smooth Jonathan Roberts and Valentina Kostenko
American Rhythm Jose DeCamps and Joanna Zacharewicz
International StandardMikhail Avdeev and Anastasia Muravyeva
International LatinRiccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko
Grand FinaleRiccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko

The 2009 season (which would have aired in 2010) was not produced.

The 2010 season (which would have aired in 2011) was not produced.

Championship Ballroom Dancing

Prior to America's Ballroom Challenge, PBS was featuring Championship Ballroom Dancing, also from the Ohio Star Ball, annually since 1980. The one-show event featured the final rounds of the International Standard and International Latin Styles of the competition with exhibitions in between usually by winners from other categories not shown on broadcast. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ballroom dance</span> Set of partner dances

Ballroom dance is a set of partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world, mostly because of its performance and entertainment aspects. Ballroom dancing is also widely enjoyed on stage, film, and television.

This is a list of dance terms that are not names of dances or types of dances. See List of dances and List of dance style categories for those.

Strictly Come Dancing returned for its fourth series on 7 October 2006. Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly returned to co-present the main show on BBC One, while Claudia Winkleman returned to present the spin-off show Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two on BBC Two. Len Goodman, Arlene Phillips, Craig Revel Horwood, and Bruno Tonioli returned as judges.

Tony Meredith is an American professional ballroom dancer, choreographer and United States Professional Latin Champion.

<i>Dancing with the Stars</i> (American season 9) Season of television series

Season nine of Dancing with the Stars premiered on September 21, 2009, on the ABC network.

Strictly Come Dancing returned for its third series on 15 October 2005. Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly returned to co-present the main show on BBC One, while Claudia Winkleman returned to present the spin-off show, Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two. Len Goodman, Arlene Phillips, Craig Revel Horwood, and Bruno Tonioli returned as judges.

The second season of the Australian Dancing with the Stars premiered on 8 February 2005. Daryl Somers and Sonia Kruger returned as hosts, while Todd McKenney, Paul Mercurio, Helen Richey, and Mark Wilson returned as judges.

The third season of the Australian Dancing with the Stars premiered on 6 September 2005. Daryl Somers and Sonia Kruger returned as hosts, while Todd McKenney, Paul Mercurio, Helen Richey, and Mark Wilson returned as judges.

Strictly Come Dancing aired its first series on BBC One from 15 May 2004 to 3 July 2004. The series was presented by Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly. The judging panel consisted of Len Goodman, Arlene Phillips, Craig Revel Horwood, and Bruno Tonioli.

The 11th season of Taniec z Gwiazdami, the Polish edition of Dancing With the Stars, started on March 7, 2010 and ended on June 13, 2010. It was broadcast by TVN. Katarzyna Skrzynecka and Piotr Gąsowski continued as the hosts, and the judges were: Iwona Szymańska-Pavlović, Zbigniew Wodecki, Beata Tyszkiewicz and Piotr Galiński.

The 10th season of Taniec z Gwiazdami, the Polish edition of Dancing With the Stars, started on 6 September 2009 and ended on 29 November 2009. It was broadcast by TVN. Katarzyna Skrzynecka and Piotr Gąsowski continued as the hosts, and the judges were: Iwona Szymańska-Pavlović, Zbigniew Wodecki, Beata Tyszkiewicz and Piotr Galiński.

The 8th season of Taniec z Gwiazdami, the Polish edition of Dancing With the Stars, started on 7 September 2008 and ended on 30 November 2008. It was broadcast by TVN. Katarzyna Skrzynecka and Piotr Gąsowski continued as the hosts, and the judges were: Iwona Szymańska-Pavlović, Zbigniew Wodecki, Beata Tyszkiewicz and Piotr Galiński.

The 12th season of Taniec z Gwiazdami, the Polish edition of Dancing With the Stars, started on 5 September 2010 and ended on 28 November 2010. It was broadcast by TVN. Katarzyna Skrzynecka and Piotr Gąsowski continued as the hosts, and the judges were: Iwona Szymańska-Pavlović, Zbigniew Wodecki, Beata Tyszkiewicz and Piotr Galiński.

The eleventh season of the Australian Dancing with the Stars premiered on 8 May 2011 on Channel Seven. Daniel MacPherson and Sonia Kruger returned as hosts, along with judges Todd McKenney and Helen Richey. Australian dancer Joshua Horner joined the judging panel as a replacement for Mark Wilson.

The 13th season of Taniec z Gwiazdami, the Polish edition of Dancing with the Stars, started on 4 September 2011 and ended in November 2011. It was broadcast by TVN. Piotr Gąsowski and Natasza Urbańska were the hosts. The judges were: Iwona Szymańska-Pavlović, Piotr Galiński and, replacing Beata Tyszkiewicz and Zbigniew Wodecki, were Jolanta Fraszyńska and Janusz Józefowicz.

The second season of the French version of Dancing with the Stars debuted on TF1 on 8 October 2011. Nine celebrities were paired with nine professional ballroom dancers. Sandrine Quétier and Vincent Cerutti return as the hosts for this season.

<i>Danse avec les stars</i> (season 3) Season of television series

The third season of the French version of Dancing with the Stars debuted on TF1 on October 6, 2012. 10 celebrities were paired with 10 professional ballroom dancers. Sandrine Quétier and Vincent Cerutti return as the hosts for this season.

The inaugural season of Let's Dance began on RTL Television on 21 April 2006. The hosts were Hape Kerkeling and Nazan Eckes, while Joachim Llambi, Michael Hull, Markus Schöffl, and Katarina Witt were the judges.

The 14th season of Taniec z Gwiazdami, the Polish edition of Dancing With the Stars, started on 7 March 2014. Unlike the previous thirteen seasons, this one was aired on Polsat TV network. It was hosted by Krzysztof Ibisz and Anna Głogowska, season 13 professional champion. Beata Tyszkiewicz and Iwona Pavlović returned as judges, joined by a ballroom dancer and former World Latin Dance Champion Michał Malitowski as well as an actor Andrzej Grabowski.

Dancing with the Stars is a Greek reality show airing on ANT1 and filming live in Athens. Returned for its fifth season on October 26, 2014 from ANT1 TV channel. The show is based on the United Kingdom BBC Television series Strictly Come Dancing and is part of BBC Worldwide's Dancing with the Stars franchise. The theme song is "It's personal" performed by Swedish indie pop band The Radio Dept.

References

  1. "Ohio Star Ball - A Festival of Dancesport". Archived from the original on 2009-02-18. Retrieved 2009-02-27.
  2. Season 1 - The Competition
  3. Season 2 - The Competition
  4. Season 3 - The Competition
  5. Season 4 - The Competition
  6. "America's Ballroom Challenge". PBS . 2009-02-09. Archived from the original on 2009-03-08. Retrieved 2011-05-26.