Dance championships promise to be hot

Dance and defend.

That’s what Elizabeth Cartier, 27, hopes to do when the Florida State DanceSport Championships return to the Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota Aug. 3-8. She’ll be dancing with partner Max Lototskyy to defend their title of professional open standard champs.

The dance event is the last in a series of three special national dance events known as the Triple Crown & Crown Jewel of DanceSport Championships. Overall, there are more than 200 major dancesport championships in the country, with the Triple Crown drawing some of the most heated competition.

“There’s a lot of people fighting for that triple crown title,” said Cartier, 27.

The Sarasota pair plan to burn the floor showcasing a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers-ish number.

About 600-800 professional and amateur dancers of all ages will compete in this year’s championship, which also features guest appearances from the best dancers in the world. Spectators will be treated to a variety of dance styles, including ballroom, Latin, American Rhythm, theatre arts and more. Last year, roughly 2,000 people showed up to watch the competition, said Lakewood Ranch resident Larry Dean, who produces the annual event with wife, Dianne.

Cartier, who’s been dancing up a storm for 14 years, will be ready for the crowds and the judges.

Accustomed to competitions, Cartier works at Wilson’s Dance Sport in Sarasota, which is owned by her husband, Wilson Barrera. Barrera is a former world exhibition dance champ and has several other championship titles to his name.

The studio — which churns out other champion dancers — specializes in Ballroom, Latin and club, which consists of salsa, the two-step, the hustle, merengue and more. It has participated in the Sarasota championships for nearly a decade.

“Larry Dean’s events are fantastic — it’s always been first class,” Cartier said.

This year, the dance school has eight couples competing. It plans to defend its dancesport championship title of top local dance studio, Cartier said.

Winning makes it all the more fun for the school, but sometimes just being able to have the guts to get on the floor and compete is worthy, too. Cartier said there can be a lot of nerves that flare up in competitions like this — overcoming them is half the battle.

“When you confront your fears and face them, there’s such a sense of accomplishment in yourself,” she said.

Guest artists

This year’s guest star dancers are three-time world exhibition champions Victor Da Silva and Hanna Karttunen of South Africa and Anna Demidova from the TV show “Dancing With the Stars.” There’s also Canadian National Professional Latin Champions Andre and Natalie Paramonov. Demidova will perform Aug. 5 and 6. The other pairs will perform Aug. 6 and 7.

Russian-born Andre Paramonov said he and his wife will definitely put on a show for the Sarasota crowd.

“The crowd there is really into dancing,” Paramonov said. “All you do have to do is twirl and you’ll just have them in your hands.”

Paramonov has been dancing for most of his life — since he was 6. He said he got involved in dancing to be around girls.

“There was a tremendous amount of girls around me,” said the showdance champion, who wouldn’t reveal his current age. “For every guy, there was 10 girls.”

Afterwards, he fell in love with the art and sport of dance — so much so that he and his dad bumped heads on the subject when Paramonov wanted to dance professionally. But that ended when Paramonov brought his first paycheck home. It was more than his dad made in a month working in Russia, he said.

Paramonov said that meeting Natalie, the woman that would become his wife, gave him a reason to keep dancing. The couple has been together for 13 years and married for 10.

They still love to dance with each other — and it shows.

“Dancing is the most beautiful thing that two people can do,” Paramonov said.