Drum roll, please… Gabriele Goffredo and Anna Matus of Moldova claimed their fourth Super Grand Prix win of their careers at the WDSF Super Grand Prix in Pieve di Cento! 

This couple, may you be reminded, are three-time Amateur Latin WDSF World Champions as well as first-time Professional Latin WDSF World Champions, a title they claimed just last year after making their transfer into WDSF PD (the professional division). 

Each time they step out onto the floor, they conclude the evening with the gold, since their time as amateurs at the WDSF International Open in Rimini, Italy, in May 2017 to this WDSF Super Grand Prix in Pieve di Cento—all first-place wins. We will take a closer look at their scoring here in Italy in more detail in just a little bit.

The Top Six

From the expected 42 couples that were to take part in the Latin leg of this Super Grand Prix, a total of 39 couples took the floor at the Grand Hotel Bologna e dei Congressi yesterday. 

Just as we had suspected, the couple from Moldova took first, Vincenzo Mariniello and Sara Casini claimed the silver and Yao Hou and Ting Zhuang of China finished with the bronze. 

Let us take a closer look below at the scoring of the final round of the top six couples.

Goffredo and Matus' very first Super Grand Prix of Goffredo and Matus was indeed this very same Grand Prix held in Pieve di Cento just last year. Their final score this year, 194.350, has not been their highest of their four Grand Prix performances. Their highest earned score in a Grand Prix was last year in October in Leipzig, Germany, where the couple took a 195.100. If taking a look in comparison, they scored higher in the samba here in Italy, tied in the cha cha as in Germany and placed higher in the rumba, paso doble and jive in Leipzig. However, the difference lies in only 0.75 of a point, marks that are subject to change from performance to performance and adjudicator to adjudicator.

Vincenzo Mariniello and Sara Casini of Italy took on their second WDSF event as a professional couple last night, which also turned out being their second Grand Prix. They took the silver. Yao Hou and Ting Zhuang of China took bronze, even though last year they ended this same competition with a silver.

In fourth place, a couple of the Russian Federation, Kirill Kolpashchikov and Julia Remizova made the final! They also recently transferred into PD, dancing only their third Grand Prix here in Italy. In their first two Grands Prix, which where both held in Germany (in Stuttgart and then Leipzig), they placed 8th in the semi. Now, they are mid-way up the final! In Stuttgart, their total score of the five dances as judged in the semi-final was equal to 167.800; in Leipzig, the total score was 168.700. Five months later, here in Italy, Kolpashchikov and Remizova increased their total scoring by 8.85 points and made their way into the final! Only five months later!

In the final, we also have WDSF PD Show Dance Latin World Champions, Alexandr Shmonin and Maria Shmonina of Russia, taking fifth place. This couple has not been very active in WDSF PD events recently, dancing their last Super Grand Prix in 2017 in Stuttgart, Germany, where they placed eighth. Now they are back, and hit off the year with their first WDSF PD event in the final!

Last but not least, let us take a look at our last finalists of the evening, Mario Cecinati and Rosaria Messina Denaro from Italy. Out of the six finalist couples, Cecinati and Denaro are the most experienced in terms of dancing in WDSF PD events. Even though their very first event in the professional division was actually here in Pieve di Cento last year in March, the couple will be dancing their seventh Grand Prix today actually, the Standard Grand Prix! That’s right, this couple is a 10 Dance couple—the World 10 Dance Vice-Champions! After concluding this Latin leg of the Grands Prix here in Pieve di Cento, they set out today to take on Standard.

Stay Tuned for Standard

We now prepare to watch the Standard competitors live as they compete for the ultimate title here in Pieve di Cento. They are soon to take the floor, and FloDance is here to capture it all. Stay tuned everyone! Can you make some predictions as to the final six?