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Michelle Blank

See also: WikiDanceSport, DanceSport Studio, Igor Golovach & Michelle Blank - Dance Couple, Instructors, Dancers

Hometown: Medford Lakes, NJ
Current location: New Jersey, USA
Current Status:

Michelle Angela Blank is a currently active DanceSport athlete specializing in the Amateur Latin division. Aside from competing, she is also an NADTA Certified DanceSport Instructor as well as an entrepreneur. Michelle is the founder of WikiDanceSport as well as entities including DanceSport Studio (DSS), DanceSport Rankings (DSR), and her own DanceSport fashion brand, Michellino. She is a two-time United States National Vice-Champion in the Amateur Latin Showdance division (2018 - 2019), the 2019 United States National Vice-Champion in the Adult Amateur Latin division, and a World Finalist of the 2019 WDSF World Showdance Latin Championship. Sponsored by Freed of London.

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Overview

Michelle-Angela Blank was said to dance before she could walk. At the age of 9, she began attending hip-hop dance classes. A year later, she preceded towards jazz and ballet training as well and continued this path until moving onto Ballroom Dancing. At the age of 14, Michelle took her first lesson in the American Style at a nearby Arthur Murray Dance Studio.

After falling in love with this new specialty, Michelle began training in the International Latin division at the age of 15 and soon afterward began her competitive path as a Youth athlete.

Michelle began progressing very quickly. In 2013, she became the Champion of the Youth Latin Pre-Championship at the City DanceSport Challenge. It was her first competition with a partner and deemed itself a rewarding experience.

After only a couple of years, Michelle had come from the very basics of syllabus dancing to competing in Adult Amateur Championships. In 2015, she met Igor Golovach, a young dancer who had just arrived from Ukraine to dance in the USA. Together, they would continue their competitive paths.

After just one year together, Igor and Michelle became the 2016 Virginia State International Latin Champions as well as the Liberty Ball Amateur International Latin Champions. They also placed in the semi-final of the 2017 USA Dance National DanceSport Championships.

In May of 2017, Igor and Michelle became the New England DanceSport Amateur Latin Champions. Soon afterward, October brought them to the second year of the American DanceSport Festival where they won the Bronze Medals at the WDSF Amateur Rising Star Championship.

In December, Igor and Michelle traveled to Riga, Latvia to compete internationally for the first time at the Baltic Grand Prix in the WDSF Amateur Rising Star and International Open Championships. The days prior to the competition, they participated in the Baltic Grand Prix Workshops where they met and trained with Alexey Silde and Zoran Plohl.

2018

As the year of 2018 kicked off, Igor and Michelle took first place at the Islanders DanceSport Challenge in the Amateur Latin division.

In April, the couple became the USA National Amateur Latin Showdance Vice-Champions, a great feat to have achieved in their first-ever Showdance performance of their careers. Later that month, they traveled to San Marino to compete at the San Marino DanceSport Festival. They became semi-finalists in the Latin Rising Star event, placing 9th out of 33 couples, and quarter-finalists of the WDSF World Open Latin, placing 23rd out of 67 couples, out-dancing the champions of the Rising Star competition. This proved quite an achievement for Igor and Michelle's 2nd international competition.

May brought a strong victory for the couple as the duo took 2nd place at the WDSF Rising Star Latin Championship in Tbilisi, Georgia.

2019

In 2019, Igor and Michelle became the National Vice-Champions of the United States of America in the Amateur Latin division. They also claimed their second title as U.S. Amateur Latin Showdance Vice-Champions with their performance of "Fear", a piece based on Stephen King's novel and famous cinematic masterpiece, It. As a result of these placements, they will be representing the USA at two upcoming WDSF World Championships, both to be held in Moscow, Russia.

Recently, Igor and Michelle have achieved a fantastic result in the WDSF World Open Latin held in Wuppertal, Germany in July at the DanceComp Wuppertal. Out of 103 couples dancing in the event, the couple placed 18th in the quarter-final, their highest result yet achieved at an international event.

The conclusion of the dance year brought the duo a fantastic victory: on December 14th, 2019, Igor and Michelle became World Finalists of 2019 WDSF World Showdance Latin Championship held in the beautiful Kremlin Palace of Moscow, Russia. From all around the world, family and friends watched live as the Team USA couple brought home a strengthening victory with their performance of their showdance "Fear", based on Stephen King's famous It.

Entrepreneurship

At a very early age, Michelle was actively involved with her father's work, learning hands-on how to build and run a business. Her early training led her to become a determined entrepreneur with highly developed business acumen. She is a former consultant & contributor for FloDance (July 2018 - July 2019).

WikiDanceSport

As soon as Michelle and Igor started working together, they immediately bonded as not only a dancing couple but also as partners who were alike in their views and goals regarding their future careers. Together, they soon realized the need for a community data center to provide all dance enthusiasts with a one-stop information hub. The idea was to create an encyclopedia that would become an information center for all things DanceSport. Together, they founded WikiDanceSport.com, a free-access, free-content Internet encyclopedia of Ballroom Dancing.

DanceSport Studio

In 2018, Igor and Michelle launched a venture known as DanceSport Studio (DSS). DSS is a cross-federation collaborative training platform that is on the path to establishing one uniform Art of DanceSport Training System for competitive and social dancers in all aspects of fitness, health, and wellbeing (physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual). DSS encompasses organizations as well as individuals of multiple federations that work together as one unit in order to accomplish the highest standards of DanceSport training and education. The first DSS location is currently open in Medford, New Jersey (USA).

DanceSport Rankings

The couple is also developing DanceSport Rankings (DSR). This idea was driven by the necessity to uniform and synchronize DanceSport industry-related activities. The platform will offer a way to rank and rate the individuals, organizations, and events of the industry based on various criteria, historical data, performance, and popularity, and will allow athletes to participate in the opinion sharing and evaluation of said models.

Michellino

Michelle is also working on building her own fashion brand known as Michellino, which will offer a wide range of clothing, shoes, and accessories specific to the DanceSport industry's areas of performance and training.

Instructor

Michelle is certified as an Instructor under the North American DanceSport Teachers Association (NADTA) in the International Style Latin division. She instructs all levels and age groups of competitive and social dancers from juveniles to seniors. She offers such training at DanceSport Studio (DSS) in Medford, NJ (USA).

Trained With

Throughout her dancing career, Michelle has had the opportunity to train with some of the top coaches of the industry including:

HALL OF FAME

Current Instructors

Dance Partners

In 2015, Michelle Blank partnered with Igor Golovach. They currently compete in the Amateur International Latin division, representing the United States of America.

Accomplishments

Competitor

Instructor

Writer

  • Former Consultant & Contributor for FloDance (July 2018 - July 2019)

Photo Gallery

Video Gallery

Social Media

You can follow Michelle on:


Categories: WikiDanceSport, DanceSport Studio, Igor Golovach & Michelle Blank - Dance Couple, Instructors, Dancers

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