25/12/08第十屆香港公開精英體育舞蹈錦標賽, 在金融海嘯之下能夠筵開三十九席, 我感到無限安慰, 在這十年間, 我一直盡自己的能力滿足香港及各地選手及裁判對精英錦標賽的訴求, 沒想到今年這個比賽竟打破了兩項『起舞藝軒』十六年來主辦比賽的所有紀錄 : (一) 參賽人數連獨舞在內突破370人, 分別來自星加坡、泰國、韓國、日本、印尼、俄羅斯、馬來西亞、中國、澳門及香港 ; 及 (二) 十三位海外裁判, 包括英國一位, 意大利兩位, 星加坡兩位, 韓國一位, 馬來西亞一位, 泰國三位, 台灣一位, 中國兩位, 其餘還有十五位香港裁判。

今年有一個重大的突破, 就是將十二歲以下拉丁舞組的決賽放在晚上的聖誕舞會黃金時间中舉行, 而這組所用裁判是清一色外國裁判, 能夠在本土的比賽被七個不同國家的十一個外國裁判評分,  進入決賽的八對小朋友可謂福氣不淺, 羨煞旁人。

我和太太高玉文十年來堅持為精英錦標賽表演, 而且每年都是新編舞種, 但今年編舞是編得最遲的一年, 在十二月中才完成一隻Cha Cha Cha及一段Rumba, 尚幸我找到剛决定退出比賽及表演的Paul Killick幫我們上課, 解決一些難題, 而Paul 更拔刀相助為精英錦標賽担任裁判, 令我受寵若驚, 當晚有他在場参觀我們的表演, 為我們打了一支強心針, 可是半個月的練習時间實在太短, 我當晚無法跳出我心目中的最佳水準, 有違我去年的承諾 {今年的表演要比往年好}, 我自己內心感到好像失信於觀眾  !

陳航行

Under the influence of the Financial Tsunami,  39 tables of dinner tickets  were sold out for the 10th Best of Best HK Open DanceSport Championships on 25/12/08, what I could say!  Over the past 10 years, I have been exhausting my own ability to fulfill the requests and demands coming from the adjudicators and competitors in Asia and locally.  Unexpectedly, two new records were revealed surpassing all the competitions organized by Come Dancing Studio Academy over the past 16 years (inclusive of Come Dancing Cup) : (1)  the total number of competitors (including Solo events) were over 370, from Singapore, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Russia, Malaysia, Macau, China and Hong Kong ; (2) 13 overseas adjudicators – one from UK, two from Italy, two from Singapore, one from Korea, one from Malaysia, three from Thailand, one from Taiwan, and two from China. There were 15 adjudicators from Hong Kong.       

There was a special arrangement for this year's Best of Best, i.e. to shift the Final of Under 12 Latin into the prime time of the evening Christmas Dinner Party.    11 overseas adjudicators from 7 countries were employed to mark the eight Finalists of Under 12 Latin.  It's been fortunate and expensive to have pure overseas adjudicators to mark your event in a local competition.  Kids, “Surely you excited envy of other local competitors!”

My wife & I have been performing for the Best of Best for the past 10 years despite all the upcoming obstacles and hurdles.  I made new performing number every year.  I only finished the new choreography of Cha Cha Cha and a session of Rumba  in the middle of December 08 – the least practice and preparations so far.  The lucky side was I managed to find Paul Killick to solve some of our problems in the new number.  He coincidently just decided to hang up his shoes for competition and performance.  He even volunteered to adjudicate for 10th Best of Best, which held me spellbound & over the moon.  His presence incorporated power and confidence with our performance.  Having said that, half month's time is too limited for me to dance my best.  Last year's Best of Best, I promised to prepare this year's performance the best ever.  After all, I felt guilty as I had not fulfilled my faith to the audience!