Officials and Judges

Biographies

Yang Chen has been dancing for more than twenty years and has served on the Board of the NY Chapter of USA DANCE since 1994, has been an officer since since 1997, and has been the President since 2004. Yang Chen has actively helped to grow the MAC from a small one-day competition to one of the largest in North America. His role as a founder of the NYU Ballroom Club and Team has enabled him to maintain strong ties with the local collegiate scene, a position which has allowed the Greater New York Chapter to drive the growth of collegiate participation at the MAC. Yang has also participated actively in fundraising activities that have helped to make MAC the largest all-amateur event in the country that regularly awards significant scholarships to amateurs at all levels. In addition to the MAC, the chapter has also been one of the most active in the country, and under Yang's leadership, it has run socials, workshops and other events open to the entire dance community. Yang has extensive experience as a Master of Ceremonies of many ballroom competitions including the MAC and National Qualifying Events in Bethesda, Maryland, Knoxville, Tennessee, Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Greensboro, North Carolina. Yang has been the MC at the USA Dance National Championships and numerous collegiate events, including the DC DanceSport Inferno, the Cayuga DanceSport Challenge, the Neil Clover Ballroom Classic and the Binghamton Ballroom Dance Revolution. Yang has been privileged and honored to have been the Master of Ceremonies for the Big Apple Dancesport Challenge from its inception. Outside of the dance world, Yang is the Executive Director of the Asian American Bar Association of New York. And, yes, he pronounces his first name "Young."

Len Diana, from Hartford, CT, is active in outreach efforts to show the fun and benefits of ballroom dancing to the general public. Len, and his wife, Dawn have placed well in local, regional, and national competitions; dancing all four styles for 15 years. Len is an NDCA Certified Scrutineer and Registrar - scrutineer and competition set up/registrar for numerous Amateur, Collegiate, and Pro/Am competitions throughout the United States and a Certified Wheelchair Ballroom and Latin Dance Instructor. Memberships include USA Dance/USABDA, NDCA, and affiliated with American DanceWheels Foundation. He is a former Vice-President, Treasurer, and Newsletter Editor for the Connecticut Chapter of USABDA. Outside of dancing, Len is a QSCA Certified Law Of Attraction coach- Personal Growth, Life, & Business Coach at An Infinite Abundance Of Wealth, Health, & Happiness (Self Employed) and an Entrepreneur/Independent Distributor for Skinny Body Care.

Bill Davies is currently celebrating more than fifty years as a dance teacher, competitor, DanceSport coach and world Class Adjudicator. He is one of the founding US professionals of the Teacher Student competitions known as "Pro/Am" which have become the main stay of U.S. competitions in today's world. Bill was a member of the first, as well as several other United States teams which represented the United States at the British Ballroom Championships In 1978 he placed eighth in the World Championships held in Tokyo Japan. He has won and been a finalist in numerous overseas championships. He is a nine time "North American Champion", a three time "United States Champion", runner up in the 1973 "United States American Style Championships," and has been a finalist in many Latin Championships. He is currently teaching and coaching around the world and loves to social dance.

Wendi began dancing while at Princeton studying architecture. A competitive swimmer for many years, she was looking for a new competitive outlet. The daughter of dancing parents, she soon learned of the competitive and athletic nature of Ballroom Dancing. In her amateur career she was ranked third in the United States. She turned professional in 1991 and went on to be ranked second at the United States Championships, and was the winner of "Championship Ballroom Dancing" the popular show on PBS. She was the UK Rising Star Champion, Blackpool Rising Star Runner-up, US Representative to the World Championships and Blackpool Team Match, a finalist at the French Open and the US Open Championships and was ranked 13th in the world. She is co-owner and operator of Ballroom Off Fifth in NYC and organizer of the NJ DanceSport Classic competitions.

Born in Australia, Damien started dancing when he was 15 years old. Coming to the forefront in competitive dancing in Australia, he decided to move abroad to further his knowledge of his craft. Living in London for ten years, he turned professional and was a quarterfinalist at Blackpool. Damien then moved to the USA and teamed up with Olga Tsikalyuk; together they won first place in Professional Rising Star Ballroom at the International Championships. They were also quarterfinalists at the Royal Albert Hall.
Damien moved to the East Coast and won the title of USA Rising Star Champions with his new partner Karolina Szpiech. Damien was also an open semifinalist at the USA Dance Championships, on both occasions placing seventh.
Now teaching in New York and Boston, Damien along with his current partner Mariko Cantley are the standard coaches for the Harvard University Ballroom Dance Team. This years quote, "You are the only person that can make your dancing better".

Jennifer McCalla is a licentiate of the Imperial society of teachers of dancing (ISTD) in Intl Latin, Intl Standard, and Theater arts. She is a licentiate of the FADS organization in American Smooth and Rhythm. Her dance accomplishments include being a US Ten dance finalist, Finalist in Major Competition in the USA including the Yankee Classic and the Heritage Classic, Four times undefeated United States Amateur Latin, Standard and Ten dances Champion, and a US representative at four World championships. She also was Fred Astaire National Smooth Champion undefeated 95 to 97, US Rising Star finalist in Standard, Latin and Smooth, Ohio Star Ball Rising Star Champion (Smooth), Breakers Rising Star Champion (Smooth), Texas Challenge Rising Star Champion (Smooth), and Eastern United States Rising Star Champion in Latin, Standard and Smooth.

Stanley McCalla is a national & World Class Adjudicator and highly sought-after coach. He has been on the Fred Astaire National Dance Board since 1997. Stanley is also a dance board examiner for FADS and the official coach for New York University and Columbia University. He holds the highest levels of accreditation from both FADS and the ISTD.
As a competitor he was four-times United States Amateur Champions with his wife Jennifer McCalla and represented the US in Latin, Standard, and 10-Dance Championships. As professional he was a US 10 dance finalist. He is undefeated Fred Astaire National Champions in Smooth from 1995-1997 and won many Rising Star Championship Titles at Eastern US in Standard, Latin, and Smooth, along with Smooth Rising Star Titles at Ohio Star, Breakers, and the Texas Challenge. Stanley also appeared in the movie Dance with me. Together with his wife Jennifer, they were assistant choreographers for Adams Family II, and credited as ballroom consultants in the late movie the Stepford wives.

A native of Minsk, Belarus, Andrew Phillips immigrated to the United States in 1994. Upon his arrival, Andrew quickly became renowned as one of the country’s leading competitors in International Latin Dancesport. He gained notoriety by winning such prestigious competitions as Northeast Open Invitational, Ohio Star Ball, Japan Open Invitational, United States World Rising Star Championship, and Blackpool where he was a rising star champion. His global standing in 2003 was number 2 in the United States and number 7 in the world. While he retired from competitive life in 2003, Andrew now teaches worldwide in New York, Japan, and Hong Kong. He also adjudicates numerous competitions in the United States. His greatest accomplishment was becoming an American citizen.

Edward Simon has won many top-teacher awards and is a founding partner of the original Dance New York studio in New York City. Edward is also a Cedar Rapids native and in addition to his work in NYC, is a co-owner of Dance New York Iowa. He was a very successful competing professional, and won over 100 major events prior to his retirement from competition.
Since his retirement from competition, Eddie has become a distinguished coach, judge, and ambassador for dancesport.

Oksana Zolotarevskaya is a British National Professional Latin Champion, Dutch National Professional Latin Champion, USA Mambo National Professional Champion, and NDCA & WDC adjudicator. She is available for lectures, private lessons & judging. Please contact her at ksenya@mac.com

Some of the biographies are courtesy of the MIT ballroom dance team and the Manhattan Amateur Classic

Judging

The committee of judges will be responsible for decisions made regarding problems of marking, ties, and adjudication.

Scrutineering results

Columbia will endeavor to provide the scrutineering results posted for review for all dancers at the venue. However due to time constraints this may not be feasible, in which case efforts will be made to make them available through our website.