Hi All
I found this at El Paso Times:
Ballroom gold
Could popular dancing be the next Olympic sport?
By Suzette Laboy / Associated Press
Article Launched: 01/03/2008 12:00:00 AM MST
Evgeny Dyachenko and Inna Ivanenko spend hours in the gym lifting weights.
Five, six days a week they practice at the ballet bar to keep their legs and backs strong, squeezing in yoga or Pilates classes to help with their stretching.
Their schedule may sound like the strict regimen of a tennis champion or even an NFL player, but Dyachenko, 25, and Ivanenko, 34, a married couple originally from Russia, are training for what could be the next big Olympic sport: ballroom dancing.
"People think that you can learn how to be like beautiful in one week, which is not realistic," said Ivanenko, who rehearses routines for at least six hours a day. "It takes years and years and years."
The timing has never been better for ballroom dancing, which only recently caught Americans' fancy.
"Dancing with the Stars" was ranked in the top five shows of 2007 for both its two weekly broadcasts, according to Nielsen Media Research ratings. Even the show's accomplished athletes visibly struggle with the difficult routines, and it's no easier for competitive dancers.
"If you look at the young people today competing, right now they can't drink. They can't smoke," said Didio Barrera, the features editor for Dance Beat, a magazine for ballroom dancing. "They cannot go to bed late, or you will have a bad performance. It's to that level where you cannot afford to have a rough night or just go to the club."
But is it a sport?
The rest of the article can be read
here.
