22/03/2024
"Dance is movement, and movement is life support, so that's why all dancers are always young." - tells us Eimutis Andriuškevičius.
Full interview here :
1. How many years have you been organizing this event?
This competition "Vilnius Open" i am organizing for the 9th time and it always takes place in the middle of March. At the very beginning it had another name "Šokio harmonijos taurė", but as the competition grew, it became international, so we decided to change the name to "Vilnius Open".
2. What is the most difficult thing when organizing a competition?
I started organizing this competition already with experience, because the first event organized by me together with my colleague Arūnas Bižokas will be held in June for the 16th time, it's the "Vilnius Dance Festival". It was the first ever Pro-Am competition in Lithuania, to which we invited Pro-Am couples from the USA to introduce the Lithuanian dancing community to this dance genre. Well, one of the difficulties in organizing any competition is not knowing how many participants we will have. Therefore, we always ask all dancers to register as early as possible to know the number of participants in advance. In this way, the entire preparation work can be organized more smoothly.
3. What is the easiest part?
I would say the most important part, which makes everything easy to organize the competition, is the team working during the entire competition.
4. How do you choose the judges?
Since many categories and age groups of dancers compete in this competition, the panel of judges is quite wide. Coaches who work with children, adults, Pro-Am, we also try to invite one other judge from abroad, it is necessary to have judges with high career achievements in the competition. Therefore, the team of judges is quite various.
5. What are the funniest things that have happened during the competition?
I would rather tell you about the most memorable story, which maybe now you can watch with a smile, but at that time it was not very funny at all. 14th, March, 2020 our competition was supposed to take place and two days ago on 12th of March was announced a quarantine due to Covid and banned all events. Imagine how much stress we had to manage everything. But this situation hardened me even more as an organizer and made me understand that there are no unsolvable things.
6. What makes you the most happy during the competition?
In my main work as a dance teacher and as a competition organizer, i'm most happy that people are dancing. I mainly work with Hobby level dancers who have never danced and when they get older decide to try this genre. I don't need sports awards, I'm most fascinated when a person is happy after performing just a few dance steps. That's why, even in competitions, i appreciate newcomers the most when they step on the dance floor for the first time.
7. What would you like to wish for all the dancers out there?
I would like to wish those who are not dancing yet to start as soon as possible, and for those who are already dancing, never stop, because dance is movement, and movement is life support, so that's why all dancers are always young.
