Passionate ballroom dancers

Hello everyone.
Competitive ballroom dancing - normally referred to as dancesport - officially has it's roots in the early 20th century. Some would say, in essence it is a symbiosis of a competitive sport and an art form. Because of its performance and entertainment aspects, ballroom dance is also widely enjoyed on stage, film, and television. Look it up on YouTube, you will be impressed.

We are a professional duo of competitive sport dancers - Egor Kondratenko and Mie Lincke Funch. I'm Russian and Mie is Danish, we are both 21 years old. We have been dancing together in Denmark since 2011, since we were 15 years old, and despite becoming Under 16 and Under 19 Danish champions 3 times in a row and climbing up to a semi-final in U19 European Championships in 2012 and U19 World Championships in 2013, we decided to stop our partnership summer 2013 due to personal differences. Dumb kids, but we did what we felt was right at the time.
(Those 2 years together are portrayed in a documentary picture called 'Dance for me' in 2012, directed by Katrine Philp - the trailer is up on YouTube)

Fast forward to 2015. After 2 years of separate personal growth with different dance-partners, but remaining good friends outside the dancehall, we made a mature and thought-through decision to get back together. Working hard on our 'product' every day, instructed by the best coaches in Denmark and believing in ourselves and our performance, we were honored to win Danish Championship Under 21 in 2016 and make it into the final of the World Championship U21 2016, finishing 4th.

However, now we are adults. Adult category (from 21 and until well, 40-45), like in any other big sport, has it's Beckham-Jordan-Federer level legendary dancers, has it's top 12, has it's top 24, top 50 and top 100.
Right now, at the moment this page was made, we are ranked top 121 in the dancing world. Starting point for us - kids, who just reached maturity. Now the game is on - it is the real deal.

Competitive dancesport is a very, very expensive type of sport. Mainly because most competitive dancers around the world are alone. We personally are deeply passionate about a sport and art-form that is not widely popularized in our country, and while efforts are made to 'bring more people in', the support we get from the DanceSport federation cover but 1/10 of yearly expenses on travel alone.

We are deeply honored and grateful to already be sponsored by Bressai.dk - incredible dance clothes makers based on Danish ground, which cover our costume expenses - one of the essentials we thankfully do not have to struggle with.

We are currently 4th among Denmark's top.
To advance onward through a very tough field - we need to grow and improve. Unfortunately, the Karate Kid 'wax on - wax off' way to grow and improve does not cut it anymore , since every single dancer we compete against wants to be The World Champion and works hard.
We, apart from working our butts off - that we already do - need lessons with our teachers and foreign teachers (approx. 70-120 euros per 45 min); we need to attend workshops, held by world's top experts on dance, in Denmark and abroad (count the basic needs, travel, accommodation, the training camp itself can easily be up to 600-800 euros per person (and we are 2)); and finally, we need to travel to international competitions to compete with dance duets, whom we would like to surpass in the nearest future possible.

End cost is astronomical and it is very hard for us to keep up with the expenses. But that's our way of life, we chose it and we stick to it no matter what. Our hearts demand it, our minds want it, our souls reach for it. We crave it, we are hungry for it and we are ready to grind as hard as we can. We will appreciate any support in case you are willing and able to give it.

To qualify to compete in the European and World Championship we need to climb through 3rd and to 2nd or 1st place in Denmark. Our Danish competitors - all very strong and experienced dancers - are respectively 53rd, 24th and 7th in the world.
Monumental task. But we know what to do, we are ready and we will proof again and again that we are worthy of your support. There will be ups and downs, but we will never stop dancing our way through the crowds and we .will. make it.

Any help is appreciated, and you are welcome to contact us via our Facebook page/e-mail 24/7.
Thank you in advance!

Sincerely,
Egor&Mie

youtube.com/watch?v=5REoJIUM79I
egorogmie