Anton Sboev - Russian, Patriza Ranis - Pole.

Let's start with the congratulations, for the last two months in professionals you made semifinal in Blackpool Rising Stars finished the 8th, you danced in 48 couples in Open Championships, you were the fourth on Italy Open 2011 and finally you made semifinal in Shenzhen, China World Cup WDC finished the 10th. I think you must be very happy. It's really great start of professional career!

Anton and Patrizia: Thank You very much, we are!

As usual I would like to start from learning about You. Who are you as a person?

Anton: I was born in Voronezh, Russia on the 12th of January 1985. My parents have 5 children, 4 boys and one girl, I'm the third child in a row. All my childhood I had a dream to become a football player. Obviously I played football all the time. But my parents didn't want to hear anything about football.

Patrizia: I was born in small city of Wolsztyn not far from Poznan, but then I spend childhood in another city, Nowa Sól, finally my family moved to Poznań. I have been moving since I was very young. Maybe this is why I was not scared to move to Moscow and then to London. I was already used to it. I have a brother and a sister both younger.

At what age did You start to dance?

Anton: When I was 9 my mum wanted me to dance and she took me to dance studio. I didn't want at all, I used to escape from first classes, I was very shy. But one thing from my character helped me in that time, I loved to compete and half a year later when my coach organized first competition it became interesting for me. And after one year it was only my decision to dance. I fell in love with dancing.

Till the age of 13 I had to change partner each year because I was not tall enough for my age and each partner in the end of the year was taller than me.  At the age of 13 i was four months without a partner and then I got proposal to dance temporarily with 9 years girl (Liza Misevish) until we both would find partners. And then we had been dancing together for 9 years!!! We were both "crazy" about dancing, worked hard and had good results. At the age of 18 in order to improve our dancing we moved to Moscow to the famous dance club "Rhythm" of Peter Chebotarev. So all doors were open for us, but 3 years later Liza was not sure if she wanted to continue dancing. After that we danced one more year we practiced together very seldom already and we finished our common carrier in Blackpool 2007 made 48 in Amateurs.

My new partner was Natalia Rumyantseva. We had the same aims, we were both hungry to achieve something and looked great from the first practice. We were very successful. I learnt really a lot from her. But after 7 months we realized we thought in different ways, we couldn't talk and plan lessons, practices, competitions and future together. So there was no point to continue this. I started to think to find partner who wanted the same as me and thought about process the same way, it was April, 2008. But then we danced with Natalia in Blackpool , we made 24 in Amateurs, and finished the 4th in Rising Stars and made 24 in International . Then I met Patrizia...

What about you Patrizia?

Patrizia: My story with dancing started at the age of 9 when my mum took me to my first dance classes in the city of Nowa Sól, small city in Poland. Actually my mum wanted to dance herself as a child, that's why she chose ballroom dancing. In the beginning there were no partners there so I was dancing alone, but I already knew that this was what I wanted to do and I dreamed to become a great dancer. After a year I startedto dance with got a good boy two years older than me,  and we started to compete. But after 2 years it stopped working and when I was thinking what to do next I got proposal to dance with another partner from different city, from Poznan. My parents decided to move as it was bigger city and it was better for all of us. So new life started, new city, school, people, club.  It was very interesting and good experience, we get well together with my new partner, but he prefered ballroom and I loved latin, so after 2 years we decided to split. At that time my brother Bartek was already dancing for few years, so our parents decided that it would be good if we try to dance together. And this was when we started to be more serious about learning, results. Our teachers were Roman and Monika Pawelec,they helped us  very much during our career, we were lucky to meet top teachers and to dance the famous competitions in England that we fell in love with. We danced together for four years. Until Bartek decided to stop dancing. And so I started to look for a partner.

When did You start to dance together?

Anton: November 2008.
Patrizia: Almost 3 years already!
Anton: Yeah!

How did you meet each other?

Anton: In Moscow my foreign teacher was Tone Nyhagen. I spoke much with her about my situation and she started to look for a new partner for me. In August I got call from her...

Patrizia: Also my main foreign teacher was Tone. In August we were having lessons with her in London and when Bartek said to her he would like to stop dancing, so she immediately on the lesson called Anton to organize try out.

Anton: So I got call from Tone but unfortunately I didn't have visa to go to London to have try out in August. And we decided to have try out during International in October.

Patrizia: But in the end of September my father had a fatal accident... Everything changed and it was very difficult time for me and for all family.

Anton: We met each other In Assen, Dutch Open 2008 and had a try out. And it was absolutely different situation in comparison to what I had before. We didn't look good together immediately on the floor but after we talked we realized that we thought the same way about everything, Patrizia was absolutely ready for the process what I suggested. It had future!!! We started to work hard.

But You were from different countries. How did you solve this situation?

Patrizia: I moved to Moscow. Actually I always wanted to live abroad and was very curious about Moscow. Especially from dance point of view it was great experience to be among so many dancers. Of course it was hard in the beginning as I didn't know language but Anton helped me a lot and taught me much.

Anton: In the beginning nobody liked us as a couple and nobody believed in us apart of ourselves and two our teachers Donnie and Tone. It was really hard time for first half a year. But from the beginning I knew it would work!

Patrizia: I had no doubts either!

How was life in Moscow?

Anton: It was very good period of time.

Patrizia: We were surrounded by great people of dance world!

Anton: Sergey Ryupin gave us a lot to develop our partnership. He is a great coach! Also I Stanislav Popov helped us much. He does enormous work for improving dancing in Russia, he helps dancers a lot,  promotes dancing on TV and organizes absolutely amazing and special competitions!

Is it correct that you are now resident in England but spend a lot of time in Poland and of course travelling the world?

Anton: Yes! We moved to London in summer 2010...For us London is the centre of ballroom dancing. And most of our teachers live here...

Patrizia: Apart of Donnie, he lives in Los Angeles.

Anton: Well, I think main reason of our decision at that time was money because it became too expensive for us to go to London to take lessons often. And in Moscow we had not enough work for us at that moment...

Patrizia: And fortunately in the beginning of the 2010 my mum opened a dance studio in Poznan. And this created good opportunity for us to work.

Anton: And this was the key because it was pointless to live in Moscow, work in Poland and go for lessons to London. So we decided to make it easier, and to stay in London and develop our work in Poznan.

Anton you are 26 and Patrizia 22. You are both young to have embarked on a Professional career, what was it that most influenced you in this direction?

Anton: I started to feel it inside. In our case it was about "look". When we watch competition sometimes we discuss that this couple has Pro look, that couple has youth look and etc. So I had feeling after this UK that we could look good in Pro. And the magic thing was that in February on our lesson with Sammy Stopford, he said to us just to think about Pro. For me it was formula!

Patrizia: For me it was a little bit different. After that lesson I said to Anton "I hope you are not thinking seriously about Pro now". (laughing both) I felt I still needed time in amateurs. But then we talked a lot and after 3 weeks I had no doubts about our turning.

Anton: So Sammy helped us a lot but of course it was only our decision. Also he proposed us to represent England, as we moved there.

You must be pleased at the results you are achieving in the Professional field but what are your ambitions?

Anton: Yes, we are. You see it was right decision.

Patrizia: Well, we are very ambitious (laughing).

Anton: But we are going step by step... We would like to be special couple on the floor with our unique style, look. This is our main ambition!

What for you personally is the biggest difference you have noticed between dancing as an Amateur and dancing as a Professional?

Anton: For me actually there is no big difference. But in pro I feel more respect among dancers. I like it.

Patrizia: Yes, I agree with Anton.

What are your competitive plans for the next few months?

Anton: Very busy, in September we are going to USA, to Los Angeles for Embassy Ball and to Orlando for US Open, then Moscow, Imperial, International, London Ball, Assen, Paris, Insbruck.

Patrizia: Our plan is to dance as many competitions as we can.

Anton: We are very excited about our first full season in pro. I love this feeling!

You are already establishing a good reputation as teachers, particularly good in creating choreography which is suitable for the age and ability of the couple. Has this always been of interest to you?

Anton: Well, I think it has always been like that. I like to teach young couples very much. And we both always try to develop our students way of dancing not to make copies of ourselves. Also I find it very useful for us because when we teach we learn a lot from our students and it is also good practice.

What do you think is the best advice that you can give to young dancers today?

Patrizia: To believe in themselves and never give up. If you really want something you will find way to achieve it.

Anton: To believe in their way of dancing, style. Because every couple is unique. Sometimes people say to me "it looks too crazy nobody does it" and I think "Yes. It exactly what we need".

If there was one aspect of competitive dance today that you could change what would that be?

Anton: Difficult question!

Patrizia: I would like to change political situation. Dancers should be free to dance where they want.

Anton: Well I think I would not change anything maybe only I would add prize money for every competition (laughing).



Thank You very much to you both for this interview and good luck in the future!

Anton and Patrizia: Thank You very much! We would like also to say thank you to the team of twistservice.pl for organizing this interview.