Adjudicators – Officials – Music – Chairpersons
Adjudicators
Sandra Caspers
TSC Schwarz-Gelb Aachen
Inspired by the movie “West-Side-Story 1980”
- 1988: started dance school (with not quite the original signature of her parents)
- 1994: Beginning of amateur career (national and vice-championship titles in both sections and numerous finals national and international)
- 2002: end of amateurs / switch to professionals (numerous finals national and international in both sections, Vice “Freestyle Champion”, German Masters and Grand Prix winner)
- 2011: switch back to the amateurs Sen I S Standard & Latin (Vice champion North Rhine Westphalia, multiple finals national and international)
- Adjudicator as of 2001 – Adjudicator A as of 2003
- First Equality Tournament as adjudicator in 2004
- Dance coach as of 2005 (Latin show dance teams, fitness and couples in both Latin and Ballroom)
- Most favourite dance partner of the world: Niels
Motto:
Dancing with and for the feeling,
dancing for yourself and for people who like to watch,
dancing with heart and soul became, was and is my motto …
… and it will never stop.
Agnes Forrai
Hannover 96 Tanzen d. Hann. SV
Like lots of adolescents I visited a dancing school to learn ballroom dancing. In 1989 I started to train for competition dancing and did it for ten years in Germany – of which six years exceptionally in the Amateur Latin S-League. After passing my trainer certificates I decided to get the judging certificate, too. Since about 13 years I have the highest German judging certificate.
Beate Fricke
btc Grün-Gold der Turngemeinde in Berlin 1848
I started dancing at the age of eight. As of 2001 I started Equality dancing with Sabine Karkó. Many wonderful years followed that were crowned with success like i.e. European Champion in Latin (2004 and 2005) and European Champion titles over 10 dances (2004 and 2005) and the World Cup titles Latin and 10 dances as well as Vice World Championships Standard 2006 in Montreal.
2012-2014 German Champion over 10 dances with Anja Schulze.
As of 2006 I own the WR-A-license as well as the trainer C-license of the DTV.
I am very sorry that I do not have enough time for my own dancing anymore, but I am very happy to be able to judge here in Cologne!
Regina Gombar
Tanzschule Step & Swing, Wien (Österreich)
Regina Gombar is an international professional dancer, coach in Vienna, OETSV licensed judge, educated as member of Allied Dancing Association (UK) in ballroom and latin-american dances www.tanzprofis.at.
She owns her own dancing school together with her partner Manfred Edelbauer www.stepandswing.at.
Michael Hölschke
Tanzsportklub Residenz Dresden
1983 was a special year for me and my wife Renate: Before the birth of our daughter we concluded our dancing career, starting in the E-Class up to the S-Class and passed the coach exam. Since then we have been working as coaches, since 1988 I am self-employed. In the German Dance Sport Association I am an S-judge up to German Championships, I was press spokesman for 16 years in the state of Saxony and was also active in the presidency of the Dance Sport Coaches Association as honorary.
I train in several clubs in Saxony, but my home is the ”Tanzsportklub Residenz Dresden”. Together with Beate Fricke, we are in charge of our Equality group “Queerballroom”, which we jointly established in 2011 with the support of Hans-Jürgen Dietrich. At the preparation of the 8th International Open German Championships for Female and Male Couples, which was hosted in 2012 in Dresden-Radebeul, I worked as a club sports officer in the organization team.
I’m looking forward to the 14th edition of the Championship with certainly great sporting achievements. The most important thing for me, however, is the comradely atmosphere that we will certainly feel especially in the Gala Ball.
Giselle Keppel
Köln
- 3 times Vice World Champion Freestyle Standard of the Professionals
- Vice-European Champion Freestyle Standard of the Professionals
- 8 times German Champion Standard of Professionals
- 3 times German Champion Freestyle Standard of the Professionals
- 6 times European Championship finalist Standard of Professionals
- Finalist World Championship Standard of Professionals
- 26 time winner of Grand Prix tournaments of Professionals
- Trainer, choreographer
- Judge DPV
- Judge WDC, International Adjudicator Ballroom and Latin
I am pleased to be able to evaluate the International Open German Championships for female and male couples and thus to support the equality dance sport. Since I have already evaluated several Equality tournaments and teaching Equality couples, I know what outstanding achievements are presented here. A lot of fun and a fair competition to all participants!
Cornel Müller
TSC Castell Lippstadt
- Active dancer since 2003 (Standard, Latin, 10 dances, multiple finalist of federate state championships, vice-champion federate state, champion of federate state, former member of federate state squad TNW (North Rhine Westphalia)
- Since 2008 Trainer Standard & Latin
- Since 2010 Adjudicator Standard and Latin
Horst Neumann
TTC Rot-Gold Köln
Horst Neumann is a multiple West German master of the Adult S in standard dances and a member of the German national teams of amateurs and professionals. He is in possession of the Trainer A license and the Judge S license in the DTV for Standard and Latin as well as international judges for amateurs and professionals in the WDC.
Martin Schurz
TTC Rot-Gold Köln
Peter & Rachell van der Veek
Danscentrum Welkom, Lisse (The Netherlands)
Peter and Rachell van der Veek are the owners and principal teachers of Danscentrum Welkom in Lisse, The Netherlands.
Their dance manifesto includes being twice Dutch amateur Champions and 8 times professional champions of New Zealand (Rachell’s home country).
They were placed 4th in the world championships showdance and performed an exhibition dance during the prestigious Blackpool Dance festival.
Outside of the competitive scene they were lead dancers with the Malando Tango Orchestra touring Japan, France and The Netherlands and were advisers to the Dutch National Ballet for the world premiere of Social Dances.
After an illustrious dance career travelling the world they set down their roots in Lisse in 1997 where they now love teaching those of all ages and levels to dance.
Kristian Vellejus
DDD – The Danish Dance Schools (Dänemark)
- Have danced Professional since 2007 for WDC.
- Represented Denmark at the European and World Championships from 2007-2011.
- Has won the Danish championship 2 times as professionals in Latin American dance.
- International WDC judge since 2008
- Since 2011 chairman of the sports committee for “DDD” The Danish Dance Schools, Member of WDC and represented at meetings of Bournemouth and Blackpool annual meetings.
Master of Ceremony
Burkhard Hans
Boston-Club Düsseldorf
Gabriele Kunau
Tanzsportclub Dortmund
Gabriele Kunau has been involved in dance sport since the 1980s. 1998 she joined Tanzsportclub Dortmund and is actively dancing competitions with her husband in SENIII S. Her first connections to the DVET originate from the Tanzsportclub Dortmund who organized the 7. Equality-DM in 2011. Besides being an active dancer Gabriele often acts as master of ceremonies in her own club as well as for international competitions such as the danceComp in Wuppertal or the WinterDanceFestival (WiDaFe). She is happy that it is her native town Cologne where she will be at the microphone for DVET for the first time. Gabriele wishes all participating couples a wonderful weekend, much fun dancing and also much success.
Niels Menge
TTC Rot-Gold Köln
I started Equality Dancing in 1998 with my partner Armin Lohrmann at the Amsterdam Gay Games where we became second in A-class latin. Gay Games Sydney in 2002 (4th place), 4th place in Gay Games Chicago and 3rd place in that same year at the World Outgames in Montreal were other highlights of our dancing career. We stopped dancing together in 2006.
I was very happy to be able to present the dancing event at Eurogames Barcelona in 2008 and Gay Games in Cologne 2010.
Apart from the moderation at dance sport events I am also a dance teacher and a judge for competitions.
Yvonne Ramacher
TSC Mondial Köln
That’s me:
I am almost sweet 50 years old, married to Stefan Ramacher. Together we have a 16 year old boy, Simon. I am working in the administration of the district government of Cologne.
First dance experiences at the age of 13 in dancing lessons in a dance school called Tanzschule Dresen in Cologne.
In 1991 I danced my first ballroom competition in C-Class. Since 1993 I dance together with Stefan for the TSC Mondial Köln – celebrating our silver jubilee this year!
Winning the “Dance Shoe of Glass” in Trier we were promoted to S-Class in ballroom dances. Unfortunately, we had to stop dancing in 1998 because of an accident and a long lasting injury. At the end of 2003 we tried a comeback on the competition floor in the Senior A-Class. Winning the Northrhine-Westfalian Championships in 2004 we were promoted again to Senior S-Class.
For the past five years we had a dancing break again – due to our jobs and the sportive ambitions of our son. Since 1998 I am also active in managing and presenting tournaments and events – for example presenting with great pleasure the equality competitions of our dancing club.
Music
Burkhard Hans
Boston-Club Düsseldorf
Michael Steinborn
TTC Rot-Gold Köln
Michael Steinborn, born 1965 in Leverkusen, danced latin and ballroom with his wife Tatjana for many years in Germany‘s top amateur class. Michael went on to become a judge with the highest German license in both divisions. He‘s always had a keen interest in dance music. He‘s been playing dance music for major dance competitions and championships for more than 30 years. He even wrote ‚Musik, bitte!‘, a book which offers guidance on how to provide music for dance competitions. The book was published by Casa musica in 2001. He is constantly looking to discover new, still unknown dance music titles. In Michael‘s view, a dance competition is a whole musical work of art – and as such, he gives any event from the opening to the victory ceremony his personal „note“.
alphaband
Bandleaderin: Conny Kollet
Chairpersons
Dörte Lange
TTC Rot-Gold Köln
Thorsten Reulen
btc Grün-Gold der Turngemeinde in Berlin 1848
