Champions Dance Sport Club youth competitors heading to World Championship

  Christopher Affonso of Everett and Holly Hatleberg of Chelsea are both 16-year-old competitive athletes from Champions Dance Sport Club of Everett, Mass. This ballroom couple has been emerging in the United States’ competitive field with high potential, clear personal and technical qualities and a desire to rise to the top of the ballroom dance world. They became the 2022 USA Dance Youth Champions, Under-21 Vice-Champions, and members of the World Team. They are heading to represent the USA at the Youth World Championship on December 17, 2022, in Zagreb, Croatia.

  Christopher and Holly have been dancing together for 10 years, yet they are only 16 years old. They have a special and successful partnership. They also became very good friends – doing lots of activities together.

  Both dancers started dancing at Champions Dance Sport Club and are currently members. Throughout the years, they have been competing with great success in local and national competitions. In their junior years they received national titles in gold standard syllabus and placed second in Latin.

  As they moved up to open championship level, they have achieved many results in the dance sport world, including becoming U.S. Champions in Youth Standard, U.S. vice-champions in youth 10-dance and U21 Standard in 2022. Recently, they represented the United States in some major international competitions in Switzerland and Germany. They just returned from the U21 world championship in Elbląg, Poland, competing among the best dancers in the world.

  Both children participated in a ballroom dance teachers’ training program and already teach at their studio. They train under the guidance of Hungarian-born Judit Gaspar of Champions Dance Sport Club and Andrea Zaramella of Italy.

  Christopher was three years old when he started dancing. At first he did it because his mom had a studio, but as time went on, he grew to really love dancing. He did his first competition at age seven and his dance career took off from there. He is a junior at Boston College High School. He received high honors and a full scholarship. He is interested in biology and linguistics. He loves languages: he speaks Hungarian and studies Spanish and German. He plays the piano and the violin. When spring comes, he also likes to hit the road and sign up for 5K races or take long bike rides. In his spare time, he likes to play board games with his dance friends, hike and play tennis, and he also enjoys camping. He established a successful online shop for flag designs.

  Holly began dancing at the age of five. She watched her parents’ first waltz lessons out of the corner of her eye until she finally came up and said, “Daddy, if you sign me up for lessons, I will dance better than you.” By now she has proven herself! Holly is a sophomore in high school and is part of the cross-country team. She is a high honor student who scored the maximum points possible on the MCAS test. She loves traveling and has visited about 50 national parks. In her rare spare time, Holly loves reading, playing games with family and friends and baking delicious pastries.

  Christopher and Holly are doing everything in their power to represent their country and place well in their field. The support they need now can only come from your generosity. If you would like to assist in their pursuit, please donate on their GoFundMe: http://gofund.me/3fdd5fb7 .

  Champions Dance Sport Club is an Everett-based business providing ballroom and Latin dance instruction to children and adults as well as social and competitive dancers since 2006.

https://gofund.me/44352f84