LET'S DANCE THROUGH EUROPE

The Eurovision Dance Contest 2008, or as the organizers describe it, "the second annual showcase of the continent's most complex choreography and riveting routines", was held by BBC Scotland in the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow on 6 September. It was the second time the contest had been held but the European audience didn't seem to like round two. Ballroom dancing experts made a lot of complaints to the organizers of the competition. But more about that later. 

Who, when, with whom?  

Fourteen countries took part in the contest: Austria, Azerbaijan, Great Britain, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portgual, Russia, Ukraine, Finland and Sweden. Azerbaijan was the only novice in the tournament while Switzerland, Germany and Spain withdrew at the last minute. Many of the competitors were graduates of their domestic "Dancing with Stars" shows, because under this year's revised rules one of the contestants must not be a professional dancer. 

The expressive performance by Azerbaijani pair Eldar Cafarov and Anna Sajina can be described as a successful debut. The jury, members of the International DanceSport Federation, put them in fourth place but the results of text message voting put them fifth. Eldar Cafarov and Anna Sajina got 108 points behind Lithuania, Ukraine and Russia. The winners were Polish couple Marcin Mroczek and Edyta Herbus who were chosen by the European public. 

Anna and Eldar performed a dance to a song by Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford from the musical Phantom of the Opera in an arrangement by Yasar Baxis that included the national instrument the tar. The dance was a combination of the paso doble, tango, rumba and elements of Azerbaijani folk dance Land of Fire. The dancers' costumes were made in the national style. Eldar appeared in a man's velvet suit appliqu?d with gold. Anna's dress was sown in the national style, but during the dance it was transformed into a dress more suited to the tango and paso doble. The Azerbaijani couple certainly gave all the other contestants a good run for their money. The results of the jury's preliminary voting put them equal third with Lithuania, not fourth. However, one member of the jury with the right to decide "contentious issues" thought that the Lithuanian couple had danced better and moved them to fourth place. 

Azerbaijan was the only Muslim country that took part in the Eurovision Dance Contest and, interestingly, bookmakers William Hill in London and Glasgow placed our couple second in terms of betting on the results of the Eurovision Dance Contest. The betting table was 1. Ukraine, 2. Azerbaijan, 3. Russia, 4. Finland, 5. Greece, 6. Denmark, 7. Poland etc. Unfortunately, voting by text message again showed that the Azerbaijani diaspora are not very active, while Polish determination pushed their couple from sixth to first place. 

After the contest Anna Sajina apologized to her partner Eldar Cafarov, who had offered her his hand and heart, for putting his feelings to the test. Anna said that she would accept his proposal only if they won. But all the same Anna slipped Eldar's ring on her finger and said that she would marry him. "Before this, like Eldar I was thinking only about the contest. But when it was all over and I heard the result, I realized that it wasn't that important whether we won or not. That's why I apologized to Eldar and said that I would marry him," Anna Sajina told the press after the show. Eldar and Anna do not know yet when and where they will get married, but this most important day in their life will probably take place in Baku. It became public knowledge because Eldar went down on one knee before Anna and gave her the ring straight after their performance and before the announcement of the jury's voting. Whether this was a deliberate PR move or true love, time will tell.

"This is an excellent result for us! We are going back to Azerbaijan very happy. We are grateful to Eldar and Anna for representing our dance culture so well in Europe!" the head of the Azerbaijani delegation, Adil Karimli, said after the contest.

Behind the scenes

However, after the contest Swedish TV commentator Tony Irving lodged a protest with the Eurovision Dance Contest organizers and the International DanceSport Federation. The dance expert, member of the jury for the Swedish show Let's Dance and the Swedish couple's choreographer thinks that nine of the 14 competing couples had broken the competition rules. "This must be investigated", the Swede says, "and as a minimum the rules must be changed next year, made clearer and be enforced." Under the contest's rules, every couple had to consist of a professional and non-professional dancer. All the dances also had to include elements of standard or Latin ballroom dancing and national features. 

"Greece was represented by a world-renowned dancer who was presented as a windsurfer. The Azerbaijani dancers are also a well-known couple. Karina Krysko of Lithuania has been dancing since she was 12. It was strange that the jury gave the highest marks to the couple from Denmark who performed a jazz dance without any ballroom elements. If completely free dance had been allowed, it would have given much broader scope. We carefully studied the dance rules. Only the couples from Ukraine, Portugal, Finland, Russia and Sweden met the rules," Tony Irving said.

The head of the project for Swedish channel TV4, Niklas Westberg, responded: "Some couples clearly had an advantage as they consisted of dancers who had danced in the past. But I would not describe this as breaking the rules. This is just how these countries interpreted the ruling. And the couples are not at all to blame that the organizers allowed them to compete. All complaints should be made against the organizers."

The wining couple, who danced very energetically and were considered amongst the tournament favourites, were also the target of discontent. Did the dance have any national flavour, other than the dancers' red and white costumes? Poland's representatives were one of the few couples that did not dance to their own folk songs. Their use of a song by Michael Jackson showed the organizers' clear failure to bring national flavour to all the dances and draw up clear rules in this regard. Since the votes that the Polish pair received from the diaspora were enough, the winner of the 2008 contest was not so obvious. 

Despite claims that "both the jury and non-specialists will immediately spot the future winner as soon as they see their performance", the results showed a significant difference between the marks awarded by the jury and the viewers. The contest had fewer signs of so-called "neighbour" and "diaspora" voting, but mostly thanks to two factors: a much lower number of countries participated and the contest had far fewer TV viewers. However, the allocation of the top 12-10 points was entirely predictable on diaspora lines, the next 5-8 points probably were given for the best dances and the lowest 1-4 points were distributed chaotically because of the very low number of votes.

Summing up the figures, European experts and media concluded that the 2008 contest was not a success, because the show did not get high ratings on the day. "It was another mistake to hold the contest on an international football evening, which led to one country withdrawing, Spain. For example, in Portugal where the broadcast coincided with one half of the match, the record rating of 43.7 per cent last year fell to a 25.1 share (8.7 per cent) this year. It was the same in Austria…" European Internet publications wrote. 

It's still not clear to us Azerbaijanis why we got 10 points from Ukraine when we gave them 12. or why we got 12 points from Russia when we gave them 10. Make your own minds up. And we can predict now that neither Armenia nor Georgia will ignore the Eurovision Dance Contest 2009.