After winning a major dancing competition on 25th March in Sydney, Magdalen & Philip Lee won big again. This time it was the Jupiter National Championship in Gold Coast on 7th and 8th of April. As Anthony Poon puts it “… indeed new milestones in their dancing endeavors; they are the Australian's honour, the Chinese honour, and to crown all the WYK's honour”
Here is what Philip said after the event:
“We finished 2 days of completions by winning the Open New Vogue and the 8-Dance which is a combo of 4 Standard and 4 New Vogue Dances on Saturday and coming 2nd in Modern Standard on Sunday. The wins on Saturday was particularly gratifying because while we came 2nd in the 8-Dance last year in the Queensland Open we didn’t even make the Final in Open New Vogue so winning both titles was a dream came true. The summary of results were 6:2 for the 8-Dance and 4:1 for the Open New Vogue on Saturday and our 2nd place in Modern Standard was the same in all dances.
We danced very well. The win a fortnight ago in Sydney was confidence building. The news that the reigning national champions of New Vogue pulled out because of injuries was privately welcome but there were other strong contenders to the title, dancers who had been past champions were there, so it was not as if there were no fierce competitions. Everyone was vying for the title and I was fully aware that I was my worst enemy and that if I could overcome my nerves I would do it. I did it in both days.
Just a bit of cultural footnote on the Australian New Vogue style, unlike the Modern Standard style which is international and thus people accept that foreign nationals win titles in this style, the New Vogue style is indigenous to Australia and thus it is jealously guarded by Australians. As far as I know, the only Asian woman (She is Chinese) who won it once partnered an Australian who had been past champion. So we are the first Asian couple who won in this style. BTW, we won the title in Melbourne last September in the Premiere but it was only a State championship just as we have won the Open New Vogue event many times in New South Wales. The Queensland title was different because it is now a national championship. Winning the title means that we are now the current national champion in New Vogue style until the next national championship. Personally it was particularly satisfying because it was a comeback from being dumped last year in the same competition when we didn’t even make the final 6.
Another note of interest is that on Sunday we came 2nd to a couple who were 2 times Australian champions in Modern Standard and they had been selected to represent Australia to dance internationally in the past few years in the over 45 and 55 age categories. When I spoke to them in between rounds they told me that they came 3rd in the Over 55s and 6th in the Over 45s only last December in Paris. Losing to them was quite acceptable. In hindsight, had I been able to dance to my full potential it could have been a closer finish.”