Ballroom Champs Have Olympic Dreams for Their Students

Feb. 2, 2006 — -- Jonathan Wilkins and Katusha Demidova are ballroom dancing royalty -- reigning professional U.S. champions -- and they compete all over the world.

So how do you get to ballroom dancing glory? Practice, practice and more practice.

"Even at our level, our results are based upon how much work we put in to this, how much time we practice," Wilkins said.

For them, ballroom dancing is serious business where the real profits come not so much from winning competitions but from coaching talented young dancers as well as other professionals at a New York studio -- Ballroom on Fifth.

"We get up in the morning and we go to work by coming to the dance studio," Wilkins said. "It's how we make our money, it's how we live our life, so this is 24 hours."

They're training a new generation of young dancers who some hope will one day have a shot at the Olympics some day. But the U.S. Olympic Committee has so far ruled ballroom dancing out of the games.

Anna Demidova, 17, is Katusha's younger sister. She and her partner, 16-year-old Andrew Begunov, are rising stars in the ballroom world. Anna is a part-time model and Andrew is still in high school, but they spend hours every night practicing.

"We just hope that they stick at it, because it's a long, hard slog," Wilkins says.