Deaf dancers from N Kazakhstan win WCOPA Grand Prix

PETROPAVLOVSK. KAZINFORM A unique ballroom dance ensemble SENSITIV from Kazakhstan’s northernmost city of Petropavlovsk won the Grand Prix of the World Championships of Performing Arts (WCOPA) in the U.S., Kazinform has learned from the regional culture department.

The 25th jubilee WCOPA was held from July 22 to 31 in Anaheim, California, and gathered more than 3,000 contestants from 72 countries of the world.

The ensemble is also known as the Theater of Deaf Dancers, because its members are deaf or hearing impaired.

The dancers made it to the semifinal and then to the finals of the WCOPA where they had to compete with healthy contestants from the U.S., Ireland, France, Australia, the SAR, Thailand, Canada and Germany.

The ensemble was created by Olga Rostovschikova 16 years ago, when she was employed by the Regional Specialized (Correctional) Boarding School for Hearing Impaired Children. Since then the dancers of the ensemble have repeatedly become winners of various international contests, while competing against healthy participants.

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