Dance or not at all: World Masters 2024

All waltz or what was that? My first dance steps were almost exactly 20 years ago. But there are other reasons why I'm now setting foot in the Polai dance school again: With the 32nd World Masters on March 23, the dance floor will be glowing again in the Congress halls. The organizer, dance teacher, adjudicator and former professional dancer Julia Polai told me what we can expect there and which highlights are not to be missed in a familiar atmosphere.

Would you like a coffee? Although we haven't seen each other for almost 20 years, we meet like old friends. Julia Polai has now taken over the dance school from her parents, but somehow she still looks exactly the same as she did back then. Although the school has now moved into the old Ursuline church, the same Uschi who taught me my first steps back then is giving a private lesson on the expansive dance floor. In the evenings, the same, always so excellently dressed Peter still teaches the elegant standard dances, while Julia teaches the passionate Latin American dances - so it's all the same anyway. In my day, she was still dancing professionally herself, with Anton from Nizhny Novgorod (not from Tyrol). But she has long since retired from competitive dancing, laughs the 44-year-old. Incidentally, her father Ferry Polai's dance school celebrated its 45th anniversary in January - and is therefore something of an older sister.

The Polaiball, where 176 debutant couples recently danced their first opening polonaise, proves that classic dancing is far from being out of fashion. The impressive competitions of the World Masters, on the other hand, show how things can continue after the first dance steps and with a little practice. The internationally extremely popular Innsbruck Dance Championships are taking place for the 32nd time this year and have long been a sparkling fixture on the world dance floor. And not just because international stars such as the Moldovan world champion couple(Dorin Frecautanu & Marina Sergeeva) or the two crowd favorites from Slovenia(Klemen Prasnikar & Alexandrea Averkieva) are once again doing the honors. But also because young dancers will be gaining their first tournament experience in the popular sport, even the audience will be able to dance for a trophy with the Waltz Challenge Cup of the Alps or professional dancers will be competing with beginners in the "ProAm" competition on Friday - just like Dancing Stars, only with a real dance tournament.

Even if you don't have time to visit the Congress, you can still watch from anywhere, as the spectacle will be broadcast live for the first time on Dance Today. There will also be an online audience vote with a prestigious belt trophy for the winning couple - just like you might see in boxing or wrestling.

Whether online or in real life, you shouldn't miss the solo shows of the six finalist couples, who are each allowed to dance once on Saturday evening without being judged - where the competition takes a short break, you can relax and concentrate on just one performance and simply experience the magic between two people on stage. And yes, even they started with a simple dance course at some point, the dance teacher assures me. Just like Max and Nika, a young Polai dance couple who will be competing in the professional segment at the World Masters for the first time this year. For the first time, the event will take place in two congress halls, because there is simply so much to see, Julia winks promisingly.

On the gala evening of the 32nd World Masters, I am asked to wear appropriate evening wear, the organizer tells me. I don't need to ask what exactly this means. After all, in addition to various dance courses, I also completed the "social certificate" at the Polai dance school almost 20 years ago, even with distinction. There you not only learn the correct way to deal with guests of honor, correct cutlery handling or the appropriate netiquette, but also all sorts of things about dressy evening wear. Or simply the correct way to ask someone to dance - fortunately, good manners never go out of fashion. Just recently, Julia was a guest on Ö1 on the subject of "good manners" - listen here. And because the Congress is within easy walking distance of the Polai dance school, the distance from dance class to professional is not that far: 500 meters at most as the crow flies.

Further information

Tickets for the 32nd World Masters are available via Ö-Ticket or simply spontaneously at the Congress box office (TT-Club concessions). The current dance and etiquette courses of the Polai Dance School can be found here.

Photos: The cover photo was taken by Alexander Gerner from Blitznicht.de. The portraits of Julia Polai and the dance school pictures were taken by the author. Dora Eiler, on the other hand, took the event photos.