Austin Joson

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Austin Cotler Joson
Born August 7, 1995 (1995-08-07) (age 12)
Flag of the United States Middlesex County, NJ, U.S.
Occupation Ballroom dancer, Student
Website
www.AustinJoson.com

Contents

[edit] About Austin

Born in New Jersey, Austin Joson is a 12 year-old ballroom dancer. He has been dancing for almost 3 years. Austin is a ten dance competitor, which means that he competes in both Latin and Standard dances. He has numerous championship titles in both styles. Along with his current partner, Liza, he has won several National titles in the Junior and Preteen/Juvenile categories. Austin and Liza's current competitive standings can be found on their Dancesport Info Profile Page..

[edit] Early Period

He has had several partners throughout his ballroom dancing career, his first being Fiona Tsatskin. He and Fiona danced in Austin's first competition, the Tri-State Challenge in March of 2005. At this point he was dancing at the Bronze level. They went on to compete in the Philly Festival, American Star Ball, and Manhattan Dancesport competitions, with very successful results.

[edit] Beginning of Gold and partnership with Taylor-Ann Barton

After the 2005 Manhattan Dancesport Championship, Austin began a partnership with Taylor-Ann Barton of Alpine, Utah. They went on to compete at the Preteen Championship level in several competitions including the Ohio Star Ball and Embassy Ball. Austin, abruptly reaching a new level of dancing and competition, seemed to have entered a storm without a rain jacket. Austin and Taylor's partnership was very strong and quite promising; however, due to many other things they had to take care of, Taylor's family opted to take a break from dancing.

[edit] Liza Lakovitsky

With the sudden loss of a partner, Austin Joson had to audition a new partner. Through a ballroom dancing website, he found Liza Lakovistky, a champiionship competitor from Brooklyn, New York. She is his current partner. Their biggest challenge as a partnership has been their height difference, but this seems to be less of a problem for the judges. Although Liza was not trained in Standard dancing prior to her partnership with Austin, she learned very quickly, and they immediately began winning Standard championships. Austin and Liza are 2008 USA Dance National Junior 1 Champions in both Latin and Standard. They were also 2006 USA Dancesport National Preteen Champions and 2007 US Dancesport Preteen Champions in both Latin and Standard. They represented the United States in the Juvenile Team Match at [Blackpool Festival] in Blackpool, England in both 2006 and 2007. Additionally, they have competed in numerous competitions across the United States, and in Canada. They have won numerous championship titles at both the Juvenile and Junior levels.

[edit] Beyond competitions

In addition to their vast achievements in competitive ballroom dancing, they have appeared in numerous shows including Dance from the Heart-Dancers Responding to AIDS and for two consecutive seasons on America's Ballroom Challenge on PBS. The couple most recently appeared on Dancing with the Stars dancing the Samba.

[edit] References