Jukka Haapalainen is a Finnish professional ballroom dancer who began his career at age five in his hometown of Lapua. He later teamed up with fellow professional ballroom dancer Sirpa Suutari, who is also his wife, and they competed in many competitions. Together, they have won the prestigious British Open to the World Professional Latin Championships four times and the United Kingdom Open to the World title. Since their competing days, they have been involved in theatre projects and have taught dance worldwide. Their latest project is co-organising the Majestic Dance Tournament with their old teachers, a new six-day dance festival featuring international dancers who will compete for the Majestic Title. It will take place from the 23-28th of March 2024. In a recent interview, the former dance champion provided details about this new tournament.
Tell me about the Majestic Dance Tournament. What is it?
“It is a festival; it will run over six days. It features ballroom and Latin American dancing in all age groups. We have children: juveniles under eight, under ten, and juniors under 14 and 16. We have youths under 19 and 21, and then we have amateur rising star events. That’s for the ones who are not quite so successful yet or haven’t been dancing all that long. Then we’ve got world-class professional open titles in ballroom and Latin American dancing. We are also incorporating wheelchair categories. There are two different categories for the wheelchair: one is where one person is standing up dancing, and the other partner is in the wheelchair. Then we have duos where both of them are in a wheelchair. We’ve also got a same-sex category; this is a growing part of the industry where you could have two male dancers dancing together or two females.”
What is the aim of this event?
“We aim to form a high-quality event without political attachment to any dance organisation. The judges are all former champions who are well-known within the business. We have that problem sometimes; we might get some judges who many of the dancers don’t even know who they are! This is one of the guidelines in our organisation; we want to make the tournament completely transparent and friendly.”
How significant is the Majestic Title that the dancers will be competing for?
“This is the first event, so obviously, it does not have a standing yet. But many of the world’s top contestants will be dancing there, so I think it will become one of the major titles in the dancing calendar.”
What made you want to bring your event to Brighton?
“We decided to start organising this new event in Brighton because much of the dancing happens either in London or up in Blackpool, which is a famous dancing town. But we wanted to bring it down south, and we found this amazing venue, the Brighton Centre, and decided to run it there.”
Who is this event suitable for?
“It’s open for everybody; they can come and enjoy. We will have people like Shirley Ballas in the house for some of it, and some people from Strictly will also be coming over. Some people might like to come and watch the little children dance; they are so cute when an eight-year-old does a Viennese Waltz; they can be brilliant! If people watch and enjoy Strictly Come Dancing, it will be like that but on a very, very high level.”
The Majestic Dance Tournament will take place from the 23-28th of March 2024 at the Brighton Centre.
