Dancesportduo.com Announces That Oregon’s Number One Youth Ballroom and Latin Couple Will be Representing the Northwest Region at the USA National Dancesport Championship

Portland, OR, December 16, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Fifteen year old, William Mao and seventeen year old, Heather Mattole, take their dancing seriously and train with their coaches and practice approximately 8-20 hours per week, depending on their competition schedule. All of this training has paid off with them winning first place in the Youth (ages 16-18) categories of International Bronze Latin, International Silver Standard and American Smooth Novice at the Northwest DanceSport Championships in Seattle on October 24th.

This qualified them for Nationals in April 2010, where they’ll be representing Portland and the entire Northwest, competing for national titles in American Smooth, International Standard Ballroom and International Latin.

Heather Mattole (a junior at Washougal High School), has been competing in International Standard Ballroom competitions since she was twelve years old and was ranked the top Junior (ages 13-15) Novice Ballroom Dancer in the Northwest in 2007. She and her dance partner at the time were set to go to Nationals the next year when his schedule forced him to make a choice between ballroom and ballet and he joined the Oregon Ballet Theater. Lucky for all of us in Portland, she found a great new partner in fifteen year old William Mao (a sophomore at Lincoln High School). They started dancing as partners in November 2008 and over the past year they have racked up first place trophies in competitions all over the northwest. In addition to International Ballroom (Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, & Quickstep), Mao and Mattole began competing in International Latin (Cha-Cha, Rumba & Samba) and in American Smooth.

In addition to US competitions, Mao and Will are preparing to compete internationally, with their first international competition taking place January 22-24th in Vancouver, BC and possible competitions in China.

And Europe in the future.

“Dancing is my passion and having the opportunity to represent the northwest at Nationals is such an honor for me and. I can’t imagine having a better partner than Will,” Heather said. They still have four months of intense training ahead of them and we all wish them well.

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