Abbas swaps TV fame for the Ashgabat 2017 dance hall

Sandra Abbas (LBN) will swap the bright lights of the television studio for the scrutiny of judges at the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.

The 28-year-old this year won season four of the Middle East edition of the worldwide hit Dancing With The Stars alongside actor and poet Badih Abu Chakra.

The show teams up a professional dancer with a celebrity, many of whom have no previous dancing experience.

Now she will be hoping to impress with partner Assadour Euredjian (LBN) when they compete in the Rumba and Paso Doble in the Latin competition on Tuesday 26 September.

“Dancing with the Stars is a completely different thing to these Games,” said Abbas. “There it is mainly focused on the performance and the characters.

“I‘m not showing myself as a dancer, I’m showing the star. Here it is much more competitive and my partner is a professional dancer so it is different.

“But Dancing with the Stars can sometimes add to my performance as a Latin dancer. They are different but can compliment each other.”

Abbas, who competed at the 2013 Asian Indoor Games, added: “In Lebanon, people love the programme. 

“It is very competitive and sometimes you get someone who is very excited for the season and sometimes you get a partner who is very busy and cannot make it all the time for the training sessions.

“But as a dancer your responsibility is to give your best whatever the circumstances are.”

Assadour was one of the professional dancers she beat in the TV series, but now they are partners looking to claim a medal for their country.

“During the Dancing With The Stars season we are rivals, but here we are helping each other,” Abbas added. “We will be trying our best so we’ll see what happens.

“DanceSport is an art and a sport at the same time so you have to combine both of them. You have to give each dance its own character.”

Other medal contenders include Aleksei Kibkalo/Tatiana Kogadei (KGZ) in the Samba and Paso Doble. 

In the latter event they will be up against Yan Bangbang/Zhu Jing (CHN) who will also compete in the Jive. And watch out for South Korea’s Nam Gi Yong/Shin Nara (KOR) in the Samba and Jive.