Following in mom’s dance steps

Teen ballroom champ learning at feet of Yale coach, mother

BRIDGEPORT — If you’re competing in the precise and artistic realm of ballroom dance, it helps to have a champ for a mom.

Kristers Smits, who this year won two national youth dance crowns with Liza Shlimovich, is the son of Anita Smits, a former professional Latin champion of Latvia. She not only teaches the young pair of dancers but she is also the coach of Yale’s Latin ballroom dance team.

So Yale visitors are expected to be in the crowd when Smits and Shlimovich perform at Premier Ballroom’s monthly dance event at the Holy Trinity Greek Church Community Center in Bridgeport on Saturday.

The event begins at 7 p.m. with general dancing followed by a lesson at 8 by Karen Pfrommer, owner of the Dance In Rhythm studio in Branford who is also the free-style coach at Yale. The headliners — who earlier in the year won the Amateur Youth Latin and Amateur Youth Teen categories for dancers ages 16-19 at the USA Dance National DanceSport Championships — will dance at 9:30.

Smits, 17, came to the U.S. with his mother six years ago, took a partner and they became preteenage champs for five years, says a release from

Premier’s Bob Beslove. But Smits grew too tall for his partner, they split and he partnered with 15-year-old Shlimovich from Los Angeles, who joined him in August 2017.

Following the show in Bridgeport, the teens will compete in Europe. On Sept. 22, they will compete for the standard ballroom world youth title in Kistelek, Hungary, then go to Madrid, Spain, for the 10-dance title (Latin and ballroom).

Admission to Saturday’s event is $20. For reservations, call 203374-7308. Holy Trinity Greek Church is at 4070 Park Ave. in Bridgeport.

Courtesy of Bob Beslove Teen dancers Kristers Smits and Liza Shlimovich, the United States Amarteur Youth and Latin ballroom champions, will perform in Bridgeport.