By Sunayana Prabhu
COLTS NECK – How far would you go to support your talented child? This isn’t the premise of a holiday family movie, but feels like one.
A family in Colts Neck recently unwrapped an experience that “dreams are made of.”
Domenico Burns, a fifth-grader at St. Leo the Great School in Lincroft, along with his partner Juliana Gekker of Manalapan, won the coveted World Dance Championship in the Netherlands in November. But sweeter than the title is the belief the family had in his talent, relocating from Los Angeles to Colts Neck just to give Domenico, an only child, the best shot at success.
According to Domenico’s mom, Heidi Burns, Domenico’s previous partner withdrew from a performance in June at the famous Blackpool Dance Festival in Lancashire, England, leaving Domenico paired with Gekker. Juliana’s teachers – Tal Livshits and Ilana Kesselmen – are former students of Heidi and her husband Donnie, both accomplished dancers. Donnie is a 16-time World Professional Latin Champion and winner of other major world titles.
“They just really clicked,” said Burns of her son and Gekker.
The family was living a “beautiful, comfortable life” near Laguna Beach, California, halfway between L.A. and San Diego, surrounded by palm trees and beaches, said Burns. But Juliana was in New Jersey, almost 3,500 miles away, making dancing together long-term difficult, to say the least.
The kids practiced together for the Blackpool Dance Festival – but not in person. Domenico sent videos, recorded at his studio in L.A., to Juliana’s teachers in New Jersey so she could learn his routines.
Only 10 days after partnering, the two met in England to rehearse for the show and danced together for the first time.
The connection was evident. Top professionals from the business reached out to the Burnses and advised them to “make it work,” even if it meant closing the distance between the two by moving from the West Coast to the East, a new home, a new school, a new community, a complete life change.
“If you told us this time last year that we would be here (in New Jersey) we would have laughed at you,” Burns said. “It was not at all on our horizon.”
The Burnses flew from L.A. to New York and back six times looking at homes, putting in bids and getting summarily rejected and dejected. They enrolled Domenico in St. Leo the Great before finding a home in the area.
In August, the Burnses closed on a property in Colts Neck with a new modern farmhouse on 21 acres with its own lake, swimming pool, barn/stables and a dance studio nearing completion. The property even came with alpacas.
“Dance partnership, it’s not just about the kids being able to work together, it’s also about the families,” Burns said. It was “half the battle won” for the Burnses to find that Juliana’s family was just as dedicated to her talent as they were to Domenico’s.
That was “one of the reasons why we were so confident about the move,” Burns said.
Since June Domenico and Juliana have been competing all over the United States and have won every competition. However, the climax was at the World Championships where couples in all age ranges from all over the world competed, representing countries such as China, Japan, New Zealand, Ukraine, Russia, England and the Netherlands, many of them sponsored by their governments. Many couples had been dancing together for years.
Did Domenico sense an underlying pressure to perform well?
“Oh yeah,” he said, “I felt like really, really pressured. I thought, ‘Okay, you gotta, gotta, gotta win this. You moved to New Jersey for it, your family believes in you. You have to, have to, have to win this.’ And I did.” Domenico and Juliana practiced 8 to 9 hours a day leading up to the finals. There were 17 judges from different countries and a possible 85 placings; the new partners became the Juvenile Under-12 champions with 80 top placings.
For anyone wanting to compete in dance championships, “You have to put your blood, tears and sweat into it,” Domenico said. “It’s going to be stressful, but it feels good in the end.”
While he misses his friends back in California “horribly,” he said, he has found new friends and adapted to middle school at St. Leo’s.
Even though the weather was “perfect all year long” in California, Domenico and his family are getting used to the wintery temperatures of New Jersey – and to having another world champion in their family.
The article originally appeared in the December 7 – December 13, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
