Benji Schwimmer & Nicole Ramirez - 1st Place Champions Strictly Swing - The Open 2023

[@mostguitarswins]

Really great to see them dancing together again. They're still the bomb 👏👏👏👏. 1st Place! 🥇🥇🥇🥇

[@fynnbehnke]

It‘s so much fun seeing you two dance together

[@RuthK-b5i]

Benji is so awesome. Haven't seen him for some time. Love him! He is on another level.

[@LightsaberPanda]

I love all the vocal intricacies they hit in the music.

[@nejp2002]

Amazing! Every step was in sync with the beat of the music. ❤

[@NaheedMan]

Nicole was absolutely amazing! 👏👏👏

[@dianesawtell7216]

You two ROCK!

[@whitneymatalone9458]

Whoooaaa this is FUN!!!!

[@Tina-qp7py]

Benji won SYTYCD. Still a fantastic dancer.

[@sageauthor31]

At 1:40 is my absolutely favourite moment in the dance, the coordination of Nicole to smoothly hop in a circle TO THE BEAT OF THE MUSIC while crouched on one foot and leaning backwards and STILL managing to play with audience is amazing. Bennie is of course very talented and a well-awarded WCS dancer, I really like his style of those small, almost robotic movements the beat of the music, adds rhythm to the dance and makes him a much more interesting and fun leader.

[@versannewolf4919]

Your dance looks like figure skating you look so light wow Beautiful. I love it. 🫶👍🇨🇦

[@htepastte1]

My favorite follow to watch!!!

[@coloredbymaia6476]

Benji is amazing ❤❤❤❤

[@fredkay7595]

Stunningly good 🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@suehinze1566]

👏👏👏👏👏 Bravo❤

[@cathieschmitgal5515]

Amazing!

[@Violet316]

I remember Benji from SYTYCD, great job.

[@konja999]

🤩

[@aleksandrzhilkin4800]

after Benji I can't watch other swing dancers :( he's on another level

[@cesrelawrence-towner9453]

Benji❤

[@michelemancosu5457]

Nicole sempre bravissima e bellissima 😍 ^^ ma questi concorsi come funzionano: si iscrivono e poi le coppie sono combinate casualmente ? 😳

[@MissTwoSetEncyclopedia]

It depends on the competition. Jack & Jill --> The partners are randomly paired. Strictly Swing (like this one) --> The partners chose beforehand to dance together.

[@michelemancosu5457]

@@MissTwoSetEncyclopedia many thanks 🙂🙂

[@MissTwoSetEncyclopedia]

@@michelemancosu5457 You're welcome 😊

[@1105pitbull]

Who was the announcer?

[@abdelazizaitblouk]

Did I just see a toilet paper between flags 😂

[@ukpylot]

I'm not in the Swing world so forgive the dumb question but why wasn't Nicole dancing with Thibault? It doesn't seem to be a Jack and Jill...... great to see Benjji, used to practice at the same studio as him in Redlands when I was competing in Int Latin. Nicole is amazing as always

[@StorytellingHeadshots]

It's common in West Coast Strictly Swing comps to choose to dance with a friend or other dance partner, just because it's a fun opportunity to compete with someone you have good dance chemistry with. No need for it to always be one's romantic partner. In fact, some couples prefer to keep personal partnerships and professional dance partnerships separate in general. And that's just a personal choice. In this case, Nicole and Benji were famously a dance partnership for 3 years ( I believe). And most notably were partners for Benji's final Championship Showcase Routine that won first place at the Open in 2018 ("Three Minutes" Worth watching if you want to check it out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m4i6gXuvf9N8e6s ). So dancing together for this was like 'old home week' for this partnership and for this crowd at the Open especially. Lotsa history there! And they are always fun to watch.

[@DebYarbrough-sh3cd]

They are married but at competitions may have random partners

[@brieucguinard]

Strictly means they choose their partner before competing but do improvise on an unknown music. In practice, many people choose not to compete with their main partner (I'm not sure if this is because of a rule saying they can't compete in the same partner in multiple divisions or not though).

[@ArisDeMarcoWCS]

​@@brieucguinardspecifically at the open they can't do strictly if they did a routine with that same person, iirc :)

[@suzannekeith7304]

I thought benji retired.

[@quantumnature514]

I was wondering that, too, but perhaps he just couldn't resist the fun. :)

[@LiveAndDieWithMusic]

Benji retired from performing choreography, but still dances in J&Js and Strictly swing.

[@anja4740]

​@@LiveAndDieWithMusic ah , ok. Thank you.

[@SYLVESTERSTALLONE11]

This annoucer is really annoying. Bring back Ben Morris