Anton Silantev was born in Russia, in the small town of Penza, not far from Moscow. His parents had their own small business but were close to the sport. His father devoted many years to boxing, and his mother was engaged in fitness and volleyball. Anton showed interest in sports and art since childhood, he was engaged in karate, music, played the guitar. At the age of 12, Anton, by coincidence, got into the ballroom dancing section and this was the beginning of a wonderful career. Anton immediately got into promising students and began to win awards at local championships. At the age of 18, Anton was noticed by the famous Russian singer Pavel Kashin and offered to star in his video. On the set of the video “Young lady” Anton and his partner danced as if on sharp nails. The video was uploaded to YouTube and received 2.2 million views. Anton has gained popularity in the dance world and beyond.
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Seeing the success of their son, the parents decided to send Anton to Moscow when he was 19 years old. There he was able to train with the best Russian and European coaches such as Alexander Melnikov and Irina Solomatina, Viktor Nikovsky and Larisa Davydova, Mirko Gozzolli and Edita Danute, and many other top world coaches. After several years of hard work, ups and downs, Anton met his new partner and wife Olga Akopova in 2010. They began to perform in the professional category and their career began to develop rapidly. Just 2 years later, in 2012, they became Russian Champions in 10 dances as professionals, beating the highest-level competitors, Pavel Alekseevsky with Ekaterina Zhupleva and Sergey and Ekaterina Belozerovs. The following year in Rome, Italy, for the first time they reached the final of the World Championship in 10 dances and in the same year became Russian Showdance Champions in Kirov, Russia. In 2014, the sunny city of Salou, Spain, hosted the World Show Championship among professionals, which was broadcast on many Spanish TV channels. It was a huge venue, Salou hosted more than 2200 dancers from 23 different countries, 33 adjudicators from 14 different country. The opening ceremony has been presented by the mayor of Salou, Pere Granados. Out of 13 pairs, representatives of Italy, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Russia, Anton Silantev, together with his partner, reached the 3rd place of the podium and won the bronze medals of the WDSF world championship. The evaluation was based on a point system in four components, similar to figure skating, since the WDSF dance sport is an Olympic sport that claims to be part of the Olympic Games.
After such significant successes, Anton and his wife took a break, opened their own dance studio Gravity in the Moscow region, and gave a birth to their son, Roman. The success of the studio was not long in coming: Anton’s students became the finalists of the most prestigious tournament of the Blackpool Festival.
In 2019, Anton Silantev and his family decided to move to the USA and started working at the Fred Astaire studio in Arizona. In almost 3.5 years in America, Anton won a huge number of competitions across the United States, such as Boca Ballroom in Florida, Galaxy in Arizona, Hawaii Star Ball in Hawaii, Heart of America in Kansas, California Star Ball in Los Angeles, Colorado Star Ball in Denver, Vegas Open Dance Challenge in Las Vegas, City Lights Open in San Jose, Desert Dance Classic in Arizona and many more.
In April 2022, the American Championship was held in Pittsburgh. Anton Silantev and his partner, Olga Akopova, became the American Champions in Showdance and American smooth! It was an incredibly important competition in their career. Highly competent adjudicators put Anton and Olga on the first step of the pedestal. Among the judges were such distinguished former dancers as Andrea Zaramella, 5-time undefeated Italian Ballroom Champion, United Kingdom RS Professional Ballroom Champion, Runner-up in the Blackpool Dance Festival, Sami Yli-Piipari, World & European Professional 10 Dance Grand Finalist, UK Open Professional RS Finalist, Salvatore Todaro, 11-time Bulgarian National Standard Champion, a WDSF World Standard Championship Finalist, 2-time IWGA World Games Finalist, and WDSF Standard World Cup Champion.
This huge success was due to Anton and Olga’s experience in ten dances, they were able to transfer their skills of technique and artistry to the American style of dance, which gave a completely new approach to this style of dance.
Today Anton Silantev lives in Arizona and is going to become the owner of the Fred Astaire studio in Gilbert. It is a great blessing for the USA and Arizona in particular to have such an outstanding dancer who will be an example for many generations of American dancesport. Anton plans to apply his knowledge gained as a result of combining different styles and improve the American style of dance based on this vast experience. It is a great honour and responsibility for Anton to be an American Champion. In the near future Anton with his partner and wife would represent the USA at World Championships. In Anton’s plans for the next 5-10 years to raise the level of dance in Arizona and throughout America. His motto: to teach absolutely any person the maximum dance level in the shortest period of time while enjoying the process and having fun.