Riccardo Cocchi (born December 7, 1977, Terni, Italy) is a 10-time undefeated Latin Dance Champion, with his partner, Yulia Zagoruychenko. Currently, he resides in and represents the United States of America. When not busy competing, Riccardo is available for coaching.
Riccardo began his dancing career at the age of 6 at his parents’ dance studio. His first partner was Barbara Mancuso. At first Riccardo appreciated International Ballroom (or Standard) more than Latin. Later he competed for many years in amateur divisions with different partners. When Riccardo started dancing with Joanne Wilkinson, from Australia in 1998, he switched over to Latin completely. Riccardo and Joanne were two times World Amateur Latin Champions, ten times Italian Amateur Champions, Professional Italian Latin Champions, and Professional Grand Finalists at the UK, British and World Championships. He continued dancing with her for ten years until 2007 when the partnership split. Soon afterward Riccardo had the opportunity to dance with Yulia Zagoruychenko. Cocchi and Zagoruychenko won their first World Latin Dance Championship in 2010, and earned their second title in 2011. They are ranked #1 in the world for Professional Latin. They recently won their 5th consecutive National Professional Latin Champions title at the US Open Dance Competition. Apart from active participation in competitions, Riccardo and Yulia take part in shows all over the world. [1] From April 2012 they have been performing in «Dance Legends» in New-York. These days they continue performing as guests at events like Shining Star Cup 2023. [2]
Ballroom dance is a set of European partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world, mostly because of its performance and entertainment aspects. Ballroom dancing is also widely enjoyed on stage, film, and television.
Dancesport is competitive ballroom dancing, as contrasted to social or exhibition dancing. In the case of Para dancesport, at least one of the dancers is in a wheelchair.
Paul Killick is a British professional ballroom dancer and an International Latin American Dance Champion. He appeared in the first two series of the television show Strictly Come Dancing. Killick specialize in Latin dance and has won The World Cup, World Trophy, World Masters, World Series, Universal and British Professional Latin American DanceSport Championships.
Lilia Andreyevna Kopylova is a Russian professional dancer.
Karen Hardy is a British professional ballroom dancer, coach, teacher and adjudicator. In 1998 she won the professional International Latin American Dance Championship with Bryan Watson. She also won the United Kingdom Open, British National, European and World Masters championships. She now runs a dance studio at Imperial Wharf, London.
Matthew David Cutler is an English dancer and former World Amateur Latin-American champion. He was a professional dancer on the BBC dancing show Strictly Come Dancing.
Anna Trebunskaya is a Russian born American professional ballroom and Latin dancer, known for her appearances on Dancing with the Stars. She now lives in Los Angeles and dances in the International Latin style.
Hazel Catherine Newberry MBE is one of the United Kingdom's leading ballroom dancers and dance teachers. She was three times undefeated World Professional Ballroom champion, dancing with Christopher Hawkins (2002–2004).
Pavel "Pasha" Kovalev is a Russian professional Latin and ballroom dancer.
Jean-Marc Généreux is a French Canadian ballroom dance champion, choreographer and television personality from Longueuil, Quebec, Canada. He is most prominently known for his roles as judge and choreographer on the American and Canadian versions of So You Think You Can Dance, the French version of the hit television series Dancing with the Stars, and TVA’s hit dance competition series Révolution.
Nicole Cutler is a professional ballroom dancer and former World Amateur Latin-American champion. She was born Nicole Westdyk in Durban, South Africa and after taking up ballet at the age of four, first tried out ballroom and Latin-American dancing at the age of twelve.
Slavik Kryklyvyy is a professional ballroom dancer specializing in International Latin. Born and raised in Ukraine, he is currently residing in New York City.
The International Latin American Dance Championships were created after the Second World War in England by Elsa Wells, and are now organised by Dance News special events. The current full title is the Elsa Wells International Dance Championships, and includes all categories in Standard and Latin American ballroom dance.
Dimitri Petrides was a ballroom dancer who was instrumental in pioneering and developing Latin American dancing in England and later globally. He left Cyprus when he was eighteen with his mother after the death of his father, eventually settling in England. He was one of the founding members of the Latin-American Faculty of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing, and wrote the first English textbook on the subject. He was a Fellow and Examiner of the ISTD.
Daniella Karagach Pashkova is an American dancer. Karagach and dance partner Leonid Juashkovsky are three-time United States junior I and II Latin champions. They were the 2007 junior II 10 dance champions. Abroad, they reached the finals in the Celtic Classic, Moscow Open and Barcelona Open. Karagach and Juashkovsky were the United States representatives to the World Championships in Latvia, Russia and Barcelona. They appeared on seasons 2 and 3 of America's Ballroom Challenge on PBS. After Leonid, she paired with Pasha Pashkov, with whom they won numerous US and world championships, including, National titles in Latin, Ballroom, 10 dance and showdance. They won the Rising Star championships in Blackpool,UK Open and UK Open 10-dance. She became a professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars in 2019, when she was paired up with Nelly. She went on to win her first Mirrorball trophy in with celebrity Iman Shumpert.
Joanna Leunis, is a professional Latin ballroom dancer. With Michael Malitowski, she is a former professional World Latin Dance Champion and the current International Latin American Dance Champion. The couple represented Poland until 2011, choosing to represent England until their retirement in 2015.
Sports are widely practiced in Austria, both in professional and amateur competitions. The most popular sports are association football, alpine skiing and ice hockey.
Yulia Zagoruychenko is a ten-time Latin Dance Champion and the current World Latin Dance Champion with her partner/husband, Riccardo Cocchi.
Vadim Garbuzov is a Canadian and Austrian ballroom dancer, showman and choreographer of Ukrainian descent. He was the World Youth Championship finalist in 2005, the winner of the Austrian TV program Dancing Stars in 2012, 2014 and 2020, and the professional world champion in Latin and Standard show dance 2015-2017. Currently, he is a Pro on the German TV Show Let’s Dance.
Joanne Kirsty Clifton is an English professional dancer, presenter, actress, and singer. She won the World Ballroom Showdance Championship in 2014, and won the European Professional Ballroom Championship and World Dancesport Games. She was a professional dancer on the BBC TV series Strictly Come Dancing from 2014 to 2016, winning the Christmas Special in 2015 with Harry Judd who was series 9 champion and the fourteenth series in 2016 with Ore Oduba. She also appeared as an expert presenter on Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two in 2015 and 2019.