Dance Sport & Life

About our guest: Jay Olson, M.Sc. is a doctoral researcher at McGill University. He has also been a magician since he was 7 years old. Jay is known for his work as a consultant to reduce fatigue and improve the performance of business travelers and elite athletes. Jay Olson is interested in how psychology and magic can be combined and overlapped. In the podcast, you can find how the placebo effect...

About our guests: Young and highly determined to leave a mark in the dancesport world. Madis Abel and Aleksandra Galkina partnered up in 2012 and ever since they’ve been working hard and aiming for the stars in WDSF Standard division. Madis is a mountain of calmness and sharpness, while Aleksandra’s exuberant energy completes it perfectly and makes it a perfect pair. They get their inspiration fro...

About our guests: Young, fresh and up for great things. Those words describe Anastasia Novikova and Winson Tam, winners of the World Open Latin in Belgrade in 2017. They both started at an early age are working hard ever since. Winson is easy going and catches the moves fast. Anastasia is analytical and thinks every move through. A complementary pair. Through neverending trainings, practices, and...

About our guest: Born in Slovenia, Barbara already started to teach at the age of 18. Now, with more than 30 years of experience as an adjudicator and trainer, she has an open eye for every student and believes that dance is an opportunity to express life's values. Her educational project Cuban Experience in Havana, in cooperation with leading Cuban experts from Instituto Superior del Arte, was tr...

About the guest: In 1998  after giving some lectures convinced by his close friend Ruth Vermeij, Maximilian let go of his commercial years in advertising.  Soon from a communication specialist in advertising, he turns to be a communication specialist in dance, a performance coach who loves finding the strengths that lie in the couples he works with. He decided to take his experience and put his kn...

About the guest: Dance has been in the life of Peter Townsend since he was 7. For many years he danced competitively and he became a Professional at the age of 21. He studied not only ballroom and latin but also classical, contemporary and jazz ballet and contact improvisation. He was a founding member of Team Amsterdam and he finds that one can be highly motivated by different thoughts and ideas....

About our guest: Pietro Braga is a master of the art of dance. Starting from the early age of 16 years old, he teaches social dance and finishes working for the WDSF. He believes that although precise technique is an essential element of the aesthetics of the dancesport performance , the musicality of the movement must be met with the same diligence. Topics discussed in this episode Working on mus...

About the guest: William Pino found himself in a studio at a very young age. That was the start of a relatively short but intense and strong career. His dance partner, Alessandra Bucciarelli, was the one he'd marry. By 20 they were the only couple in the world that won all major competitions under 21: International, Blackpool, German Open etc. At 21 they were top 6 in the world, at 26 world champi...

About our guest: Life has a strange way of playing out, and it is very unpredictable. Watching a tango lesson touched Siscu Perez so much that it put him on a career path very different from the one he imagined. From a shy reclusive child who wanted to grow to be a history teacher, he came to be one of the greatest teachers in dancesport and an adjudicator in competitions all over the world. Topic...

Colin James is one of the world's most distinguished ‪coaches holding the prestigious award "Teacher of the year". His name stands behind many champions and finalists around the globe. You might also know him from his long-lasting collaboration with Dancing with the Stars in Poland. Colin James is a Blackpool and UK Open Amateur Champion, and a second-time Grand Slam winner. He has been a finalist...

About our guest:  Dekatra Lapaeva was a professional Latin-American dancer who has been a finalist in most major competitions and championships all around the World. Dekatra writes, creates, and innovates all the time. She is a multi-dimensional artist with 25 years of experience who weaves an imaginary bridge among movement and dance, visual arts and writing poetry. With a background in psycholog...

About our guest How is it to have such an interesting life that you had a movie made after it? Pierre Dulaine surely knows. Along with his partner Yvonne Marceau, he won the Blackpool exhibition section four times. But even though he was a force in the professional dancer's community, he had a bigger call for teaching.   He received the Americans for the Arts Award, the prestigious Ellis Island Me...

About the guest Aleksander Makarov became an iconic figure in dancesport, teaching champions like Madis Abel and Aleksandra Galkina. His last partner is also his actual wife and he had been dancing with her in the last 4-5 years of his dance career, which were the most successful. They won International Championships U21 and they’re second and third in Blackpool U21. Though he decided to stop danc...

Former professional ballroom dancer, fashion model, now author, dancesport teacher and choreographer - Dirk Heidemann is the personification of Latin dancing: colorful, passionate and raw. After more than 30 years of training and preparing 40 champions of Germany, Europe, World Champions, Blackpool and German Open, he is considered one of the best ballroom dance coaches in the world. Topics discus...