Jamie started Latin dancing over 6 years ago, and says “I mainly started just as a way of meeting new people in Canberra and branching out socially. I was never a very socially outgoing person, and Latin dance has given me the opportunity to meet new people that I would never have met otherwise”.

She didn’t know it at the time, but Danica’s life changed when she started dancing in 2015. Initially dragged along to Latin Lovers by a friend to dance Salsa, it didn’t take long before the music and dynamic connectedness of Zouk caught her attention.

Rod was first introduced to Latin dance in 2013 when he was looking for a new activity to keep his mind and body active.

While in his first term of salsa they were introduced to social dancing nights. During the night he saw his first Zouk-Lambada dance and was instantly in love with its graceful flowing movements set to modern music. Before the song had even finished he had enrolled in the next term’s Zouk-Lambada beginner class!

Since then he has been to several interstate and international congresses, competed twice in the Australian Latin Dance Championships and begun teaching Zouk-Lambada classes at Kmotion.

As an instructor, his goals are to give students the skills and confidence to participate in Latin dance social nights and festivals as he believes it’s a great way to keep active and meet interesting people from all over the world.

Xarjie began his dance training in Ceroc (aka. Modern Jive) in 2002 for about 2 years, and then took a break from dancing as he pursued his Physiotherapy studies.  In late 2009 he discovered his passion for Zouk Lambada (aka Brasilian Zouk) at Kmotion Dance Studio. Since then he has trained in Brasilian Zouk extensively both locally, and internationally.

For the love of Brasilian Zouk, Xarjie has travelled internationally to countries such as Brazil, Russia, Poland, Netherlands, and Czech Republic.  In Australia, he has choreographed, performed and competed in events such as Casa do Zouk, Brazil Central, Sydney International Zouk Festival, Sydney Latin Dance Festival, and Australian Latin Dance Championships.

Xarjie has also been taught by an extensive list of international dancer artists such as Kadu & Larissa, Bruno & Eglantine, Alex & Matilhde, Xandy & Evelyn, Bebe & Rachel, Solange Dias, Adilio Porto, Renata Pecanha, Renato Veronezzi, and Dadinho Jefferson to name a few.

Currently, Xarjie is Brazilian Zouk instructor at Kmotion Dance Studio.  He also has interests in other dance styles such as Argentine Tango and Kizomba.  His Physiotherapy background has allowed Xarjie to integrate his teaching and learning from a holistic, scientific and biomedical approach.  Recently, he has furthered his studies in dance injury management and prevention through health professional courses in “Dance teacher & health professional training workshop – level 1” Jan 2017, and “Foot and ankle in dance” July 2017.

Xarjie’s philosophy is that dance is a form of artistic self-expression through a sequence of precise movement enhanced by music.  Partner dancing is then a form of non-verbal communication between 2 or more people through self-expression – like a civilised conversation without words.  With this analogy in mind, a partner-dance should be interactive and eloquent. His goal as a teacher is to help facilitate students to become independent thinkers, to maximise each student’s potential as a dancer, to customise teachings to suit individuals’ needs, and to promote social connection between students.

Ash started dancing at the age of 9 with ballet, which she trained in, in different parts of the world and then starting teaching at age 16. When she moved to Australia as a young adult, she was disappointed that she couldn’t commit as much time to ballet as she wanted.