Hanna Karttunen (born in

Oulu Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

) is a Finnish professional

Latin American Latin Americans ( es, Latinoamericanos; pt, Latino-americanos; ) are the citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their diasporas are multi-eth ...

and exhibition dancer. She also trained in

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

as a child, having a love of

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

from a very early age. Specialising in Latin American and representing England with

Paul Killick 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 specialises in Latin dance and has won in ...

, she won the titles of United Kingdom Open Champion, International Champion, World Series Champion, World Masters Champion,

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

Open Champion, United States Open Champion,

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

n Open Champion,

Kremlin The Kremlin ( rus, Московский Кремль, r=Moskovskiy Kreml', p=ˈmɐˈskofskʲɪj krʲemlʲ, t=Moscow Kremlin) is a fortified complex in the center of Moscow founded by the Rurik dynasty, Rurik dynasty. It is the best known of th ...

Cup Champion and also became the British National Champion four times. Together they were also runner up in every major professional championship, such as the

World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

Championship,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an Championship and also the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Open Championship, where in 2002 they came close to taking the title, after being placed first in two out of five dances:

Rumba The term rumba may refer to a variety of unrelated music styles. Originally, "rumba" was used as a synonym for "party" in northern Cuba, and by the late 19th century it was used to denote the complex of secular music styles known as Cuban rumba ...

and

Paso Doble Pasodoble (Spanish language, Spanish: ''double step'') is a fast-paced Spanish military march used by infantry troops. Its speed allowed troops to give 120 steps per minute (double the average of a regular unit, hence its name). This military ...

. Before partnering Paul Killick, Karttunen also danced professionally with Sandro Cavallini for Italy, Geir Bakke for Norway and Rick Valenzuela for the United States. As an amateur competitor, she danced for her home country, Finland, becoming a national champion and international finalist with Jaakko Toivonen. Karttunen has credited Markku Siltala and former world professional Latin American champion

Espen Salberg Espen Salberg (born 28 March 1952 in Oslo, Norway) is a Norwegian ballroom dancer. See also * Dance in Norway *List of dancers An annotated list of popular/famous dancers. A * Ayo & Teo, duo of dancers and musicians from Ann Arbor, Michi ...

as two of her main coaches throughout her career. In 2004, Karttunen took part in the first series of the

BBC television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

show ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (informally known as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly ballroom and Latin dance. Each couple is scored by a panel of usually 4 ...

'', where she danced with

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...

actor

Christopher Parker Christopher Parker (born 24 August 1983) is an English actor and television presenter, best known for portraying Spencer Moon on BBC One soap opera ''EastEnders'' between 2002 and 2005. Early career Christopher Parker's career began at an e ...

. Although they were regularly placed last by the judges, Parker's enormous fan base was enough to keep them in the competition right up to the final, where they ended the series in second place. Since then, Karttunen has appeared as a guest performer on the show in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, United Kingdom and the United States. When

announced his retirement from competition in May 2004, Karttunen went on to partner Victor Da Silva in the style of Exhibition. Representing

, together they won the World Championships and the British Open Championships three times each. They were also invited to lecture and perform at some of the biggest and most prestigious dance events in the world. Early on in 2008, Karttunen returned to the style of

, partnering fellow champion

Slavik Kryklyvyy Slavik Kryklyvyy (Vyacheslav Kryklyvyy, uk, Славік Крикливий, Вячеслав Крикливий) (born on 1 July 1976 in Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

and danced only one competition together, the United Kingdom Open Championship in January 2009 where they placed 6th, before announcing the termination of their partnership just one year after it had begun. Following this, Karttunen returned to Exhibition and resumed her former partnership with Victor Da Silva.

References

External links

Vhdance.comPaul Killick websiteBBC.co.ukInternationaldanceshoes.comChris Anne websiteDancemaze.ruScrutelle.infoDanceplaza.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karttunen, Hanna Finnish female dancers Finnish expatriates in England Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People from Oulu