Riccardo Cocchi (born December 7, 1977,

Terni Terni ( , ; lat, Interamna (Nahars)) is a city in the southern portion of the region of Umbria in central Italy. It is near the border with Lazio. The city is the capital of the province of Terni, located in the plain of the Nera river. It is ...

, Italy) is a 10-time undefeated Latin Dance Champion, with his partner,

Yulia Zagoruychenko Yulia Zagoruychenko (born September 11, 1981) is a ten-times undefeated Latin Dance Champion and the current World Latin Dance Champion with her partner/husband, Riccardo Cocchi. Originally from Russia, she began Russian Folklore ensemble danci ...

. Currently, he resides in and represents the United States of America. When not busy competing, Riccardo is available for

coaching Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a ''coach'', supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. The learner is sometimes called a ''coa ...

History

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 Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

. 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

. 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. 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.

Famous coaches

Barbara McColl Barbara Joanne McColl Stopford (née McColl) is a Scottish professional ballroom dancer, teacher, and adjudicator. She specializes in International Latin. With Sammy Stopford, she won in the professional Latin category four times at the Blackpool ...

Sammy Stopford Sammy Stopford MBE (born 1956) is a professional ballroom dancer and teacher, and winner of the Professional International Latin American Dance Championship. He competed in Latin dance with three main partners. His partner from 1973-79 was Lyn ...

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 ...

Hans Galke Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi a ...

Shirley Ballas Shirley Annette Ballas (née Rich, formerly Stopford; born 6 September 1960) is an English ballroom dancer, dance teacher, and dance adjudicator. She specialises in the International Latin division, where she won several championship titles whi ...

Donnie Burns Donnie Burns MBE was born in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1959, where he attended Holy Cross High School. He is a Scottish professional ballroom dancer, specialising in Latin dance. He and his former partner Gaynor Fairweather were ...

Latest titles

* 2005 idsf world amateur Latin champion *2010-2019 World Professional Latin Champion * 2009 World Professional Showdance Champion * 2008-2019 U.S. National Professional Latin Champion * 2016-2019 British Open Professional Latin American Dance Champion (Blackpool Dance Festival) * 2012, 2015-2019 Winner of the Elsa Wells International Dance Championships * 2008-2014 U.S. Open Champion * 2008–2011, 2013-2015 DWC Disney Champion (Paris, France) * 2008-2019 Dutch Open Champion * 2010-2016 Asian Open Champion (Tokyo, Japan) * 2013, 2016 Asian Open Champion (Korea and China) * 2010–2014, 2016 Asian Open Champion (Taiwan) * 2010-2012 Asian Open Champion (Indonesia) * 2010-2014 Asian Open Champion (Macao) * 2010-2012 Philippine Star Ball Champion * 2009, 2012, 2013 German Open Champion * 2012, 2016 Asian Pacific Champion

References

External links

* http://www.rydance.com * http://ballrooms.su/publ/3-1-0-174 * http://fred-astaire.blogspot.ru/2008/06/spotlight-onriccardo-cocchi.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Cocchi, Riccardo 1977 births Living people Italian emigrants to the United States American male dancers American ballroom dancers