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 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 ...

. Originally from Russia, she began Russian Folklore ensemble

dancing 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 reperto ...

at the age of four. As a child, she enjoyed watching and copying dancers on TV, so her mother agreed to take her to dance classes, where she did folk dancing for three years. She then moved into

ballroom dancing Ballroom dance is a set of 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. ...

. At the age of 11, Zagoruychenko started to teach kids to earn some money which she then gave to her parents. At age 12, she earned her first major title in Russia when she became the Russian Junior National Champion. For financial reasons, she could not afford to dance both Ballroom and

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 ...

and so, at the age of 16, she chose to pursue Latin. At the age of 21, she decided to move to America and partnered with Maxim Kozhevnikov. Together they became the US National Professional Champions. In the fall of 2007, she began dancing with

. Zagoruychenko and Cocchi won their first World Latin Dance Championship in 2010 and earned their eighth title in 2017. They are ranked #1 in the world for Professional Latin. They recently won their 5th consecutive US National Professional Latin Champions title at the US Open Dance Competition. In October 2019, they announced their retirement, with their last international competition being the World Professional Latin in Miami. Yulia takes inspiration from other forms of dance besides Latin, as well as from other musicians. Some of her inspirations are dancers Cyd Charisse, Fred Astaire, Diana Vishneva, Gaynor Fairweather, and Donnie Burns. She is also inspired by musicians Jose Feliciano, Tina Turner, Bocelli, Christina Aguilera, and the dance companies Pilobolus and Alvin Ailey.

Titles

*2010-2019: World Professional Latin Champions *2009: World Professional Showdance Champions *2008-2016 and 2018: U.S. National Professional Latin Champions *2012, 2015-2017: Winners of the International Championships England *2008-2014: U.S. Open Champions *2016-2018: Blackpool Dance Festival Champions, England *2016-2017: Blackpool Dance Festival Champions, China *2016-2018: UK Championship Champions, England *2008-2011, 2013-2017: WDC Fred Astaire Cup Competition (Disneyland, Paris) *2008-2017: Dutch Open Champions, Assen *2010-2018: Asian Open Champions (Tokyo, Japan) *2013, 2016: Asian Open Champions (Korea and China) *2010-2014, 2016-2018: Asian Open Champions (Taiwan) *2010-2012: Asian Open Champions (Indonesia) *2010-2014, 2015-2017: Asian Open Champions (Macao) *2010-2012: Philippine Star Ball Champions *2009, 2012, 2013: German Open Champions *2012, 2016: Asian Pacific Champions

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zagoruychenko, Yulia 1981 births Living people People from Belgorod Russian ballroom dancers Russian female dancers 21st-century Russian dancers