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DANZ QUARTERLY Issue 16 
July, August, September 2009
Latinissimo
by Francesca Horsley 
Masha and Giancarlo Johansson - changing the shape of New Zealand salsa.
On a busy Friday, watching TVNZ’s morning show programme was a little unusual. But to see New Zealand salsa competition stars, Masha and Giancarlo Johansson, perform was a treat. In a word - WOW!
Masha was sensational in a figure hugging costume and high heels; Giancarlo, equally dashing. When they danced you could feel the studio temperature rise to sizzling point! Tight, daring, elegant and very, very hot, they moved with lightning speed and artistry, producing rapid lunges, turns and flips. It is no wonder they are NZ’s best!
The couple are consistent top place getters at the Asian Salsa Open Championships, with their Latinissimo Dance Company also being awarded top prizes in the amateur couple and team events.
Giancarlo and Masha have developed a reputation for their distinctive ‘Latinissimo’ style – and are in hot demand as top teachers and performers on the international salsa circuit. Meeting them and some of their team in a North Shore studio on a Tuesday evening, it wasn’t hard to feel their dance passion and dedication radiating through their Latinissimo tracksuits.
Highly focussed, the couple are also dedicated to raising the standard of salsa dancing in NZ; they have the distinction of developing the first ever salsa dance syllabus. Having successfully put it to the test at the Asian Open, they are poised to take it internationally.
If they can stop dancing that is; with monthly trips to salsa events overseas and a busy dance school to run, there is little spare time for business plans.
Both Giancarlo and Masha come from dance and gymnastic backgrounds – which explains their highly attuned dance skills. Giancarlo learnt jazz and gymnastics from 11, and with a Peruvian and Swedish background, Latin dance and music was always part of his life. In 2001 a friend took him to a Latin nightclub in Stockholm and he became hooked on salsa.
Initially set on a photography career, he moved to Melbourne for further studies, but found his love of salsa competing with photography. Travelling back regularly to Sweden to see his family, Giancarlo would always stopover either in the US or Europe, taking time out to take classes from top salsa dancers. Once home he would then embark on an intense month or two’s training with his Uruguayan, Colombian and Swedish teachers in Stockholm; on return to Melbourne his fellow salsaleros were impressed by his distinct style and interpretation. Naturally he began to win international awards and decided to set up a dance school, co-founding the Latinissimo Dance Company in 2003. When Masha stepped into his Melbourne studio, they instantly clicked; not only are they a professional dance couple they are also husband and wife.
Masha, born in Slovenia, started dancing at four, learning ballet, jazz, Latin American Dance Sport and contemporary dance and competing internationally as a rhythmic gymnast. After moving with her family to NZ at 15, she took up salsa.
In Melbourne the couple began teaching and performing together; and in spring 2005 they moved to Auckland. Giancarlo says “Masha thought it would be a good opportunity to start a dance school here so we started promoting classes and they took off very well”. With their highly professional approach to dancing and teaching they realised that while there was a great deal of enthusiasm for salsa, a systematic approach to teaching was lacking. They decided to write their own syllabus. “Our goal was to lift the standard in Auckland, then hopefully NZ. “
They began slowly to develop the syllabus. “We noticed a few things that we wanted to create, and started analysing.” Giancarlo says “We thought there has to be a way; when you do all these advanced, flashy moves, we asked ourselves, ‘How do we do it? What do we base it on?’ There has to be structure. We figured out a few things and then noticed that everything followed the same pattern.”
They began to break down the moves into steps. Masha says “With Giancarlo as a leader and me as a very technical dancer, we came up with the structure that was water proof – if you stick to it everything will go smoothly. When we see a couple dancing and we see some flashy moves now we can break it down.”
Their wins at the recent Asian Salsa Open Championships are proof of their syllabus’s success; aside from their own award winning performance, they entered an amateur couple who won top prize, and their four couple amateur team came second. “It’s definitely waterproof,” Giancarlo agrees. “Obviously you can add other styles to give it a bit of flavour or something different but in general with salsa dancing is about the basics. The way we have put it together everything will make sense from the first class up until the highest level. ” They have already made revisions from the original, making it more concise.
With no other salsa syllabus in the world, Giancarlo and Masha eventually plan to market it worldwide. They have already created DVD’s for their students to practise at home.
Giancarlo says there are a variety of salsa styles. “There is Cuban style, which is a highly social way of dancing and being with people (recently seen in the NZ show Cuban Carousel). Then there is the linear style, which is used in competitions and show dancing; this is the style of Latinissimo Dance Company. You don’t see Cuban style at competitions at all; the two styles look like completely different dances.”
Latinissimo dancers, Tania Mason and Alyx Ly, were not only winners in the amateur couple section of the Asian Open’s but were also part of the four couple amateur team that came second. Both have strong backgrounds in dance and put in months of intense training to reach peak performance. They found the Latinissimo syllabus a vital ingredient to their success; previously they had struggled to break down the moves into steps.
Tania says “I was self taught so I just picked up things from following and there were times when I was ‘oh how did I even get from here to here’ – I didn’t know what my feet were doing, I was just getting there somehow.” With a ballroom, tap, Latin and classical dance background she missed a formal structure.
Masha stresses that along with the competitive side, salsa has immense social appeal; Chad and Richard, two of the Latinissimo team agree. They are passionate about salsa, the dance, the music and the fact that they can dance just about anywhere in the world. Masha says “There are clubs all over the world, that’s a major appeal in salsa, you can also perform it or you can compete with it.” Giancarlo says “If you go to any major city in the world you can Google and type in salsa
dancing and there will be a nightclub somewhere that has it. At any one time there are at least two events - a festival, a congress – or a weekend - somewhere around the world. It gets bigger by year.”
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