Giancarlo

Giancarlo

Giancarlo is 2016 World Salsa Champion. He has been a professional dancer and instructor since 2003. He is the director and senior instructor of Latinissimo Dance. Giancarlo has been featured as NZ's leading salsa dance professional on TVNZ's Good Morning Show, been guest choreographers for TV3's Dancing With The Stars, guest choreographer for Salsa and Mambo on the New Zealand version of TV3's "So You Think You Can Dance", sole New Zealand representatives at the World DanceSport Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, placed in the top 30 semi-finalists on TVONE's "New Zealand's Got Talent" and finalist and multiple champion of various prestigious international salsa championships such as US Salsa Open, Asia-Pacific Salsa Championships, Australian Salsa Open, World Salsa Summit, World Salsa Open in Puerto Rico and many more. In 2016 Giancarlo and his then partner were one of the 6 couples in world to get invited to compete in the Salsa "on1" category at the prestigious Fania World Salsa Championships held in Atlanta, Georgia. 2017 saw all their accomplishments culminate in being one of 3% in the world to be approved for a permanent "Extraordinary Talent" visa (EB1A) to the USA by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Giancarlo was born in Lima, Peru. In the summer of 2001 in Stockholm, Sweden a friend introduced him to Stockholm's most popular Salsa/Latin nightclub, and it was here the passion and addiction to Latin music and dance begun. Dancing was intially a hobby as photograpy was Giancarlo's main passion and goal. He moved to Australia to study photojournalism. However as the interest and passion for salsa dancing grew, combined with background of jazz, gymnastics, natural coordination, athleticism, agility and determination, it didn't take long for him to progress quickly and people started asking him for classes. Giancarlo founded Latinissimo Dance Company in Melbourne in 2003.

Fast forward a couple of years, Giancarlo and his then dance partner were the first salsa instructors in New Zealand to introduce progressive and structured salsa dance courses. The idea behid the introduction of progressive courses was to spread it to all salsa dance schools in NZ to all have the same base and as result students would have a "universal" way of learning and competing. Today progressive and sturctured salsa and bachata courses have been adapted by most leading salsa dance schools, and has raised and continues to raise the level of salsa and bachata dancing in New Zealand.

Today Giancarlo is highly respected in the salsa dance industry for his clear, precise and technical instruction. Giancarlo and his then partner had the honor of being the first salsa dance couple ever to be invited by the New Zealand Federation of Dance Teachers (NZFDT) to do a salsa demonstration at the Opening Ceremony of the New Zealand Ballroom & Latin-American Dancesport Championships. They have also been featured on a full page spread in the New Zealand Herald's "Photos Of The Year 2007", featured and interviewed for DANZ Magazine by Francesca Horsley as "...New Zealand's Best!" and were main characters and dancers in the music video "Insane" by The Sagittarian, to mention a few.

Giancarlo dances with style, energy, professionalism and precision. He has performed and taught in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Hong Kong, Seoul, Bangalore, Miami, Los Angeles, Belgrade, Budapest and more. Has choreographed directed one of New Zealand's most popular and successful student salsa teams - TEAM Latinissimo. He also coached the World Amateur Salsa Champions, Asia-Pacific Amateur Salsa Champions and the undefeated New Zealand Amateur Salsa Champions. Latinissimo won the NZ Salsa People's Choice Award in 3 out of 4 categories at the NZ Salsa Nationals.

Besides dancing professionally, Giancarlo is also an accomplished professional automotive and potrait photographer having worked with major brands such as Ford, Mazda, Lexus, Mitsubishi, Audi, Porsche to name a few.