(Joanna, 21, student EUC and Piotr, 20, student IBA)
Piotr: “I don’t always dress this fancily! This morning I had an interview for an exchange programme. Spain and Brazil are my first two choices. I want to go where I can study and experience Latin dance in its natural environment. Dancing is my hobby… no, it’s my passion! Joanna has been my dancing partner since March 2015. Today she came with me to the interview because we’d planned to show the board our choreography for the paso doble. You know, just to stand out a bit more.”
Joanna: “There wasn’t any time to dance there though. But because we’d brought our shoes and everything, we thought we’d have a practice. We dance Latin and ballroom. Usually we go to classes twice a week at Erasmus Dance Society and we also attend extra workshops or lectures and practise on our own. I did some dancing at primary school back in Poland, but had to quit after two years. So I was really happy when I found that I could continue dancing at EUR!”
Piotr: “It’s quite unusual how we met. Both of us come from Lublin in Poland. We went to the same primary school and lived almost on the same street as children, but we only found out in Rotterdam. We met for the first time at a Charleston workshop. It was so nice that we decided to dance together. And not just dance, we simply became really good friends. I know I can always rely on her. And sometimes when we come to a practice session, we have to schedule extra time because we first have to catch up on all the news and the gossip, etc. We always have a lot of fun.”
Joanna: “I think it’s important that you click with your partner because you spend a lot of time practising together and going to competitions, sometimes even several days nonstop. You also need trust to be able to criticise each other, which we clearly both love doing!
I enjoy improving my dancing and spending a lot of time on it. But you have to be careful because if you become too competitive, you lose the fun side. And dancing is my passion primarily because of how much happiness it gives me.”
Piotr: “The exchange? I’d love to go, but I’m not worried to be honest.”
karinkoolen.com 