TEACHERS
MEET THE FOUNDERS

Joel De Andrade & Karen Galsgaard
Joel De Andrade & Karen Galsgaard have roots and are pioneers in the Danish Hip Hop scene. Joel has been dancing since 1989 and Karen since 1998. They won the first Scandinavian Battle Of The Year – the biggest breaking title in Scandinavia at the time.
Their experience ranges from battles, shows and theatre to international judging and workshops as well as organising events, community outreach and charity projects.
They have mentored countless students at Hotstepper and overseas, many of whom have become world-class dancers including solo breaking world champion and dancing for some of the most famous international artists.
Joel and Karen have both been nominated for awards for their contribution to the Danish dance scene.
We are proud to have some of the freshest new talent as well as established world-class dancers

Adam Yaqoubi

Anastasija Olescuka

Artit Chatthai

Ayub Abdulkadir
is an experienced and respected dancer from Concrete Soul Crew and part of the CLASHcph team. He is known for his freestyle and battle skills and his unique style. He has been active in the hip hop scene for 10+ years and won several battles in Northern Europe including BFC kulturhavn, Soul Session Oslo, Battle For Hip Hop Göteborg, 2 time winner of Hip Hop Games CPH, Playground Street Dance Jam Malmö and more. Ayub has industry experience with shows and theatre including Nøddeknækkeren and Gadens Hårdeste Hævn by the world famous Steen Koerner. Ayub has also been teaching and choreographing previous years at Hotstepper and Hotstepper Dance Education.

Ciara Blankenship

Colosal
Rash also known as Colosal Titan, grew up in Congo where dance was part of his culture. He is specialised in breaking and afro and with his dance company, La Folie Crew, he has toured with dance theatre. Colosal has organised competitions and battles in his home country and also entered battles with top results in Congo and Denmark. He has created a name for himself in the Afro scene with his teaching, projects and battles – for example he won the “Afia Presents” battle with afro dance in Sweden. Colosal has performed with artists from all over the world such as Singuila from France, Yemi Alade from Nigeria and Mims Beyana from USA. He has taught workshops in Denmark and Sweden and toured in Spain and Italy.

Emma Sundbergh
Emma is an experienced and highly trained dancer that has completed the Hotstepper Dance Education, Galen Hooks artist development, BASE VTP program and more. She has a huge passion for teaching and has been giving classes and workshops in Thailand, Austria, The Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.
Her credits include IKEA, Porsche, Mr. Vegas, Patoranking, being handpicked by Anthony Lee (US) to perform his piece together with him in MATRIX the show, La Pulpa (COL) Yotetoho tour in Beijing, Lil Gemi, RnB out loud summer tour, choreographer and backup dancer for Angelica Mava.

Gavin Aquino
Gavin has been dancing since a young age starting with styles such as breaking and hip hop. He has completed Hotstepper Dance Education, participated in several workshops and is now also active in the Danish dance battle scene.
Gavin is a member of the dance group BEYOND BORDERS which is found in both Sweden and Denmark. He is the director of the Danish team, but also goes to Sweden to teach and share his experience. The group focuses on the Korean pop culture and the genres K-Pop, K-hip hop and K-RnB, with which they perform and compete in Sweden. At Hotstepper Dance Education, he has been a co-choreographer for a piece.

Isabel Lippert

Julie Marie Nissen

Keiran Araza

Loretta Owusu
Loretta is a versatile experienced and strong dancer within several styles from dancehall to hip hop and afro. She has been teaching since 2014 and has been active at Hotstepper for many years, where she has both been a teacher and completed the Hotstepper Dance Education. Her passion and commitment to the scene, art and culture has earned her recognition where she won activist of the year at Rainbow Awards, nominated for dancer of the year at Drop Dead Awards and dance crew of the year at African Awards.
Loretta has been active in both the underground and the commercial scene with artist credits like Kaka, IceKiid, FVN, Tobias Rahim and Kranium from Jamaica. Events and concerts like Roskilde Festival, Copenhagen Pride, Dancehall Madness, Afrobeat Madness, Black Distortion and Copenhagen Contemporary. She has performed at Bremen Theatre, Pumpehuset, Albertslund Theatre, Tunnelfabrikken, Amager Bio, University of Copenhagen and has done voluntary work for Clash Cph and Ballroom BIPOC session.

Maria Pihl
Maria has been dancing since a young age and has several years of dance teaching experience. She has completed the Hotstepper Dance Education and participated in several dance battles, events, talks etc.
She has previously competed at elite level within jitterburg and rock ‘n’ roll in both DK and international including Norway, Germany, Czech Republic and Austria where she has won several gold medals.

Mary Jacolbe
Mary is an extraordinary dancer and choreographer with industry experience ranging from music videos and concerts to theatre and TV. Her credits include Marques Housten, Medina, Ida Corr, Christopher, Wafande, Nabiha, Djämes Braun, Wolfgang Gartner, Sys Bjerre, Eurovision, Detours and the Danish royal family. Alongside her personal dance career she also has Merrydance – workshops and camps for the dance community, and has been nominated by Detour Dance Festival for Initiative of the year. She belonged to the first class of the Hotstepper Dance Education graduating in 2010 and always kept learning since – taking workshops and international travel to keep growing as a professional dancer.

Rai Del Valle

Rico Coker

Ryan Jacolbe

Sandra Carstensen
Sandra is a versatile dancer with many years of experience – previously with latin dance on a high level and later hip hop and commercial styles and recently she completed the Hotstepper Dance Education. At the graduation show she also co-choreographed a dance piece. Sandra has participated in dance battles and competitions such as Skvulp Festival Battle, Clash Women’s Battle and European Championships Hip Hop Formation IDO in Holland.

Sitthichai Phuanphimai

Switch
Francis “SWITCH” Brako is one of the top versatile dancers in Sweden. He has traveled worldwide giving workshops, judging battles, performing and has been choreographing, directing and working with schools and artists. Switch is the owner of Streetground Dance Academy and co-owner of the project I’m The New Me. He has won many prizes for his work including from Landstinget in Jönköping giving him a scholarship for bringing and making dance scene worldwide and Jönköping as a dancing city.
In SWITCH’s own words: “dancing for me is about the feeling, passion and expression, no matter how you dance, you will always be your own star. Follow your heart and never stop dancing.”
Switch is the winner of Juste Debut Scandinavia 2013, Baltic Session 2012 and many more. He has been working with artists like Allywaan (Sweden), Guru (Ghana), Hermanos Bernal (Chile), Oceana (Germany), Play back (Spain) and many more.

Thomas K. Rasmussen
Is a strong and versatile professional dancer who has completed Hotstepper Dance Education and DA REBELS International Dance Program in Slovenia. He has teaching experience since 2012 at several schools including Hotstepper. Thomas has choreographed for Albina S and in the Faroe Islands for the artist Marius Ziska and the acclaimed event Dansieksperimentið. He has other credits such as music video for TopGunn & City Bois, Vocalicious, X-Factor, TV2’s “Grandmaster” program, Denmark’s Got Talent, IBM, hip hop dance theater with Freestyle Phanatix, events such as Pride and Faceoff as well as fashion shows in DK and abroad for Kansas including brand collabs with BASE, Craftsman and Samsøe Samsøe. Thomas has also participated in battles including at Juste Debout Nordic, ClashCPH and Detours as well as competitions within DDD (4x DK champion) and IDO – top 20 Europe and top 40 World.

Uyen Nguyen
Uyen is a versatile professional dancer with a background in Hip Hop. Over time, she has found her passion in Heels, Waacking and Bachata Sensual. She loves to combine her natural femininity and versatility in dance.
Uyen has danced 18 years and had 13 years of teaching experience in DK and Vietnam. She has cultivated both the underground and the commercial dance scene and has credits such as Eurovision, Infernal DK tour, street version of the Nutcracker, choreographed for Scarlet Pleasure, World Pride as a representative of Australia, countless commercials, various Danish awards and live TV shows as well as been active in dance battles.
As a dancer, her charismatic trait is to display high self-confidence and a strong and unique expression on stage. She loves to play with and combine the contrast between soft and hard expression.