{"id":7832,"date":"2024-08-28T19:13:26","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T23:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/wellington\/?post_type=team_member&p=7832"},"modified":"2025-08-15T14:48:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T18:48:16","slug":"yanis-kukainis-co-owner","status":"publish","type":"team_member","link":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/wellington\/member\/yanis-kukainis-co-owner\/","title":{"rendered":"Yanis Kukainis – Co-Owner & Studio Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Yanis,<\/a>
\n<\/a>Yanis, our beloved studio manager and co-owner, is originally from Latvia<\/a> and has more than 23 years of experience as a professional ballroom dance instructor. He began learning ballroom dance when he was 6 years old, and finally began teaching when he was 19 years old. He immigrated to the United States in 2007 \u00a0to represent the United States in the World Championship in Denmark two years later. Yanis relocated to West Palm Beach in 2023. He is a \u00a0loving father and husband and you may even find his family at the studio on occasion! Yanis co-owns the studio with his adoring wife and partner, Sasha<\/a>. He loves to travel with his family and considers himself an amateur movie critic.<\/p>\n

\"Yanis,<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some of the accomplishments of his professional career he is most proud of include:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Yanis,<\/a>\u272811 time Latvian National Champion
\n\u2728World Vice-champion in Standard<\/a>
\n\u2728Bronze medalist in World Ten Dance Championship<\/a>
\n\u27282 times awarded as sports athlete of the year by President of Latvia
\n\u2728United States Vice-champion in Standard , US representative in World Championship
\n\u2728Star Quality Award by Carrie Ann Inabe Celebrity Judge from US Tv show \u201c Dancing with the Stars<\/a>\u201d
\n\u2728Invited twice to be a featured performer in one of the most prestigious world show dance events, \u201c Dance Legends<\/a>\u201d in New York, NY
\nMultiple Winner of Professional Rising Star and Open Professional Championships in United States
\n\u2728In 2015 ranked Top 5 US National Professional Show Dance Championship<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yanis credits the following Coaches with his career as a Ballroom Dancer:<\/p>\n

Paul Holmes, Jonathan Wilkins, Igor Litvinov, Massimo Giorgiani, Scott Drapper, Lasse Odegaard, Karen and Marcus Hilton, Lindsy Hillier, Tor Floysvik, Andrew Sinkinson, Janet Gleeve, Giampiero Giannico, Ieva Pauksena, Igor Suvorov, Richard Gleave, Anne Gleave, Charlotte Jorgensen, John Wood and many others<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He is honored to have had a part in the career of many dancers over the course of his teaching career of all ages and looks forward to each one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Yanis, \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Yanis,<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you’re interested in learning more or booking your first lesson with Yanis and the team at Fred Astaire – Wellington, you can find us here and start dancing today<\/a>!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7836,"template":"","class_list":["post-7832","team_member","type-team_member","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/wellington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/team_member\/7832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/wellington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/team_member"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/wellington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/team_member"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/wellington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/wellington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}