About us We love what we do

• David Joseph

• CEO and Co-founder

   David is known as a pioneer of Salsa in Canada on the international competitive circuit.  He has placed as high as 6th in the Mayan World Championships in 2002 and was one of the original organizers  of Alberta Open Salsa Championship which has now grown into the Calgary International Salsa Congress.  This event has drastically expanded the dance scene in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  He has judged and MCed many Provincial, National and International dance competitions and events.  He is  a recipient of an Albert Torres Award for growing and promoting Salsa and Latin dances in Canada.  Throughout his competitive career he has performed on many international stages around North and South America.  In 28 years of being in the dance industry, his students have  won multiple gold and silver medals and numerous trophies in Regional and International Events.  He has also taught thousands of people to dance through social dance group classes and made an impact on peoples’ lives through gentle encouragement, continuous support and belief in the human capacity to grow and expand.  He and his wife Olya created DANDODANCE partnership that gives an opportunity to adults to fulfill their dream of performance in as many as 40 different partnership dance genres.

David has also known as an actor that danced with Hollywod Celebrities like Farah Fawcett in “Hollywood wives”; acted as a double for Michael Jackson’s biography “Man in a Mirror”; acted with Jamie Lynn DiScala in “Rise and fall of Heidi Fleiss” and multiple national commercials.  Alongside that, he  taught himself Flamenco Rumba guitar and co-founded the original “Los Morenos” Flamenco Rumba guitar duo, known in Calgary and  around Alberta; released a CD where he is lead singer,  plays Irish Tin Whistle and Flamenco Rumba Guitar.  His other passion is bagpipes and illustrating.

He is  one of the original organizing team that brought Alberta Salsa Open to Calgary which throughout the years evolved into the Calgary International Salsa Congress  (a 3 day dance event that is now recognized as one of the top city festivals in Alberta.  In 2018 Calgary International Salsa Congress became one of the top 3 semifinalists at the White Hat Awards).

It 2015 David was diagnosed with MS,  and together with his partner and wife Olya,  they started a journey of self transformation and the road to healing.   In 2017 they were able stop the progression of the active disease and put it into remission through diet, stress reduction and transformation in many areas of their lives.  In the last couple of years they have been successfully maintaining the state of remission and hope to share the experience through the book that he and his wife are writing together.

His current project is to complete the illustrations to their upcoming book ” Lifedance. The Power of Self Transformation” (to be released at the end of 2019).

His creativity has taught him a lot about having a mind that is open to change  and reinvention.  He loves to share this with his students, and encourages them to grow through dance and self-expression.

• Olga Joseph

• CEO and Co-founder

Olya has acquired degrees in education, psychology and social pedagogics with specialization in the Entertainment industry, History of world’s Cinematography, and International Pop Culture in her native Russia.    As an aspect of her pedagogic certification, Olya began teaching children’s movement programs in Russia. In 2003 she immigrated to Canada and met David.  Shortly afterwards they started teaching dance together in and around Alberta.

Over her dancing career, Olya has been trained in choreography, ballet, acrobatics,  Ballroom and Latin, International  and American style, as well as Social Latin, Argentine Tango and Country.  Her competitive students have won numerous gold and silver medals at various competitive events.  She has performed  on many provincial and international stages, and has been a headline performer for 11 years at the ‘Banff Springs Hotel International New Years Eve Gala’.

She is the creative head behind  the DANDODANCE  recreational Performance Teams Program that gives people of different age groups an opportunity to perform on multiple stages at dance events, retirement homes and city festivals.  Age of team members  ranges anywhere from 15-70 years.   In 2014 under her leadership, DANDODANCE teams performed in Las Vegas on the international stage of the Tropicana Hotel at the Las Vegas Salsa Congress.

Olya has been the head for volunteer and ticketing  departments for Calgary International Salsa Congress since it’s beginning which celebrated their 11th anniversary this year and in 2015 was promoted to status of Co-organizer.  In 2019 David and Olya made a decission  to step away from the project due to focusing on healing.

She is also creative developer of “Time to Give Back Protect” that brings entertainment variety show to Retirement Homes where partnership of David and Olya brings Flamenco Rumba Guitar music,  DANDODANCE  Teams performances in multiple genre of music,  Competitors and  Social Dance showcases as well as small movement class for seniors.  They are hoping to expand this program further into citywide.

In 2017, 2018, and 2019 she was invited to become one of the 8 choreographers and professionals on Celebrity Dance Off Red Deer ( Red Deer version of dancing with the stars).  In 2019 David and Olya were asked to coordinate and assemble team of professionals from Calgary for their 8th Annual Gala.

Under her leadership partnership of Olya and David expended into schools program, where they teach Latin, Country, Ballroom unit as part of Physical Education corriculum in Junior High and High Schools in more that 16 schools in Calgary.  Having a backgroung in Education she is now sought out as a presenter for school dance programs within the city and province, and has also been involved with teaching dance socially and competitively primarily in Alberta…

Their latest project is writing a book about methods they used to help David to get his active MS (Multiple Sclerosis) into stage of remission and maintain in for last two years.

She is happy to have shared her passion for dance with thousands of teens and adults citywide.