Joanna Leunis

Joanna Leunis is a Belgian International Latin dancer born on 22 May 1981 in Liège. She won the World Amateur Latin Championship and British Open Amateur Latin Championship in 2000 with Slavik Kryklyvyy, then became a two-time WDC World Professional Latin champion and eight-time consecutive British Open Professional Latin champion with Michael Malitowski. Her career spans from early competitive breakthroughs in the late 1990s through a dominant professional partnership that lasted over a decade, followed by a continuing life in dance as a teacher, coach and adjudicator.

Leunis began competitive dancing following an encounter with ballroom at a primary school event. Her early competitive record developed through several partnerships. WDSF archives document her dancing with Mario Wild in international adult Latin events in 1997 and 1998, including a third-place finish at an open event in Liège on 18 October 1997 and a win at an International Open in Bulgaria on 16 May 1998.

She partnered with Ukrainian dancer Slavik Kryklyvyy from 1998 to 2000, achieving an unusually rapid rise. In 2000, at nineteen, she and Kryklyvyy won the British Open Amateur Latin Championship at Blackpool and the World Amateur Latin Championship in Miami. They also won the European Amateur Latin championship that year. At the end of 2000, Leunis turned professional and formed a partnership with Louis van Amstel, representing the United States from early 2001 to autumn 2002.

In autumn 2002, Leunis began dancing with Polish competitor Michael Malitowski. Their debut season brought a World Professional South American Showdance championship; they repeated that title in 2004. By then they had also won the 2003 UK Open Professional Rising Star Latin event and reached the British Open Professional Latin final. Leunis and Malitowski became one of their era's dominant Professional Latin couples, winning WDC World Professional Latin titles in 2008 and 2009, eight consecutive British Open Professional Latin championships from 2008 through 2015, nine consecutive UK Open Professional Latin titles from 2007 through 2015, and nine International Championship Professional Latin titles. They represented Poland early in the partnership and England later.

Their final competitive appearance came at the 2015 British Open. Leunis retired from championship competition and subsequently focused on teaching, coaching dancers and judging major events including the International Championships, UK Open and Blackpool Dance Festival. She served as a judge on the Belgian edition of Dancing with the Stars. Her post-competitive teaching and interviews have made her individual technical thinking widely accessible: she speaks and demonstrates on spins, turns, rhythm, foot use and musical movement. Leunis and Malitowski ended their partnership in 2019.