Michael Malitowski

Michael Malitowski is a Polish dancer and coach whose partnership with Joanna Leunis defined Professional Latin dancing in the 2000s and 2010s. Born Michał Malitowski on 28 May 1980 in Zielona Góra, Poland, he began training before age eight. His formative competitive partnership was with Iwona Golczak, with whom he danced for roughly fourteen years. In 1999, Malitowski and Golczak won the Under-21 Latin championship at the British Open in Blackpool, establishing his presence in international competition. The pair also competed at the 1998 IDSF European Cup.

In autumn 2002, Malitowski formed a Professional Latin partnership with Belgian dancer Joanna Leunis. Their first competition together was the 2002 WDDSC World Professional South American Showdance Championship in the Netherlands, which they won immediately. By 2004, they had reached the British Open Professional Latin final and won a second world professional South American showdance title. The pair combined consistent competitive success with a distinctive performance identity across the five-dance Latin program—cha-cha-cha, samba, rumba, paso doble and jive—while also developing self-contained show numbers.

Malitowski and Leunis's championship period was exceptional. Between 2005 and 2014, they won multiple International Championship Professional Latin titles. Beginning in 2007, they captured nine UK Open Professional Latin victories through 2015. Most notably, they won the WDC World Professional Latin Championship in both 2008 and 2009, and they achieved eight consecutive British Open Professional Latin victories from 2008 through 2015. During part of this period the pair changed their competitive representation from Poland to England. Their final competitive appearance came in 2015, when they won the British Open Professional Latin Championship for the eighth consecutive year and announced their retirement from the competition circuit.

After stepping away from championship competition in 2015, Malitowski expanded his work as a coach, lecturer, adjudicator and dance entrepreneur. He continued performing and creating rather than retiring entirely from dance. His post-competitive roles have included association with the Dansinn studio network and adjudication on Polish television dance competitions. In 2019, Malitowski and Leunis publicly ended their personal and professional partnership. Malitowski remains active publicly as a teacher and performer.