Andrew Cuerden & Hanna Haarala
Professional Latin American Dancers
 Andrew Cuerden and Hanna Haarala are a Top International Competitive Professional Latin American Dance Couple. They have both been dancing since they were children and have been together now since September 2003. They represent Finland as they travel around the world competing and performing their fantastic Cabaret Show "Latin Emotion".
Andrew comes from a very musical and artistic family in South Africa and was inspired to dance by movies like Dirty Dancing, White Nights, Fame, Footloose etc at the age of 10. Andrew competed in Ballroom and Latin for 10 years in South Africa. However as most dancers will tell you London is the place to be if you want to take dance seriously. So at the age of 20 Andrew left his home and family in South Africa and moved to London. He found himself a job in the dance retail industry where for 8 years he gained great background knowledge of the dance industry away from the dance floor as well as on it.
Hanna on the other hand started her dancing career on ice as you do in Finland as a competitive ice skater, aged 8. Then at 13, was introduced by friends to the world of Ballroom and Latin American dancing. Needless to say she never looked back! After 7 years of competing Hanna decided to complement her dance training by joining a Dance Teachers Training College where she studied for 4 years, gaining a diploma in Dance Teachers Training. After splitting with her ex-dance partner, Hanna moved to London in September 2003 to commence dancing with Andrew.
Together their Amateur competitive career culminated with reaching 4th place in the UK competition rankings and now since turning Professional they achieved many semi finals and finals in championships around the world and are currently ranked 25th in the World Professional Rankings. This is due to many years of wonderful training from some of the worlds best Latin and Ballroom dance teachers and endless hours of rehearsals per week.
They say that the harder you work the luckier you get, well Andrew and Hanna must have worked very hard as they were lucky enough to be chosen to star in the BBC's 3rd series of Strictly Come Dancing. Hanna dancing with Will Thorpe from Casualty and Andrew (aka Zorro) dancing with Jaye Jacobs from Holby City.
 As a result Hanna and Andrew have been invited to perform many shows. The more memorable ones being The Ritz, The Savoy, The Mansion House and several performances at the prestigious Floridita Cuban Restaurant and Bar in Soho London. As well as other famous places such as Blenheim Palace and the Balmoral Hotel Edinburgh and just recently at the Caron Keating Foundation’s Charity Fudraiser at the the Langham Hotel.
Their Cabaret "Latin Emotion" is an intoxicating cocktail of emotion filled Latin American dancing. Andrew originally from Africa, brings his own unique masculine rhythm and hot passion to every latin dance which is complimented by Hanna’s cool Scandinavian beauty, sensuality and speed. Together they produce a show that will warm your hearts, inspire your mind and move your feet!
Other achievements to date include:
Andrew featured in ITV’s Ladettes to Ladies where he had the responsibility of teaching 8 young woman how to Vienesse Waltz and behave as ladies on the ballroom floor.
 Andrew together with another Strictly Come dancing professional Nicole Cutler, organised a Dinner Dance in Durban South Africa for 300 people. The fantastic evening featured the wonderful "Strictly4Latin" show performed by 2 world class Latin American Couples: Andrew Cuerden with Hanna Haarala and Nicole Cutler with Robin Sewell. The reason for the show was to perform for family, friends and fans who would otherwise never be able to see the perform live and in doing so thank them for all their support and understanding. Another reason was to further promote and increase the interest of Ballroom and Latin American dancing to the South African general public. http://strictly4latin.tripod.com
For more information on Andrew and Hanna please visit www.andrewandhanna.co.uk |
