Larissa Thayane

Larissa is originally from Brazil, she is trained in all styles of dance. She has worked as a professional ballet and contemporary dancer since 8 years old.

Larissa graduated at “Escola de Danças Classicas Teatro Guaira” in Curitiba, Brazil. At 18 years old she joined the Youth Theatre Company of Rio de Janeiro, travelling and performing throughout Brazil and the United States before studying Latin dance. Her career highlights include performing at The Kennedy Centre in Washington with the American Symphony Orchestra. In 2005, she started her studies in Latin dance and joined Jimmy de Oliveira’s samba de gafieira company and Alex de Carvalho’s Latin dance company specialising in Brazilian zouk.

Together with Kadu Pires they are World renowned Latin dance professionals, they moved to Australia in 2007. They spend up to half of each year travelling – teaching, performing, choreographing and judging at the world’s most important Latin dance events and competitions.

Since 2007, they have toured extensively throughout Australia and New Zealand, Asia, Europe, North and South America. They have been instrumental in boosting the popularity of Brazilian zouk and samba de gafieira internationally. Their credits include competition wins and television appearances in Brazil and in Australia, including choreography for So You Think You Can Dance Australia.

Kadu and Larissa founded K&L Dance and K&L Dance Events (Casa do Zouk Congress) in 2012.

In 2014 Larissa founded the Brazilian Zouk Dance Council (BZDC). The Brazilian Zouk Dance Council serves, supports, and promotes all aspects of Brazilian Zouk. BZDC encourages the growth of Zouk throughout the world. The Council is supported by its board of directors – Gilson Damasco, Renata Peçanha, Alex de Carvalho, Rodrigo Delano, Kadu Pires, Larissa Thayane and Freddy Marinho. In 2014 the first BZDC oficial Brazilian Zouk Jack and Jill took place at Casa do Zouk in Australia, since then registered competitions are gaining popularity all over the world.

Today they are based in Los Angeles – USA, where they began the K&L Teachers Training Certificate (K&LTT)  and are working to improve the growth of Zouk in North America. They have also been dedicating time studying and competing West Coast Swing, their new passion. Kadu and Larissa placed on Showcase division at the US Open Swing in the last 3 years.