Casey Radley

Casey Radley (UK) 

Team Latinissimo 2010

Casey is our youngest Team member to date. She is young, tall, blonde, green eyes and looks like the "all American girl"... but the fact is, she was born in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England and is an "awesome Virgo", as she puts it herself. At such young age, she has a long list of achievements, among them the 2010 Miss New Zealand Queen of the World!

She started dancing Latin when she was in year 8 at school, having to actually 'touch' boys was a big deal for her so she only did two lessons at school! Then grew up a bit a year later and took it up outside of school. At the age of 13 she was performing the cha cha, samba, jive, rumba etc... She did her examinations for these, achieving the bronze medal, bar, silver medal, bar... and then stopped dancing Latin for a while...

I normally ask our Team member what their day time job is, but Casey is still a student... and at the time of writing she was in her last week of year 13! However, she says she is a full time representative of NZ, and model and acts occasionally.

As mentioned, Casey has a long list of achievements; she recieved the highest marks for tap dancing at school in 2003/4/5. She won Rangitoto Colleges most potential in Dance Cup 2007 and Most Outstanding Achievement in Dance trophy in 2010. Got the highest Jazz marks in her dance studio in 2005. She was awarded for getting the highest studio marks for the rumba in Latin, got 99% accuracy and 98% for jive! Won the Miss Teen New Zealand Talent division in 2009, was the most potential year 9 and year 10 dancer, auditioned to be in the prestigious Black Graces UrbanYOUTH Movement for 2010 and was one of the 20 selected from 200 to be involved with their intesive full-time Pacific Island contemporary dance workshops. Most recently Casey was crowned the new 2010 Miss New Zealand Queen of the World.

I asked Casey how her experience with TEAM Latinissimo has been;

"After being paired with Trajano, I have developed how to build a physical connection with my partner... how much pressure I need to apply in certain moves, and also learning about how different each partner is to accustom to. I have been able to learn new tricks, and meet people that are so friendly...! The social scene at Latinissimo is amazing! I have been able to witness the true expertis of Masha and Gian, which has enabled me to set goals and standards for myself."

Casey will be off to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia in early 2011 for an experience of a lifetime. Latinissimo wishes Casey all the best and hopes to see her back with TEAM Latinissimo rather sooner than later!