Irina officially started her partner dance journey at the age of 10 years old in International Ballroom (Standard and Latin) while living in Europe. As part of her partner dance training over the years, Irina cross trained in a variety of partner and non-partner dances including Salsa, Bachata, Kizomba, Brazilian Zouk, Latin Hustle, Hip Hop, Heels, Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary, Lyrical, and many others. Irina is known for her role as a community builder and loves sharing her passion with newcomers to partner dancing. A primary follow who also leads, Irina brings a unique perspective to her teaching and is a vocal advocate for training in the foundation of each dance. Her main goal as an instructor is for her students to understand not only the "what" we are dancing, but also the "why" we are dancing to ensure they are taught when to use the content in a real world social dancing scenario. Leading by example, Irina continues to train with local, national, and international artists in a variety of modalities which enables her to bring new methodologies to enrich her students' learning.