ABOUT US
Your Urbankiz Journey Starts Here with UrbanKiz Evolution
EVOLVE YOUR URBANKIZ WITH INTERNATIONALLY CERTIFIED INSTRUCTORS
In October 2022, Courtney started assisting Michael in classes at Milton Keynes and at festivals such as WALF which then evolved into the start of a teaching partnership. Michael and Courtney trained hard and completed Curtis Seldons, Urbankiz Teachers Certification in January 2023 and announced their official partnership.
Since January 2023, Michael and Courtney have been teaching and running events through their Brand Urbankiz Evolution and teaching at other events around the UK and Internationally.
Urbankiz Evolution was formed in January 2023, with one main agenda, to grow the Urbankiz scene across the UK and evolve UK Urbankiz dancers.
Their journey together has just started but they are excited to keep sharing their passion and energy to teach Urbankiz and build an Urbankiz family that everyone can be apart of.
In Summer of 2023 they have launched two weekly classes in Brighton and Southampton with local organisers: Baila en Sussex and Elite Tiempo, and many workshops accross the UK with local collaborations.
At the end of 2023 Michael and Courtney started their first performance team in Brighton starting their first season in January 2024 with the UK's first ever Urbankiz couples performance team!
They have more ideas and projects coming so keep an eye out!
Founders of Urbankiz Evolution
Michael & Courtney
Michael
Michael was introduced to dancing by his father where he attended classes at Afro Latin school in Bristol at the age of 19. Michael progressed very quickly to teaching at UK events and then taught for 4 years at Bath Kizomba with the Bath Kizomba team.
Michael’s desire, hard work and dedication to learn urban earn’t him the title, UK Open 2019 1st Urban Kiz Champion with his partner at the time Charlotte. Since winning his title he now teaches at lots of events and festivals around the UK sharing his love for UrbanKiz and passion to ygrow the Urbankiz scene in the UK.
Courtney
Courtney has been dancing since she was 3 years old where she started with Ballet and learnt styles such as Tap, Modern, Street & Hip-hop, contemporary and many other styles. Courtney was dancing these styles until she was 18, performing at venues such as Disney land Paris, Her Majesty’s Theatre and the Royal Albert Hall.
Courtney then joined the Latin scene at the age of 18, being introduced to Salsa and Bachata through a university society called Dance4water Cardiff. She proceeded to then teach Bachata and more recently Kizomba at the society for 4 years, raising money for WaterAid through teaching classes for students.
Courtney started her Kizomba journey with the Next-Level kizomba team in Cardiff and with the Bath Kizomba School and fell in love with Urbankiz through workshops, classes and Festivals.
"A warm, welcoming community! Classes include so many amazing techniques and concepts to take your dancing to the next level"
- Austin, Bournemouth
" I cannot recommend Michael and Courtney enough... their skill, patience and ability are amazing and they always bring humour and positivity to their teaching. they break down steps and theory into manageable blocks, giving you the perfect foundation to build on in your Urbankiz Journey."
- Chantal, Brighton
"I Love Michael and Courtney's Classes and Teaching Style! They are creative and focused on mastering the core Urbankiz foundations matched with musicality. Cannot recommend their classes enough!"
- Tracey, London
Our Teachers
What is Urbankiz?
Urban Kiz was created in Paris around 2013 by Curtis Seldon and Cherazad Benyoucef who were the first to change the way to dance.
It was hugely influenced by the Angolan, traditional dance of Kizomba.
The dance still went under various names, such as Kizomba 2.0, French Style Kizomba, New Style Kizomba, because no consensus was reached on a final name.
The dance style evolved influenced by music styles such as Ghetto-Zouk Tarraxa and remixes with R&B, Rap, Dance and Hip Hop. The newly created dance was still sold as Kizomba although it changed from Kizomba completely and incorporated some elements from other dances such as Tango, Zouk, Hip-hop, Kizomba, Bachata.
In 2015 the new name Urban Kiz was created and publicly announced, it's widely accepted that the brand Urban Kiz was pioneered in Paris by famous dancers Curtis Seldon, Enah Lebon and Moun