Luka Wolf (19) and Jenalyn Pacheco (16) have been burning up the floor in the past few months on the hit TV Show, World of Dance! They have made it through grueling auditions, never ending practices, hard-fought preliminary rounds, and most recently, a heavily contested "Duel" with former Amateur Latin National Champions, Denys Drozdyuk and Antonina Skobina. They've done all this before the age of 20 and while representing the industry's best ballroom dance shoes, AIDA dance shoes!

So how is it that a pair of teenagers are having so much success on the national stage of dance? Well the answer is quite simple, they are doing something unique and progressive. The ballroom dance style, Cabaret, has been around for decades but only recently has it gained enough traction to become one of the more distinguished dance styles in the ballroom world. And this is in part thanks to dancers like Luka and Jenalyn, who have been redefining this style. With a slew of lifts and eye-popping dance moves, Luka and Jenalyn have been able to mix in these tricks with quality dancing to create a new age of Cabaret. A lot of people have gone on to coin this style of dance as "Acrodancing," mixing in dancing with acrobatics. But their dance style is much more than just a a series of tricks, lifts, and jumps. Look closely and you will see the balance, technique, body control, and stamina required to pull off their routines from beginning to end:

At such a young age, they are already starting to master their body control and solidify themselves as technically sound dancers. But how did they evolve into this new age breed of dancers? This can be accredited to their coach and mentor, Craig Smith. Craig was AIDA's first sponsored Cabaret dancer, and with his level of expertise in dancing, it was quite easy for us to spot this talent years ago; as it was easy (and a no brainer) to have him coach Luka and Jenalyn. Together, this trio began pushing the limits of what Cabaret dance is about, creating new lifts, tricks, and lines, all whilst holding true to the quality of their dancing. A lot of Luka and Jenalyn's success on World of Dance can be attributed to Craig constantly flying out to LA (all the way from South Africa we have to add) and coaching, mentoring, and even re-choreographing their routines. Oh what a sight it is for us to see #AIDAChampions working together.

The AIDA Dance USA team spotted the talent of Luka and Jenalyn from the very beginning (we pride ourselves in spotting talent early), and boy were we right! Luka and Jenalyn continue to push the envelope of dancing and captivate new audiences from around the world to understand just how much talent and hard work it takes to pull off their routines and dance moves. They even got Jennifer Lopez as a new convert who retweeted the dance battle between Luka/Jenalyn and DNA and had her screaming from excitement during their performance. And although some people are skeptical about Cabaret and Acrodancing being pure forms of dance, these skeptics have never tried doing multiple spins after tumbling in mid air and making it look graceful AF. It takes an enormous amount of focus, body control, and balance to pull something like that off!

So we want to thank Luka and Jenalyn on their impressive performances on the World of Dance and for representing the industry's best ballroom dance shoes on the national stage. We are proud to have such a talented and amazing couple representing our shoes! We wish them continued success in the later parts of the show. Stay tuned for when the show is over (finale is scheduled for August), as we chronicle Luka and Jenalyn's progress during the show. Let the world welcome Luka and Jenalyn, because they are here to stay!!!