Paul Montagnese & Masha Khazanova

In 1993, Paul and Masha had started dancing but in different states. Paul at the age of 9 and Masha at the tender age of 6, were both starting their dancing career not knowing where it was to take them.

Paul had started dancing while also keeping fit by doing Karate at the local school in Melbourne, until the burning desire of dance had overtaken his life. It wasn't until 1995, that he started competition dancing, and won his first competition at the Williamstown Festival. From that point, Paul had developed with Anita and Stuart Wilson at Simply Dancing for period of 14 years, before a phone call from Masha changed everything.

Masha was born in St Petersburg, Russia and had migrated with her family to Australia at the age of 5. It was here in Sydney, that Masha had discovered Ballroom Dancing and was hooked. She has progressed through the ages groups, with multiple successful results here in Australia and Internationally, until a new search for a dance partner had come down to a phone call to an unsuspecting Paul. It was very clear from their first try-out that this was the partnership they were both looking for.

Paul and Masha have had great success in the time they have danced together. In their first competition, they had won and continued with good results up till the Australians of 2008, making the top 6 in the country only dancing together for 6 months. With this massive boost of confidence, their dancing has progressed and improved in leaps and bounds, resulting in a ranking of 5th at the 2010 Australian Championships.

Over the past 2 and a half years, Dancing has taken them all over the world to such places as England, Canada, America and Japan, for lessons and competitions. With this experience they have gained, they are now able to apply this knowledge to their teaching and now are teaching at this studio : Inspirtations Dance Centre.