Olga Richardson

World Professional Latin Finalist

Olga
Richardson

She doesn't teach steps.
She shapes dancers.

Meet her at the door Her story
World Professional Latin Finalist✦ World Cup Professional Latin Champion✦ Asian Pacific Professional Latin Champion✦ USA Open Professional Latin Champion✦ UK Open Finalist✦ International Championships Finalist✦ World Dance Council Adjudicator✦

Her Story

From St. Petersburg,
to the world floor,
to Houston.

I

A girl of five, in St. Petersburg

It began the way every real dance life begins — early, and completely. Olga started training at five years old in St. Petersburg, Russia, inside one of the great Russian dance traditions, shaped in the city's largest dance club under coaches who did not believe in halfway.

II

The world floor

Then the world learned her name. World Professional Latin Finalist, representing the United States. Finalist at the UK Open, the International, the Dutch Open, the Asian Open. Champion — Asian Pacific Professional Latin, World Cup Professional Latin, USA Open Professional Latin. A career at the very top of the sport, retired from competition in 2007 with nothing left to prove.

III

The other side of the floor

Champions retire. Coaches begin. New York first — co-owner of The New Yorker Social Dance Club and Basic Ballroom NY — and then Houston, where she opened Premier Dance USA in 2013. Today she is an accredited Latin coach, a member of the Pan American Teachers of Dance, and a World Dance Council adjudicator who has judged the World Pro-Am Championships. The judge who once faced the judges.

The Coach

Not a teacher. A coach.

A teacher gives you steps. A coach gives you a self.

Olga's work is not a syllabus. It is a relationship — sustained, honest, built over months and years, the way she was built. She watches how you move, how you think, what you are afraid of, and she goes to work on the dancer underneath the dancing.

Students come to her to learn a rumba. They stay because something else happens: posture becomes presence, counting becomes music, and a person who once apologized their way across a dance floor learns to own every inch of it.

She shapes people. The dancing follows.

  • The eye of an adjudicator. She judges the world's best. She sees exactly what yours needs.
  • Both worlds. International and American style, Ballroom and Latin, social grace to championship floor.
  • The long game. Champions are not made in a lesson. She builds dancers the way she was built — over time, with intent.
  • The whole person. Confidence, artistry, discipline, joy. The steps are the smallest part of it.

At the door

Ask Frances anything.

Frances keeps the door of this site. Ask her about Olga, about her titles and her story, about ballroom and Latin, about what coaching with a world finalist is actually like. She has time for you — and when a question deserves Olga herself, she will point you to the studio.

Frances at Olga's door
Good evening. I am Frances, and I keep this door for Olga. Ask me about her, about dance, or about what it is to be coached by someone who has stood on the world floor. I answer with care, not speed, so give me a moment when I go quiet.

Begin

Dance with her.

Olga coaches at Premier Dance USA, her studio in Houston — 4003 Bellaire Blvd, Suite GG. Private coaching, partnership, competition preparation, or your very first dance.

Premier Dance USA ↗ Write to Olga Write to the Studio

Questions first? Ask Frances above — or email dance@premierdanceusa.com · 713.668.2255, and a real person answers.