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Marchant Birch was born and raised in South Africa. He started his formal dance training at the age of seven studying Ballroom and Latin American. He trained in these disciplines for ten years winning over one hundred trophies in various competitions. Marchant moved on to "Boogie" dancing (similar to street jazz) and in 1988 won all three major competitions in Cape Town, South Africa with the dance team called the Cool Boys. In 1999 He won the Cape Jazz Championship (South African interpretation of salsa) beating over four hundred couples . In the year 2000 he moved to England and started training and performing salsa with the London All Star Latin dancers. In 2001 he won the World-open amateur salsa championship. In 2002 Marchant started teaching and rapidly became an international teacher teaching in countries like Spain, Holland and France. In April 2003 Marchant and Lilly opened for Jai and Candy (New York) at Salsa Slam. Marchant has since formed a partnership with Andrea Stewart (Director of Duende Dance Company) where they opened in June for Franklin Diaz and Nelida Tirado (New York) with their debut routine ‘Tequila’. In September, Marchant and Andrea performed at the UK Salsa Congress where they premiered their second routine ‘Nena’ and received a standing ovation. On the strength of their performance they have been invited to perform and teach at many venues across the UK and further a field, such as the prestigious LA Congress, Dubai and Nairobi. In December 2003 Marchant and Andrea received an award at the British Salsa Congress for most outstanding newcomers. |
