Board

Robin Tolenaar – Chairman

Hi everyone! My name is Robin and I will be your new chairman the coming half year. I was your secretary the first half year, but now due to board changes I’m your new chairman. I have experience being a secretary for the EL CID committee at Catena, the other student society of which I’m a member. Besides this committee I have also been a part of the party and DJ committees of Catena.

Some more info about me!

I have been a member at Catena for 5 (!) years now. I became a member during my own EL CID week in 2013, which means I have been studying for 5 years already. I am now in my 6th year of Art History, of which I will finish my masters (hopefully) this academic year. Besides studying I am busy dancing (of course), but not only at the USC. I also go to Aalsmeer for the technique courses in ballroom dancing. I’ve been doing ballroom for about 3 years now. Together with my partner I do competitions as well. Besides ballroom and latin I do dancehall, ballet, pointes, jazz, modern, salsa, bachata….yes well almost everything haha!

Besides going to dance classes and studying, I work at De Catwalk, a coffee bar in Leiden, I give dance classes to very small children and I DJ at parties.

I am very excited for the coming year; I hope you are too!

Mousa HosseiniMehr – Board Assistant

Hi everyone! My name is Mousa, I am from Iran and I have been living in the Netherlands for four years already. I am currently doing my PhD at the TU Delft. My hobbies are dancing, coding, eating, playing ping pong and traveling! Formerly as the chairman for the first half of this board year, I will be the Board Assistant for the second half of the year.

When I came to Netherlands, I had zero knowledge about dancing. I had heard salsa, but I had no idea if bachata is something you eat or dance! When I first joined a dance party of SoSalsa (dancing association in Delft), I very much liked it and I realized this is what I have been missing in my life! Now, I am dancing salsa, bachata and kizomba. I started with salsa, but my favorite is bachata! If bachata is playing, I cannot sit, I have to dance! I also like kizomba, but I find it quite difficult. I need to practice it and learn more, haha.

It has been almost two years since I joined Leidance. Such a great community, lovely people, friendly atmosphere and a strong connection! I have learned so much these couple of years and not just how to dance, but also many other things from many of you! Despite living and working in Delft, I am spending a lot of my time in Leiden, as I have many nice friends here thanks to Leidance! I always had this passion to take part and help making Leidance better and organize nice events and lovely parties for members. Now that I am in the board, I am very enthusiastic about it. Together with other board members, we want to bring Leidance into a next level! Creating better connection, bringing more dance and more fun for you all. I hope we will have a great year ahead full of joy and unforgettable memories! 😉

Zander van der Steege – Treasurer
Hey! I am Zander, the treasurer of Leidance and although I am half Dutch I was born in South Africa and moved here in 2007. I study Mechatronics (which is basically about Robotics) in Delft (4th year) at the Hague University of Applied Sciences. I also really enjoy drumming and spend about 7 hours a week dancing at the USC.

I am a social guy and care about our planet but I also really like succeeding at what I take on. Being a board member at Leidance in my final year is pretty ambitious but as you can imagine dancing really de-stresses me. I loved dancing from my first ever dancing lesson even though I was first intimidated by the amazing dancing skills of the girl I danced with. That just made me determined to get good at it:). Today I dance salsa, merengue, bachata, kizomba and various ballroom style dancing. Through latin dancing you develop a real connection with your dance partner and learn to read your partner’s moves and to express the emotion of the music together. You can just get lost in the moment. Ballroom is also romantic but much more structured and technical and you learn what moves and posture will bring out the real beauty of the dance. I look forward to a great dancing year with you all.

Annemarijn Rijkers – Assessor Intern
Hey everyone!
My name is Annemarijn Rijkers and I’m your Assessor Intern and I will be your secretary the remainder of the year. I started out dancing ballroom when I was 16 and didn’t stop dancing when I moved to Leiden; on the contrary! About two years ago I started dancing salsa and kizomba and I’ve loved it ever since! Nowadays I will be found mostly on the latin side of the spectrum, but I still enjoy dancing ballroom. My ballroomskills have faded a bit, but if you have a bit of patience I would be happy to dance with everybody! As your Assessor Intern I will be your contactperson for all of your questions, suggestions or even critiques and complaints. I am also in charge of the committees and I will be kicking life into them this year so they can organise some great things for you guys this year!

Nikki Schotman – Assessor Extern
Hey everybody! So many of you already know me; I am Nikki. I basically join all the classes in the USC, I do salsa, ballroom, bachata and kizomba. I started dancing ballroom about four years ago and I started salsa and bachata last year. I just started kizomba this year, I think it is a beautiful dance but I find it very difficult too. Last year I became a member of Leidance because I wanted to meet people with the same passion since I am from a small village where I was the only dancer in town. I really found what I was looking for in Leidance and even more. I soon figured I wanted to do more for Leidance and now I am your assessor extern! I am all about promotion and extern contacts. This year my goals are to level up the promotion on all platforms, Facebook,  Instagram, WhatsApp and the website. I’m also very busy co-working with our sister associations in other cities because this year we’d like to work together more. In this past month I have experienced that being a board-member is really hard work but it is also so much fun! I have already learned so many things and I am really looking forward to the rest of the year!