Sol Centre, Mare Fair,
Northampton NN1 1SR
General Enquires | 01604 621004
Monday 9:00 - 13:00 and 16:00 - 20:00
Tuesday - Friday 9:00 - 12:00 and 16:00 - 20:00
Saturday and Sunday 9:00 - 13:00
OUR TEAM
Co-founder/Creative & Product Director
Kristina Rihanoff
Kristina is originally from Russia and is a world renowned professional ballroom dancer, choreographer and author. She has been a dancer since she was 6 years old, winning competitions from the age of 7 and started tutoring dance at the age of 16. After finishing public school she studied at the St. Petersburg branch of the Modern Humanitarian Academy in Russia.
In 2003 she was invited to move to the USA to compete professionally and has reached numerous National and World finals, ranking in the Top 12 in Open to the World International Latin competition held in Blackpool in 2007. Shortly after Kristina moved to England to start an exciting new venture.
Kristina starred as a professional dancer and choreographer in the UK’s most viewed BBC1 show “Strictly Come Dancing” from 2008 up until 2016. After 8 years she left the show and moved to Northampton to start a family and is now a mother to her little girl, Milena.
Besides her passion for dancing, Kristina has been a yoga devotee for nearly 20 years and credits her regular yoga exercises during her professional and TV dance career which kept her away from injuries and provided mental focus.
In the past few years she has become a certified yoga instructor in Hot Yoga; Hatha; Vinyasa; Pre/Postnatal yoga; Children and Family yoga; Chair yoga for mobility issues; and Meditation. She is highly involved in the creativity and product offering of the Soo Yoga Classes. Kristina is also a passionate vegan and studied nutrition during her yoga teacher training.
Kristina is really excited to create a safe space for every generation and bring the knowledge of wellbeing to the community.
Kristina is certified and a proud member of:
National Association Teachers of Dance UK
Dance Vision -International Dance Association USA
Certified by Yoga Alliance Professionals UK
Yoga Alliance Certified
Co-founder/director
Ben Cohen, MBE, Honorary PhD & MSc (Managing Director)
Ben Cohen was born in Northampton and is a former England Rugby World Cup winner, second all-time try scorer for England and a Gay Rights and Anti-Bullying Activist. In May 2011, Ben retired at the top of his game to start a foundation - the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation - which raises awareness of damaging effects from bullying.
As Chairman of the foundation, he travels worldwide speaking to businesses about the importance of character, respect and equality in creating a kinder world. Ben has reached millions of people with his anti-bullying message through global media coverage.
With his leadership, cities across the United States have passed StandUp declarations, calling for an end to bullying. Working with the UK Home Office, he has led the charge for the StandUp Charter to end homophobia across sports in his country, including broad adoption (4,500 professional teams) to date in soccer, rugby and tennis.
Ben has an aptitude for building something from the ground up, most recently, he has spent the last 5 months building, refurbishing and project-managing the site for Soo Yoga. He is very proud of the premises and really hopes that the local community of his hometown will embrace this innovative and exciting new family wellbeing centre.Ben's vision is to bring his extensive knowledge in sport and fitness to everyone, regardless of age, shape and size. But most importantly, he wishes to create a safe environment for children and adults.