SALSA Simplemente! About Me

I had no previous dance experience, but a liking for Latin music, when I started taking salsa lessons at a local Health Club in 1999. To start with I was hopeless. But finally the penny dropped and once I had conquered the basics I became hooked and started dancing more and more, attending workshops in Newcastle and then further afield (Pontins Weekenders) - then as far as Cuba in 2004. At the end of 2004 I qualified as a dance instructor with the UKA.

My interest in Cuban music and dance gives me a preference for Cuban style salsa which can be very intricate but is also very fluid, expressive and a great deal of fun. I also love La Rueda, the Cuban-style group dance which is fabulous to watch and great fun to perform and even more fun when it goes wrong.

I teach common salsa basics so that people have a general background without specialising in any particular style. I teach slowly and methodically with particular emphasis on:

• establishing the basics.
• learning to lead and follow, giving and interpreting the signals.
• building up the confidence of leaders to lead.
• having fun.
• teaching short combinations and repeating moves so that they become automatic.
• having more fun.

Salsa is not a strict dance; it is fluid, stylised and open to musical and personal interpretation. Above all it is fun. I want people, especially non-dancers, to try salsa and find out just how easy it is to learn. Just as importantly, I want people to have fun while they are learning.

My thoughts about learning salsa can be summed up in three lines:

• If I can learn to dance salsa, almost anyone can.
• "Strictly Come Dancing" it ain t! But Strictly Fun? Absolutely!

and the most important of all:

• The hardest step is the first one onto the dance floor.

Xmas Party 2005 The Grosvenor