Useful Resources For Salsa Students

Everything you need in one place

Where to Buy Salsa Shoes

It’s so important to have the right shoes. We now have more choice than ever before and you don’t have to spend a fortune – unless you want to of course!

You do get what you pay for, however, and there is a world of difference between cheap copies from China and the real deal that you’ll find in the outlets listed below:

Move Dancewear Ladies

Move Dancewear Men

Supadance

Larisa London

Bloch Jazz Shoes

Port Dance

Werner Kern

Advice for Buying Salsa Shoes

I recommend beginners to start out with a soft, flexible shoe with a split suede sole.

Jazz shoes are perfect and will not break the bank – just make sure they do not have a rubber sole. Rubber soles will grip too much, making smooth turns impossible and increasing injury risk.

Ladies will do best to keep the heels under two inches for class – you will feel much more stable. Save the sparkly 3 inch heels until you start going to regular socials and you have your footwork and balance under control.

 

Books on Salsa for Further Reading

When you get hooked on Salsa you want to consume as much information as you can. Here are some books that I’m sure will enhance your background knowledge and increase your understanding of this enormous subject.

Click each image to view the title on Amazon:

Download the Salsa Rhythm App

Click here for Android

Click here for IOS

 

Berna Jam – Scuola Di Salsa

Album of instrumental practice tracks:

Click here for iTunes

Click here for Spotify

 

Salsa Radio Stations

There is no better way to improve your dancing than to completely immerse yourself in Salsa music.

The internet has made it possible to tune into radio stations all over the world which play only Salsa and Latin music.

We have a London based station which plays Salsa and Soul – Our Salsa Soul Radio.

https://oursalsasoul.com/

Here is a link where you can pick radio stations from Cuba, Colombia, New York, Mexico, Miami – all places which live and breathe the rhythms of the clave and conga:

https://streema.com/radios/genre/Salsa

My Writing

One of my other greatest passions is writing. It helps me process my thoughts, and enables me to organise what I teach into a format which is accessible and easy to apply. I’m a bit of a philosopher at heart, and love deep conversations about the nature of life and what it means to be a conscious human being in such a chaotic world.

You will find some of my Salsa inspired writing on my blog.

Below are a few other written pieces and fun tools to help you improve:

The 10 Principles of Logical Leading

What it is that makes the great leads better than you.

Click Here To Download

The 7 Deadly Sins Of Ladies Styling

Are you guilty? Find out now…

Click Here To Download

Chicken Soup For Salsa Dancers

My take on Salsa from the lead’s perspective.

Click Here To Download

Salsa Quiz…How Good Are You Really?

Try my fun assessment quiz to see what you need to work on.

Click Here To Download

Here’s Our New Dance Floor!

After moving into the new, bigger studio back in November, it's been a quest to find a new dance floor to fit the bigger space at an affordable price. It hasn't been without hitch as back in January we had been all set to go to Eastbourne to collect another floor, but...

My Three Best Tips For Salsa Beginners

The early days of Salsa lessons are by far the most crucial, as it is such a steep learning curve if you are starting from scratch with no prior dance experience. This is particularly true for guys, who typically lead the dance and have to master what I term “the...

Who The Hell Was Suzy Q?

One of the things beginner Salsa dancers often  ask after they've moved past the technical frustrations of learning the step is this:   "Why is it called a Suzy Q?"   It's one of those things that seasoned social dancers don't really think much about.   But I like to...

From Twinkle Toes To Sparkly Heels

My first love in dance was ballet. And my first love in ballet was Swan Lake. I’ve loved it ever since I was a toddler and my grandmother - a ballet-lover - used to play the Tchaikovsky score when I went to sleep over at weekends and she watched me launch myself...

How To Impress Your Salsa Teacher

One of the things that bothers me most as a Salsa teacher is when I ask my students (or any novice or beginner) for a dance and they shift around nervously, their stress levels visibly start to rise, and sometimes they even back away, make an excuse, or run off. Now...

Is It Really Better To Learn Salsa With Your Partner?

Many single people who start Salsa lessons assume that it’s all so much easier if you have a partner. A real life dance partner who you can call upon to practice with any time of day or night - at 8am in the morning when the kettle is boiling, or after one too many on...

Feeling Rusty? Five Tips To Ease You Back Into Social Dancing After Lockdown

Chances are when you step onto a social dance floor for the first time after lockdown you will feel rusty and unfit. We all will.   It doesn’t matter how good a dancer you are, no one can stop for nearly a year and a half and not notice some deficit in their...

Why Body Isolation Isn’t Always A Helpful Term

Body isolation is usually presented as the first step towards learning body movement in Salsa dance. Yet how many of us have watched even seasoned social dancers struggle and get increasingly frustrated when they just can’t make that body part behave and move...

Salsa Dancing For Mental Health – My Journey To The Depths Of Despair And Back Again

Mental health is a real buzzword just lately, with reports that so many of us are tangibly suffering from prolonged disruption of our usual patterns of behaviour, our social gatherings, and increased uncertainty over finances and future plans. It seems that there is...
Salsa Dance Shoes on parquet dance floor

5 Mistakes I Made Before I Started My First Salsa Lesson

I can remember the days when I was just starting out. I don’t think I ever thought learning Salsa was going to be easy, but I had been teaching fitness and aerobics classes for some years, and considered myself more coordinated than the average person. So on one...

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