Every Journey Starts With A Single Step!

And if you can take one step you can definitely dance Salsa.

Every dancer experiences a unique journey as they progress from their very first basic, accumulating the skills and moves they need to thrive, not just survive on the dance floor. 

My aim is to make this journey as smooth and stress free for you as possible, because the first few months can often feel like a steep upward climb and the learning curve is not linear. It’s common for people to hit plateaus or even feel they are going backwards at times.

One of the keys to reducing the potential overwhelm of this learning curve is helping you to understand exactly what skills, steps and moves need to be mastered at each level and then providing a progressive learning pathway to help you achieve this.

Empowered Learning

Many Salsa clubs are extremely vague about what defines each level in their class structure, yet this is crucial knowledge for Salsa students, as without it you have no idea what you need to do to get better and cannot manage your own progression effectively.

I believe in being very specific about what is taught in each class/course/level so you can acquire all the tools you need to realise your dance aspirations.  

Levels are specific to individual clubs and often subjective – especially to the untrained eye. Just because someone looks good on the dance floor, or even if they feel good to dance with, it doesn’t mean that they are super-duper advanced. 

Experience Doesn’t Always Equate With Skill Level

Some people have been dancing for 20 years plus, yet may still only have an improver skill level or repertoire.

This is because many things in Salsa cannot be picked up organically purely through social dancing. They have to be learned, practiced and refined.

Without the necessary level of technique and spatial awareness, fast, complicated combinations with multiple direction changes are much harder to execute and often dangerous, especially for the follower.

Without timing and musicality, the most show-stopping moves are damp squibs.

Therefore your progress will always depend on the quality of teaching, demonstration and feedback you are receiving, the skill level of the partners you regularly dance with and the amount of purposeful practice you do.

How Salsa Intoxica Levels Are Structured

I have designed five levels of core knowledge which I think best represent the ascending skill level of a social Salsa dancer.

All levels are colour coded so you can see at a glance if a course or workshop is appropriate for you.

Below you will find the syllabus for each level and the pre-requisites needed to join a course or workshop at that level.

You will only be allowed to join more advanced levels if you have the necessary skill sets to avoid holding back other students.

If you are unsure of your current level you should book a Taster lesson to enable me to ensure you join the appropriate course.

Footwork First

All levels include solo footwork shines as well as partnerwork. This is because shines are an integral part of salsa dancing and improve balance, coordination and musicality as well as integrating body motion.

Much of the skill needed in partnerwork relies on you being in full control of your balance, are able to transfer your weight efficiently, and generate your own speed and momentum without affecting your partner.

Learning footwork is the most efficient and fun way of doing this, and ALWAYS translates into a higher level of skill and confidence compared to those who only learn partnerwork routines.

A Social Dance Syllabus

My courses are designed specifically for social dancers.

I think it is important to understand the difference between performance choreography, where both partners know what’s coming, and improvisation, which is created in real time in response to the music.

Some teachers blur the lines between the two which leads not only to unsafe dances, but frustration when those moves just won’t work outside of class.

There are certain moves – especially lifts and most tricks – which have no place on a busy social dance floor.

Unfortunately they get taught by irresponsible teachers to unskilled leads who simply don’t have the timing and core strength to lead them safely, and then insist on peppering them randomly through every dance even if they have never danced with that follower before.

Improvisation Is The Most Important Skill

It should be understood that the physical connection and brain processes required for social improvisation are very different than those required for dancing pre-choreographed material.

Therefore it’s my belief that the means of teaching this should logically be different too.

In other words, copying long, pre-choreographed routines week after week is not the most useful method for teaching real time improvisation skills.

Some delivery of standard moves and classic combinations is absolutely necessary, as these will form the backbone of your social dancing. However if you only copy without learning how to create and link moves and think for yourself, you will end up with boring, repetitive dances.

Musicality And Expression

It is also important to realise that only learning to generic counts can disconnect students from the music – which is why I have embedded some musicality concepts into the syllabus. 

Styling + Musicality + Personality = Expression

This is the sweet spot for all social dances.

So here is a brief summary of how my levels are structured – paying students will receive more detailed checklists of the shines, skills, partnerwork moves and combos they need to master at each level.

Just hit the plus sign in the right hand side of the coloured box for each level to see a summary of the syllabus:

Take Your Musicality To The Next Level

At some point you may realise that in order to progress your Salsa, you need to dig deeper into musicality.

And this is mostly when dancers start to explore Salsa On 2 because it’s here that many more opportunities to express the music can be found.

Mambo is actually a very deep subject with a rich history, and is in fact the root of all cross body or linear style Salsa…and before THAT was Son, Rumba and other Afro-Cuban folkloric dances.

So you really don’t know Salsa until you know Mambo.

The terms “Mambo”, “New York Style”, and “Salsa On 2” are often used interchangeably however they are not exactly the same thing.

And although the moves and structures are largely the same as dancing Salsa On 1, the way they fit to the music gives a very different feel and flow to the dance.

There are a few different On 2 timings and styles, and these are covered briefly in my Mambo syllabus. I believe it’s important for students to have an overview of Mambo as a whole to inspire them to further study rather than sticking rigidly to one style

We cover the basics of New York Style, Puerto Rican Style, Pachanga, Cha Cha Cha, Boogaloo, Son, and Classic Mambo/Palladium style as they will give you a deeper understanding of the nuances of dancing On 2 and how to work with the music.