About Dean Maynard

Dean was born and raised in Leicester, England, but grew up in different parts of London, at an early age Dean was convinced that sport was where he intended to invest his life. At the early age of 9, he was already heavily into Judo, boxing, Kung Fu and various martial arts. Every evening from school he would pick up his little sports bag and trot off to the local gym. Soon after he was 16, Dean left school and joined the Army where he went on to develop his skills and then went on to be a physical fitness instructor, earning great credits. after spending 6 years in the army he decided to leave to fight for his own self expression.

Still being physically fit, he decided to change his career and went on to a degree in Business Management where in his spare time he was teaching aerobics, kick boxing and Boxercise to fast uplifting music. This is where he really turned to dance and thought then that this is what he should be doing in his spare time, dancing, instead of what he was doing at the time. He invested heavily in the dance scene, most of his time was spent doing Street Jazz, modern and break dancing the combination of these adds to the spirit he carries with him today.

A few years into his dance studies he decided to put them all together and create his own dance style, (for those of you who live in England, it wasn't uncommon to see him down Covent Garden on Saturdays with a mat and a stereo dancing for the crowd).

While studying at University he realised that today's form of Education was not where his heart was and felt more comfortable performing to crowds. After learning the basic steps in Salsa he decided to put his own moves and self expression to the Salsa that we know and see him dance today. This has taken him on his long road to where he is now.

Dean says and thinks that he can never stop learning, when he first went to New York and took classes, even though he had heard a lot about people like Eddie Torres and Angel (Razzmatazz) Rodriguez, nothing he heard could prepare him for what was in store. That's when Dean knew he should be passing on his knowledge to his students. What he now knows he tends to share with fellow dancers and instructors of all different styles.

Dean is very open with his style and knowledge of Salsa and he loves to express them both when teaching and dancing. Dean thinks that he is only half as good as he would like to be and (as Seaon Bristol said himself) is already on his way to making a mark on salsa as we know it today.

Dean has represented England, teaching, performing and doing dance displays for the last two years, in this time Dean has travelled extensively, training, teaching and competing throughout the world, becoming one of the very few UK Salsa Dancers to win in excess of twenty recommendations.

He is still enjoying teaching, and likes it when students ask him how to do things from his own style, he likes nothing better than to pass on his knowledge from taking lessons with and speaking to the likes of Specal T, Eddie Torres(NY), Seaon Bristol(now LA), Enio & Terryl(LA), Pedro Gomez(Italy), Luis & Joby(LA), Fransico & Johnny Vasquez(LA), Alex De’Silva(LA)

and many many more