The Start

Up till 1996, I was known as a workaholic to my friends and family. It wasn’t uncommon for me to be working 18 hour days, 6 days a week. Starting up a new business while trying to run my existing business. Then a friend of mine said I needed to lighten up and she took me to a salsa club (formerly known as Soneros). That was the first time I saw Salsa being danced and heard the music, (thanks Wendy) I instantly fell in love with it. That was one of the most frustrating times of my life, I so much wanted to dance but couldn’t, I thought to myself that I had to learn this.

At that time I was living in Camberley, Surrey, England and searched desperately for someone to teach me how to dance Salsa. Many years ago I used to dance jazz so the first thing I did was talk to some of the old jazz dancers and said “hey, what’s this about salsa?”. Unfortunately (I don’t know if I should say this) someone sent me to a Latin American dance school for 6 months I learnt how to dance ballroom and Latin American, this wasn’t quite right.

One day a friend phoned me and said "they teach Salsa in a small class about 5 miles from you". So one day I jumped in my car and drove to this class and met lots of friendly nice people. The teacher at that time was a man called Jules, who taught me my first steps. That same week I went to the British Salsa Competition and I was totally amazed with the standard and level of dancers. The winners of that competition were Perry and Lia-Marie whose style totally inspired me to want to learn even more and this is where it all started and why I am where I am today.

Even though I have now travelled the world and created my own style, I haven’t forgotten where I started and the fact that it’s all fun. Salsa to me is fun, excitement and a release of tension, especially when I am dancing with someone who is just enjoying the music and having fun.