Welcome to the Classes page

New!

Tai Chi and meditation drop in weekly classes

Start Weds 4th October 2023 4.30-4.45pm at

The Goldhay Centre, 105 Paynels, PE2 5QP

Only £4 per class

For more details fill in contact form on the “About Us” page

Join us on Sunday nights at The Fletton Club!

Brand New courses start Sunday 1st October 2023 for both beginners (level1) and improvers (level 2)
Dancers with salsa experience welcome to join any time – doors open 7pm – See below for class times

Doors open

Strictly take 2 (level 2)

Strictly come salsa dancing  (level 1)

Freestyle Salsa Disco

7pm – 11pm

7:15pm

8:15pm

9:30pm – 11pm

No partner needed – 2 left feet welcome !  Sense of humour obligatory !!

If you are coming along for your first salsa dance class, here is a short outline of what to expect:

  • When you arrive, you will be asked to read an 'everybodysalsa' dance safety guide and a brief introduction to our organisation. The guide is a list of 'common sense' do's and don’ts, that when followed, help create a safe and friendly environment, in which your dancing skill and confidence can develop. You will be asked to sign your agreement to abide by the guidance notes, before entering the club.
  • We will also ask you for an e-mail address and mobile phone number. This is simply to enable us to keep you up to date with forthcoming salsa events, etc. as well as any last minute changes to planned classes/events, which occur from time to time.
  • We take care to treat all personal information with the strictest confidence and only use it for the benefit our dancers.
  • If you are coming along for the first time, maybe a little uncertain of what to expect, possibly unsure if it would be too difficult for you, try this simple test: Ask yourself this question: Can I walk? If the answer is YES, you can also learn dance.

  • When possible we offer a free 5 minute session to anyone wishing to polish their line-up steps. This extra class features at least one different step each week and is for dancers of all levels, so arrive early so you don't miss out.
 
  • Starts just before your class with a few warm up steps, like line dancing with salsa steps! The music will start and the teachers will demonstrate  steps and turns in time with the music and invite everybody to join in.
  • This is not the class, just a warm up, where you can experience moving your feet to salsa music, a bit like line dancing with salsa steps.
  • Expect to find one or two more exciting moves in this 'warm up', as this is also the, 'warm-up', for our level 2 dancers. Level 1 dancers are welcome to join both this session and the second, easier 'warm-uop', session which takes place later in the evening just before the level 1 class.

You will be invited to join everyone on the dance floor. The music will start and the teachers will demonstrate basic steps and turns in time with the music and invite everybody to join in. 

  • Course members are invited to stay on the dance floor and move positions slightly to form the class. Once in your class your teacher/s will explain the timing of the salsa music and demonstrate each step/turn before inviting you to join in.
  • The pace of the class will be slower than the 'line up', which makes it much easier to pick up and the class will be punctuated with music from time to time, to allow you to practise your new found skills at a faster pace and hopefully in time with the music too!
  • There should be time in your class to have a little one to one time with your teacher, however this time is limited by the number of dancers in the class, and when working with the leading and following techniques, you will have an opportunity to dance, not only with your teacher, but also with every other Lead/Partner in your class, which is a great way to break the ice and get to know the other people in your group.
  • This is a class for dancers with a minimum experience of 6 everybodysalsa dance classes, or 10 salsa dance classes elsewhere.
  • Dancers can expect Cross-body/ Cuban, or a mixture of both popular salsa styles in each weeks turn patterns.
  • This class is immediately followed with a salsa freestyle disco, where dancers of all levels can practise your new found skills with other dancers in your class, and/or with dancers from other classes too, or just use the time to have a relaxing drink, whilst observing the other people do their thing.
  • There is nothing that you or we are doing that cannot be improved! Whatever you concentrate on, inevitably improves! We are receiving increasing interest in our private classes, so if there is anything about your dancing that you are not entirely happy with, the individual attention and focus of a private lesson or two, may make all the difference in helping you transform this aspect of your dancing.
  • Whether it is leading correctly, following well, timing, turns, tricks, spins or dips, a private lesson may well do the trick. Your investment is modest, at £50.00 for a couple, or £35.00 on your own.  The above mentioned investment covers tuition only, and does not include traveling costs, or venue hire, (if required). Private classes are taken exclusively by Alan (UKA) and Heather.
  • Immediately following your class, the everybodysalsa freestyle disco begins, with a range of fantastic salsa tracks to keep you on your feet until 11pm. The everybodysalsa freestyle disco is an opportunity to dance, not only with people you have recently met on your course, but also with more experienced dancers too! I guarantee that they don’t bite.
  • The everybodysalsa freestyle disco is an essential part of your development - a space where you gradually develop confidence in your ability to dance each week’s new steps and moves, and eventually, your own distinctive style of dancing, which is of course, what the classes are there to prepare you for.
  • So make sure that you stay on the dance floor after your class, as practice makes progression easier. The freestyle disco is also a great opportunity to invite other members of your class, (including your teacher), for a dance.
  • When we are not busy preparing your class’s etc. everybodysalsa teachers welcome the chance to dance with you and your fellow class members after your class. We get a lot of pleasure watching you progress and are happy to go over anything that you would like assistance with after your class.

I hope that this rough guide has been helpful to you and look forward to seeing you at one of our weekly salsa clubs soon.

 

A short guide to beginner courses

everybodysalsa beginners classes – these exciting classes run every 6 weeks throughout the year.

  • Do something different this year!
  • Enjoy great nights out and keep fit too!  
  • Lose weight the fun way!
  • Get out more and meet new people!
  • Learn an exciting new way of dancing!
  • Boost your immune system.
 
This course is designed to provide YOU with enough knowledge, which when combined with enough practice, will enable even a completely new starter to be able to dance freestyle with different partners and be able to join in our exciting, regular Improvers (level 2) salsa dance classes, which also takes place every week. 

A series of 6 great evenings out for adults of all ages to have fun meeting new friends, keeping fit and developing new skills in a relaxed friendly atmosphere.

If you haven’t danced before, this course is designed to help you develop your ability at a pace that you find manageable and first time dancers are as welcome as those with more experience.

Salsa is a partner dance, but is also a very sociable dance, an environment where you will quickly make friends and where the ‘leads’ are constantly rotating, ensuring that nobody misses out, injecting energy into the dance and building confidence along the way.

As long as you have the desire, we will be here to teach you. We all learn at different speeds and in different ways, so should you find any part of this course more challenging that other parts, our super friendly ‘everybodysalsa’ team is always there to help, and remember, a little extra practice can make a lot of difference to your confidence and ability, so do stay on after your class and enjoy our freestyle club till 11pm.

The full 6 week course is on offer at *ONLY £49!!* You can book a place on the course for yourself, a friend or spouse and become a cool salsa dancer in JUST SIX WEEKS!

This course is designed for you to join on either week one, or week two. Students unable to join on week one we will be offered a shorter ‘booster class’ to help you catch up. Anyone wishing to join the course after the second week are welcome to join us on the next course, which is only a few weeks away. Your next course starts on Sunday 5th September.

Free taster class for new starters 

everybodysalsa occasionally put on a Free taster class for new starters so that people can try out a session before committing to a six week course.

What else does everybodysalsa offer?

'everybodysalsa' workshops usually take place at weekends, at times when most interested dancers are able to attend. Our unique brand of intensive workshops have evolved to provide keen dancers of all levels with increased teacher/pupil ratio, over a longer period than your usual weekly class, allowing you more 1-2-1 time with your teacher, time to make adjustments to your dancing and to reinforce the changes you make.

This process significantly increases your chances of retaining the new information, often resulting in increased confidence in your dancing. Each class takes place in a quiet, friendly and informal atmosphere and includes a 10 minute break for light refreshments.

everybodysalsa 2 hour intensive workshops are ideal for anyone who’d like the opportunity to improve their skills and technique and IS A MUST, for anyone wanting to add a little more style and confidence into their dancing.

The intensive nature of these events, help refine our Leading and Following skills and include a little styling too! The 2 hours allows plenty of time to focus on those little details that make all the difference between ‘getting through’ a dance, & really enjoying it.

The prospect of moving from class to class can be quite exhilarating, as we experience increasingly complex moves and turn patterns and less time to prepare for them, and the first few weeks of a new class can also feel rather fast moving, at times maybe even bewildering, compared to class you are moving/have moved from.

Anyone considering the possibility of moving up to a higher class, or those dancers who have recently done so, may find the slower pace of an intensive workshop, provides a welcome introduction to some of the new movements that you will encounter, or have recently done so, and offer the opportunity to revisit strange new moves that you might not feel entirely comfortable with yet.

Numbers at intensive workshops may be restricted to ensure a reasonable balance of men and women, and also to allow every dancer enough 121 instruction, to be able to develop your own personal goals.

everybodysalsa have held a total of nine Charity Balls since we began in 2004 and have invited many national and international celebrity guest teachers, as well as world class performers and bands.

Each event has had a different theme and has contained a variety of salsa styles, as well as other interesting dances for you to try, and by donating all our time and effort we have raised well over £6,000.00 for charities such as Sue Ryder, Muscular Dystrophy, Save The Children, St Theresa’s Day Care Centre for the Homeless, the Alziheimer Society ( local branch), Peterborough Samaritans and the Haiti disaster.

everybodysalsa.com also perform, "introduction to salsa", "introduction to Merengue", taster dance classes, designed to encourage people to try out these exciting partner dances, and see if they like it, (they invariably do)!
These taster sessions, which are always good fun and often include a dance display too, are usually 30 minutes long and are very popular at local charity events, private functions, including Weddings, Christmas parties and celebrations of every kind. They are also forming part of the everybodysalsa team building events which we provide for businesses. If you would like 'everybodysalsa' to perform for you, or you would like to know when we are holding the next free class at the Fletton club, then head on over to the 'About Us' page and send us your details via the 'Contact us' form.

From time to time we hold a party night where you can still join a class at your level and also spend more time dancing to Latin rythms with people from all levels. These parties are often themed e.g. Valentines or Halloween and always include a fun extra class and sometimes a dance display for your enjoyment.

What exactly is salsa?

Salsa is nothing less than a ceaselessly evolving multicultural musical miracle! It is a fast and passionate partner dance involving six steps over every eight beats of rich, multi rhythmic Latin music with a fiery tempo.

The wonderfully rich and lively Latin music becomes practically irresistible and after a while you will find it difficult to keep your feet from moving along to the rhythm of modern stars like Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin, or classic oldies such as Gloria Estefan and Santana. Either way the dancing becomes irresistible, the more you do it, the more you want to! 

Salsa roots

The roots of salsa music lie in West Africa, where the slave trade thrived and where people created rhythms to evoke their Gods. These enchanting rhythms were taken to Cuba along with over one million slaves, over an astonishingly long, 300 years that the slave trade flourished. The Spanish captors, who had wiped out the native, Indian population of Cuba, by a combination of over working and disease, banned the Africans’ native religions, even outlawing the playing of music, unless the slaves converted to Christianity. 

So slaves used the drum rhythms in Christian worship too. Slaves were forced to adopt Christianity upon arrival in Cuba, but often called their own Gods by Christian names so as to avoid punishment. A similar practice was the progenitor of the “Yo Mama is so…” jokes in existence today among African-Americans. “Mama” was actually a code word for “Master”. Hardly anyone telling these jokes today remembers what “Mama” originally stood for.

Most of the listeners and dancers of salsa music are unaware that the drum rhythms also have religious meaning. Various Cabillolos, or secret societies still exist in Cuba, where the knowledge of over 200 different rhythms for different African Gods or Orishas, are still kept to this day.

The Salsa music that we hear today may have its roots in Caribbean, but quickly spread to Miami, New York and Mexico, where it has continued to evolve to this day. The term “salsa” originated in New York in the1940s and was applied, not only to Salsa music, but to any music emanating from Hispanic Countries, and so many distinctive styles of music and dance for example, The Cha Cha Cha, Cumbia, Danson, Gurache, Mambo and Merengue etc were also referred to as Salsa until quite recently! And the various styles of salsa dancing that we see today bear little resemblance to its pre 1940’s roots.

Looking forward to seeing you soon, 

everybodysalsa