Salsa Caliente Dance Studio

I set out on a journey to learn Salsa exactly 2 years ago.
My first lesson learned: If you want to learn salsa, you have to go to a salsa school. Don’t go to a ballroom dancing studio to learn salsa. It’s not real salsa, and they’ll pressure you pretty hard to learn ballroom even though you just want to learn salsa. Ballroom studios will try to get hundreds of dollars from you for a couple of weeks of lessons. You should never pay more than $ 15 for a group class from a salsa school. With groupons, introductory classes are about $ 8 or less per class.
Two months later and $ 600 burnt, I luckily find Salsa Caliente.
Erika and her staff jump start the beginner class by teaching dancing technique. First we learn about «tension» which in my opinion is the most important lesson in Salsa.
Tension is the foundation of lead and follow technique. With it, you can lead the follower through a salsa pattern without her knowing the pattern. It also help you conserve energy so you can dance longer. For example, instead of stepping out a turn, you can use the rubber band effect from each other’s arms to sling shot you around super fast. Using tension, you can do this turn all day long. If you stepped the turn out, you’d be tired in about 5 turns.
Next we learn the NY Salsa standard patterns and shines.
I never knew how exceptional their teaching and expertise was until I went to my first Salsa Congress in Orlando last summer. A congress is a dance convention where all the serious and expert dancers gather.
With my dance foundation from Salsa Caliente, I was able to learn the advanced partner and shine routines faster than most people in the Congress Workshops, because their routines were built by chaining up Salsa Caliente standard patterns and shines.
In one of the workshops with about 40 intermediate/​advanced dancers, the instructor asked us to do a «basic» (the standard steps for salsa). He immediately pointed to me and said I was the only one doing it correctly. Why? Because Erika teaches us that we should be moving back and forth with a smooth walking motion, and not a «step step STOP, step step STOP» motion.
Is this a gauge of how great Salsa Caliente is? In my opinion it is.
Am I great dancer? No, but I’m probably as good as I can be.
Am I good enough to show most girls in my arms a great time while dancing?
HECK YEAAAAA !!!
That’s why I give Salsa Caliente 5 Stars :-)

I have been taking group classes and private lessons with the owner Erika for about 3 months now. I’m proud to say I’ve grown more as a dancer in this short time than in 4 ½ years with my previous training. Her knowledge and professionalism are unsurpassed in the Tampa area. The technique and body movement she teaches will make you look like a graceful dancer. I highly recommend her to anyone who wants to train with an expert instructor!

I had the worst experience ever at this dance studio to the point that I will not return even thou I paid for a package. The check in process is completely disorganized and the staff seemed overwhelmed. I found the main instructor to be abrasive and condescending to the students. The ambiance was a bit stuffy and not welcoming which made a new person like me a bit uncomfortable. I have moved around the US several times during the last several years and have visited dance studios from Utah, Colorado, Tennessee, Kansas and Florida sad to say this was the only place I felt this way. I will not recommend this studio to anyone that is looking to learn to dance Salsa or anyone looking to just practice what they have already learned. There are definitely better places in the Tampa Bay area and in Orlando.

Well structured and organized classes.

If you are interested in NY style Salsa classes I would definitely recommend this place. It’s set up so you can go in at any class in your level during the week without feeling like you missed something while you were gone and you don’t have to go with a partner either everyone dances with everyone which helps you adapt to different dancing partners. You can pay by class $ 10 no commitments, you can sign up for a certain amount of classes or do private lessons. Once you are efficient in a level go in a bit earlier for your next class to get evaluated to move to the next level… Additionally they started doing socials at Centro Auturiano in Ybor.