Legit teachers

Chris_Yannick

Chris_Yannick

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Staff member
I thought it would be interesting to list some cool dancers who are also legit great teachers.

I don't mean your local teacher who taught you everything you know (although if you want to list them feel free), but I was thinking more along the lines of well known international artists who also happen to produce great students. With so many teachers out there in the world, how can we identify who is actually good at teaching?

It can be first hand knowledge or what you've heard.

Off the top of my head:

Svetlana Ray - Has taken more followers I can think of from zero to hero. Granular level of detail in terms of feedback. They call her eagle eyes for her ability to spot even the smallest of mistakes. One of the only teachers I know who shines a spotlight on her students in her social media.

Dimitris Psychogyios

An actual world champion who is also a great teacher? What??

I've only got second hand knowledge of Dimitris, but I know a guy from the US who spent a month in Europe and took privates from Dmitris and holy smokes, he is soooo much better both as a leader and in terms of his body movement. I'm talking huge jump in skill. It's enough for me to be a believer of Dimitris' teaching ability.

Who are yours?
 
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AguaDulce said:
What about Super Mario and his wife?
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He does most important thing, gets his students to actually dance. If smooth patterns is your thing, several of his students got good. But they were talented as well.

@Chris_Yannick I think listing local teachers makes sense, because these international stars often are local teachers as well and these students should be the measure of their teaching qualifications.
 
AguaDulce said:
What about Super Mario and his wife?
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It's funny because I don't know anyone who can vouch for SM as a great teacher. Yes, I know he built a vibrant social dancing community in London but I have no anecdotal evidence of his teaching ability.

Since a lot of people I know (all experienced dancers) dislike the pattern-y style of dancing and associate SM with that style, then obviously I won't hear anything good.

But I mean, if someone vouches for him and says he's a good teacher, then I won't argue.
 
Smejmoon said:
I think listing local teachers makes sense, because these international stars often are local teachers as well and these students should be the measure of their teaching qualifications.
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Yes it's fine. If the teacher is great regardless of locality, then it's worth noting who they are.
 
I'll agree with @Chris_Yannick on Svetlana Ray - I took her Naked Salsa course and right now participating in her WarmUp Club (by the way, huge props to Chris for being such an essential part of the club as well :P), and the amount of feedback she gave me on my fundamentals is incredible. I attribute a lot of my growth as a dancer to her.

From the local/international teachers - Edyta Czagowiec (probably also known for her being Talal's dancing partner) gives really solid lessons on body movement (in Amsterdam, if mentioning location matters)
 
How can anyone not name Marina Vanyushina from Rostov on Don. She has been around for a very long time. Most of her students are excellent dancers.

Agree with Svetlana Ray. I discovered her (2018) before she became famous outside of SPB :)

You need to add the grand daddy and OG - Eddie Torres. He produced so many excellent dancers. Is he still actively teaching in NYC?

I am not including the performance oriented instructors like Yamulee and Santa Rico. Their primary focus was on performances.
 
AguaDulce said:
Never heard of her but she looks familiar

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She's the organizer of the Rostov congress (together with her husband) and has been travelling a lot in the past (not sure for how long, I met her 2006), so you're quite likely to have seen her in the US or Europe at some point.
 
Chris_Yannick said:
It's funny because I don't know anyone who can vouch for SM as a great teacher. Yes, I know he built a vibrant social dancing community in London but I have no anecdotal evidence of his teaching ability.

Since a lot of people I know (all experienced dancers) dislike the pattern-y style of dancing and associate SM with that style, then obviously I won't hear anything good.

But I mean, if someone vouches for him and says he's a good teacher, then I won't argue.
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If all you require is anecdotal evidence, I got one for you: "Randomyoungman". Excellent lead, and I mean EXCELLENT in all regards, I think when I danced with him about 1.5 years ago he told me he's been dancing for about 2 years and had no previous dance experience. SM must have done something right there.
 
Yaritza Arboleda is a seriously great teacher and I'm pretty sure will be universally recognized as such in the mambo community eventually. Being in her mid-20s she just hasn't gotten there yet. She has trained in other styles and hence her classes are very well structured and she knows how to break down movement. Actually tries to teach people how to dance rather than just memorise combos, has the perfect balance of technique and flow, sees mistakes and will correct them gently and helpfully. Also is just a lovely person with great energy on top of all of that. Her intensive training I've taken has easily been the best workshop I've ever taken in terms of value and content I've gotten out of that. That has led me to subscribing to their (Diego's and her) online school and I haven't been disappointed and can only highly recommend it.
www.instagram.com

Yaritza Arboleda on Instagram: "Mambo Monday Gdansk, Poland See you this Tuesday at @meetanddance.pl for a full Mambo Intensive So excited to be in this city for the first time Grateful to my @salsea_dance family ❤️ for always making me feel

610 likes, 14 comments - yaritza_arboleda on September 22, 2025: "Mambo Monday Gdansk, Poland See you this Tuesday at @meetanddance.pl for a full Mambo Intensive So excited to be in this city for the first time Grateful to my @salsea_dance family ❤️ for always making me feel so loved...
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
 
Tara the Dance Doctor and her husband Adrian.
She is a good teacher. Taken privates with her on lj e (and danced with her in Havana). Really God agnidentifying weaknesses in 3 counts of music. I also took private lessons with Adrian. In Rumba. The first 2 weeks I wasn't to much a fan, but after that's was.
 
Judging by the community around them, I'd say Nerea and Jose must be really awesome teachers, too. I have taken some workshops with them and definitely enjoyed them, but more importantly, all of the leads from their team(s) are seriously awesome - and I think you can only really judge teachers by their students... I don't know those students' backgrounds, maybe they have been influenced by other teachers, too, but is you hear a stampede, think horses, not zebras, right?

Also, I think we cannot not mention Franklin here. Now, I understand the caveats and that many people will have their difficulties with calling him a great teacher, you have to be a very particular type of learner to be able to fully benefit from his teaching, maybe he's more of somewhat of a mentor, but he has influenced and inspired a crazy amount of really good dancers in this scene.
 
desconocida said:
If all you require is anecdotal evidence, I got one for you: "Randomyoungman". Excellent lead, and I mean EXCELLENT in all regards, I think when I danced with him about 1.5 years ago he told me he's been dancing for about 2 years and had no previous dance experience. SM must have done something right there.
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Ah yes, one of my GFs favourite leads.
 
desconocida said:
Also, I think we cannot not mention Franklin here. Now, I understand the caveats and that many people will have their difficulties with calling him a great teacher, you have to be a very particular type of learner to be able to fully benefit from his teaching, maybe he's more of somewhat of a mentor, but he has influenced and inspired a crazy amount of really good dancers in this scene.
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I definitely would put Franklin under the 'most likely to get inspired from' category.

Similar to how I feel about Frankie and Eddie Torres to a degree.

My thinking is that people who get inspired train harder and thus would have acquired good dancing skills regardless of who was their teacher.

From my own beginner days, my local teachers, while having looked up to them as an inspiration, were not good at teaching beginners Salsa. They were good at marketing/mentoring and taking established good dancers and giving then a platform to showcase their skills. Those successful students would probably say they were good teachers, but in my opinion, they weren't. Many more of their students didn't make it.

But obviously if you are good and you give a glowing endorsement, then your word is more likely to be taken at face value.

So yeah, I've had issues with my teachers and I try not to fall into the trap of saying someone isn't a good teacher just because they couldn't teach me, but here I am saying it lol
 
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