Oh gosh!! It's Gosia!

​I'm a salsera. From the daft breed. I dance for the pure joy of it, and my main aim is that my partner has fun too. I sing (terribly) when I dance, and most of the time you can hear me laughing over the music, as I find my own bloopers very amusing. By some odd set of events (I still claim I am immune to peer pressure so it can't be that) I find myself teaching salsa, and have been running weekly classes in Halifax since early 2020 - yes, I launched it just as lockdown pushed us into all sorts of fancy teaching methods and regulations. The school survived!! I am a qualified trainer, and spent some time teaching fellow employees very boring stuff that they really didn't want to learn, even if it meant them not accidentally killing themselves or our customers. Teaching people to dance is far more enjoyable! Mostly because they all chose to be there, but also because, when adults decide to learn something as a hobby, there tends to be far more laughing involved.

I don't have any intention of stopping my own learning journey and join a dance class or workshop whenever possible. This continuous learning experience allows me to understand what my dancers struggle with, and to come up with ideas to overcome their difficulties.

I've been organising social gatherings for salseros since 2018, always with aim of promoting and growing local dance community. What started by me negotiating space and time for our community dancing outdoors with the Piece Hall, to give platform to all local dance teachers and cluelessly buying a rather big speaker to then plonk it in the courtyard and pray for sun ... is now a regular and well attended 4th Saturday evening event, often in collaboration with other dance styles. I've also organised multiple learning and dancing weekenders bringing us absolutely fabulous and fun instructors from further afield. Work gets in the way of organising those, so there will be no daytime workshops for a while now, but we will keep inviting our favourite teachers twice per year to hang out and dance with us on Saturday evenings. 

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I danced pretty much since I could walk. Been in some dance troupes and I'm pretty sure we won some regional or national comps as teens. I was never a fan of the stress of it and rivalry involved. Then I discovered social dancing, the energy exchanged between partners, flow of creativity in freestyling and countless surprises when dancing with strangers who then become dance friends. I love this sport and the community spirit that comes with it. I am very happy to be actively growing and nurturing this friendly crowd.

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What's my teaching like?

Seeing this partner dance from perspective of a very experienced follower is allowing me to help the leads to become considerate dancers, driving it home that there is a big difference between a leader and a boss, while focusing on technique and explaining reasons behind it. Followers learn all sort of nonsense from me, balancing, spinning, footwork, frame, preps, connection, making leader squeak with a sneaky hijack... All this with a healthy doze of giggles, high fives and occasional facepalm.

 

​It gives me fuzzy warm feelings seeing my merry lot gain confidence and spreading their dance wings. I love it when I see them start 'getting it' and surprise themselves at what they can achieve. I am known to encourage men to follow and ladies to lead, because it not only helps them to understand how things feel, and allows to explore a new skill, but simply "Switches" have more fun at parties, and NEVER have to worry if crowd is evenly balanced. ​

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I am working full time and studying part time while running this school, so please bear with me if I don't immediately answer queries. 

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