About Secret Salsa's teachers
Mark Winterford:
I went to my very first salsa class at the beginning of 2004. I was expecting to HATE the whole experience, but I was in for a big shock. I LOVED it!
I had only gone along to keep a friend company, as they didn't have anyone else to go with. I had already decided to just go for a week or two and then quit because for my whole life, I'd had an intense dislike for dancing of all kinds.
But within the first two weeks, I knew that dancing was going to become a huge part of my life. I realised that the reason that I didn't like to dance, was that I had never been shown how to! Usually when someone suggested that I dance, I was just supposed to "know" how and if I said I didn't know, they'd just say something like "Don't worry, just get up and move!" and the thought of doing that and looking stupid, (which I definitely would have looked!) was FAR too horrible to contemplate.
Going to a class was completely different. Everyone there was a beginner, so I didn't feel like everyone knew what to do apart from me.
I was shown how to do each step starting right from scratch.
Having been self-employed in various businesses since leaving school, I'd always been searching for a vocation that I'd love, as the business that I was running at the time, I really didn't like at all. Withing the first 2 or 3 weeks of salsa classes, I knew that dancing was what I'd been searching for.
After about 15 months of classes, I decided to jump in and start teaching my own classes. This was quite a scary decision, as I'd been dancing for such a short time but I was determined to learn and become the best teacher I could be.
I taught (very nervously) my first class on 5th July 2005 and ever since that time, I've been working to refine and improve my classes into what they are today.
Coming from a non-dance background, I know how hard it can be for some people to pick up even the most basic steps, so when I teach my classes I like to bear this in mind and break things down in a logical and clear way.
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