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Salsa Classes in Los Angeles

Based in Los Angeles? Wanting to learn to dance salsa or refine your salsa skills?

Welcome to Movers and Shakers - Los Angeles’ “go-to,” top salsa dance academy.

The Movers and Shakers curriculum has been carefully developed over a decade and is progressive, structured, and comprehensive.

Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned dancer, Movers and Shakers has the path to make you shine.

SALSA CLASS SCHEDULE

🕺Beginner Salsa Program (Salsa 101) 💃

If it’s your first time taking salsa classes, you’ll begin with the beginner salsa (101) program.

You’ll start from the very top and learn all the foundations. In each class you’ll learn something new and review what you’ve already learned to get everything into your muscle memory correctly the first time.

With dancing, when the foundations are great, everything is great. When the foundations are a mess, everything is mess. That’s why we do the full 10-weeks with so much attention to the details.

Once you graduate, you’ll know what you’re doing, be able to have fun with it, and we’ll actually take you out dancing.

Program: Salsa 101

Prerequisites: None. For first time salsa dancers!

Length: 10 Weeks (~20 hours)

Price:

Regular: $597
Early Bird: $397 (~19.85/hr) 🔥
$200 OFF! Price increases soon!

I’ll miss some dates. What should I do?

OPTION 1

Sundays, 05:00-06:45pm
1/12 - 3/16/2025
Location: The Balcony on Beverwil
Instructor: Danny week 1, Ariela weeks 2-10

OPTION 2

Tuesdays, 08:00-09:45pm
1/14 - 3/18/2025
Location: The Balcony on Beverwil
Instructor: Danny week 1, Inna weeks 2-10

OPTION 3

Thursdays, 08:00-09:45pm
1/30 - 4/3/2025
Location: The Balcony on Beverwil
Instructor: Danny week 1, Ariela weeks 2-10

OPTION 4

Saturdays, 01:30-03:15pm
1/18 - 3/22/2025
Location:
- West LA Academy of Dance Studio 1 (weeks 1-2)
- The Balcony on Beverwil (weeks 3-10)
Instructor: Danny weeks 1-3, Ariela weeks 4-10

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🕺Intermediate Salsa Program (Salsa 102) 💃

Salsa 102 is a direct progression of salsa 101. It’s still foundations focused, but in the context of intermediate level movements and patterns.

The intermediate salsa 102 program is also when you’ll start learning to add “latin flavor” and feeling to your dancing (through a movement called “Cuban motion”), and start to learn to spin like a pro.

Like the 101 program, in each intermediate salsa 102 class, you’ll learn something new as well as review what you’ve already learned. The focus is still getting proper foundations into your muscle memory - the details underneath these more intermediate patterns. These details are absolutely the most important thing for your entire salsa dancing journey. We can’t emphasize enough the importance of the foundations underneath the fancier movements!

Any dancer who can execute cleanly the material in the intermediate salsa 102 program is a delight to dance with!

Program: Salsa 102b

Requirements: Salsa 101 or if outside experience, must speak with director.

Length: 10 Weeks (~20 hours)

Price:

Regular: $497
Early Bird: $397 (~19.85/hr) 🔥
$100 OFF! Price increases soon!

OPTION 1

Mondays, 08:00-09:45pm
1/20 - 3/24/2025
Location: The Balcony on Beverwil
Instructor: Danny

OPTION 2

Tuesdays, 08:15-10:00pm
1/21/2025 - 3/25/202
Location: West LA Academy of Dance Studio 1
Instructor: Danny week 1, Ariela weeks 2-10

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🕺High Intermediate Salsa Program (Salsa 103)💃

Now it’s time to get fancy!

By this time you should already be able to easily dance through a song, do single turns decently, dance with a little flavor, and be ready to learn more sophisticated movements.

In the advanced salsa 103 program we let loose and give you all the coolest patterns. Remember your foundations though! Good foundations are the only way to execute the fancy patterns smoothly.

The mechanics of double spins are also covered in the advanced salsa program – you’ll need them for the partnering patterns!

You’ll also learn about, and practice, “musicality.” Musicality means adjusting your dancing for the music. Whenever you watch dances that inspire you and make you feel something, it’s those moments when the dancers do something special with the music that will move you the most. That is musicality.

Dancing salsa with musicality is the highest level of freestyle salsa dancing, and the most challenging. In the advanced salsa 103 program, you’ll get better and better, and dance with more and more feeling and precision every week.

Program: Salsa 103

Requirements: Salsa 101, 102a, 102b or if outside experience, must speak with director.

Length: 10 Weeks (~20 hours)

Price:

Regular: $497
Early Bird: $397 (~19.85/hr) 🔥
$100 OFF! Price increases soon!

Schedule:

Wednesdays, 08:00-09:45pm
1/22 - 3/26/2025
- I’ll miss some dates. What should I do?

Location: West LA Academy of Dance Studio 1

Instructor: Marina

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🕺Advanced Salsa Program (Salsa 104) 💃

Class for salseros who “don’t need to take class...”

but you want it...

because you love salsa and you're still committed to getting even better...

Welcome to salsa 104.

Partnering only (no shines).

“Anything goes” in this program and every salsa 104 season is unique material.

Led by two professional instructors (a lead and follow), you’ll be sweating and challenged every week.

Topics covered:

• Advanced partnering patterns
• Leading with crystal clarity
• Following effortlessly
• Musicality
• Ladies styling
• Mens styling
• Feeling and flavor

Eligibility:

Approval required to join
Leads:
Crystal clear leading
Follows:
Double spins on 1 foot consistently
Traveling turns finishing with balance
Spotting on all turns

Length: 6 Weeks (~12 hours)

Price:

Regular: $397
Early Bird: $237 (~19.75/hr) 🔥
$160 OFF! Price increases soon!

Schedule:

Tuesdays, 08:00-09:45pm
1/14 - 2/18/2025
- I’ll miss some dates. What should I do?

Location: The Floor

Instructor: Francisco and Shakaia together

ENROLL NOW

Why Not Drop-In Salsa Classes?

Learning to dance salsa properly through drop-in classes simply isn’t practical.

With drop-in classes, for example at night clubs before a social dance night, random and new students are in the room every week. This means that the instructor cannot create any structure from week to week. The instructor also typically must adjust for the most beginning level students. Even the best instructor in the world cannot teach proper foundations in this context - foundations require structure.

The founder of Movers and Shakers understands this first hand, since he used to teach drop-in classes at night clubs.

Drop-in classes can be fun, but a beginner trying to learn proper foundations from them makes no sense at all.

To become a great salsa dancer, you must FIRST get rock solid foundations into your muscle memory with a properly structured program. THEN, after your foundations are terrific, you’ll be able to go to any drop-in salsa class, anywhere in the world, and actually learn the material smoothly, remember it after class, get it into your muscle memory, and execute it well. The purpose of the Movers and Shakers curriculum is to get you to that point!

Why 10-Week Salsa Programs Instead of Multiyear Salsa Programs?

As adults, our lives tend to be busy. Movers and Shakers has found that 10-week programs are the perfect length to give proper structure while still being flexible enough to fit in with our busy lives.

With the 10-week programs, if you must miss a season you can come right back and start where you left off.

Dedicated Movers and Shakers students indeed want to learn more and more - many continue with the Movers and Shakers programs for years. In the advanced 103 programs, Movers and Shakers actually has 103a, 103b, 103c etc. since there is so much to learn at the advanced level.

What Happens if I Skip the Beginner Salsa 101 Program and Just Start Going Out Dancing?

We recognize the enthusiasm many have to dive right straight into salsa dancing at the club (known as “social dancing”). While we support social dancing, there's a common trend that should be avoided.

The trend looks like this:

Goes to salsa clubs and does drop-in classes.
Knows the dancing is messy, but is having fun, so keeps going to clubs.
Builds some confidence. Starts to think the dancing is cleaner even though it’s not because they never had a chance to learn proper foundations.
Never wants to go back to learn proper foundations in the beginner salsa 101 program because that now sounds “boring”
Dances messy forever (often without knowing it)

Avoid this path!

Take your time. You have your whole life ahead of you to dance.

Get proper foundations and you will be greatly rewarded. With proper foundations, your dancing will be amazing for the rest of your life and you will light up any dance floor.

With proper foundations you’ll also be able to go to those drop-in classes at the clubs and truly learn the material properly, easily, and smoothly.

Advanced Dancers’ Hidden Talents

When dancing with a partner, the more advanced dancer must adjust for the less advanced dancer.

For follows (usually ladies), as you start to level up, you’ll notice that advanced leaders will lead you through exciting patterns and feelings and movements that you’ve never experienced before. They had it in them all along – they were just waiting for you to be able to handle it!

For leaders (usually gentlemen), as you start to level up, you’ll attract higher level follows who will gladly follow your fancy movements. You’ll even start seeing them putting in more effort to their movements and feelings, which will elevate your dancing as well!

It all starts with learning proper foundations. Learning proper foundations is like learning a superpower. Once you've got the foundations, you'll unlock beautiful dances and connections with partners like you had never experienced before!