La Xpresionlatina

Tanya was born in Colombia where she first trained in theatre and classical ballet. She came to England in 1985 and was offered a place at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. In 1989 she was co-founder and co-director of the Northern Dance Company. At the same time, Tanya began teaching and demonstrating popular Colombian dance styles such as salsa and merengue at venues across the country, particularly in Leeds and Yorkshire,

In 1993, before salsa became as mainstream as it is today, Leeds had its first premier Latin American night with 'Casa Latina' at the Underground and Lubi Jovanovich, one of its promoters, openly acknowledges that if it was not for Tanya, the salsa scene in Leeds would probably never taken off in the way that it has! Many of Yorkshire's top salsa teachers began learning salsa with Tanya. We like to think of Tanya as the mother of salsa in Yorkshire.

Since then Tanya has worked as a freelance dancer/performer/teacher/choreographer/director all over the country and abroad with a variety of threatre directors, companies and choreographies.

Tanya's classes can be found listed here

Many people often forget that salsa is a fusion of many latin dances and music styles. Often people simply focus on Cuban style or New York style and many people forget Colombia's role in the evolution of salsa.

One of the leading places in the world for salsa is Cali, Colombia. 

www.tanyacusanespinosa.co.uk

tancusan@yahoo.com

It is true, she is the first lady of salsa in Yorkshire. Tanya was almost one of the first teachers in the whole UK! 1989 was the year that many of London and Manchester's latino dance teachers started doing classes also. Remember, the 1st wave of teachers were 100% exclusively latinos - they had to be!

I remember going to a salsa workshop ran by Tanya in early 1990, alhtough I have been promoting and djing latin jazz and salsa since 1982, I have no dancing skills.

That's when Tanya and I hooked up. She then started teaching weekly at Granary Wharf and by then already had a strong following. From 1991, anywhere where my latin band Palante were playing, or I was djing salsa, Tanya and her class would turn up and dance.

My clubnight at Cafe Mex in Leeds (now Wire) was running 1993, Tanya and all her class would come down after their salsa class finished.

1995, was the beginning of Casa Latina (not 1993 as Tanya states). Tanya was my only choice for dance teacher because she was integral to the whole evolution of salsa dancing in Yorkshire. she taught Nicolai, Alan, Ces, Om and anyone in Leeds who is 35 and over and dances salsa today.

Tanya was resident at Casa Latina for four years.

Tanya taught Colombian on1 style salsa - the style of salsa danced all over latin america. Not flash styling wise but quite a lot of fast footwork, very pure latino style. By the mid-90s, the majority of teachers were Cuban style teachers and by the late 90s, the whole on2/mambo/cross body lead style was growing. not many teachers now teach the pure Colombian salsa style.

I'm glad she still has packed classes. her following is very loyal. we don't see her out hardly at all which is a shame.

[by DJ Lubi Jovanovich – see his profile]

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