Susan Hacking

I started dancing at the age of 7, going through the grade system in ISTD Stage Modern (jazz dance), IDTA Tap Dance & CECCETTI Ballet, took a break during my French & Spanish degree (Exeter University) and then started salsa on my return to London. After general classes in Cuban, Colombian and Cross-Body styles I developed a love of Cuban movement and music, and so studied with professional Cuban dancer Rodolfo Fournier (Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA), Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), Laban Centre) on the weekly course he ran for a couple of years whilst he was in the UK. The course covered diverse Cuban popular and folkloric dances & rhythms: salsa, son, mambo, cha cha cha, rumba (guaguanco & yambu), afro-cuban (orishas & palo monte), afro-haitian (vodu & gaga), yuka, mozambique & pilon. It gave me a much better understanding of how to interpret through dance the various influences and elements found within Cuban music, something I have continued to explore and refine ever since.

In 2001, I co-founded Salsa Caribe with Jim Layne AKA Dr Jim and we started the Afro-Cuban Lounge at The Buffalo Bar and our classes at The Place Dance Studios (both events still going!), where for a time we also taught with dancers from the Lady Salsa musical, including Rafael Del Busto & Yanet Fuentes Torres. I've been teaching It's a Girl Thing! a monthly workshop in ladies styling, Cuban fashion, since 2005. We began our dance holidays to Cuba and from 2001-8 I was tour leader, teacher & translator on 15 trips, heading up a team of professional Cuban dancers. Whilst in Cuba, I had private tuition in afro-Cuban rhythms & movement with professional dancers from Ballet Folclorico de la Cutumba, Ban-Ra-Ra & Conjunto Folclorico de la Universidad de la Habana and also attended some group Afro-Cuban classes and had some cabaret 121s.

I certified with the United Kingdom Alliance of Professional Teachers of Dance in 2004 to teach salsa & related dances. From 2002 to the present day I've gone to Pineapple Dance Studios where I attend adv/pro Jazz dance classes 2/3 times a week. More recently I've trained to teach the GYROTONIC Expansion System & GYROKINESIS – an exercise method used (originally by dancers) to improve strength, stability and suppleness, as well as to increase body awareness, freedom of movement in dance and reduce injury risk.

Generally speaking, popular dance refers to casino (salsa), son, mambo, cha cha cha, etc and folkloric dance encompasses Cuba's African heritage: for example rumba, palomonte, orishas, arara etc. Since Cuban bands throw diverse rhythms & sounds into the timba mix, students can learn to respond to changes within the music by changing their movement according to a song's tone, tempo & percussion. I love teaching people how to make better use of body movement to combine turn patterns, to improve partner connection, style & timing, and how to incorporate elements of other Cuban dances so that salsa becomes a conversation between the partners feeding off the music.