Learn Salsa

Here at Purple Salsa, we teach cross body style salsa, and pride ourselves on bringing this amazing dance to a wide range of people - even those of us who feel like we have two left feet!

We teach two levels of classes weekly, and run a regular Foundations course for complete beginners. We also have a wealth of recorded resources to support you in our Salsa Library. Visit the Classes page for more information on what we offer.

Have a look around the website, but if you’ve got questions, please do just get in touch - we’re a friendly bunch at Purple Salsa, and we know it can be a bit nervewracking starting something new like this, so no question is too small or inconsequential!!

Our Teachers

Meet your Purple Salsa teaching team! We have a great team of teachers who are passionate about salsa and want you to have fun while you learn.

Emilie, Stuart & Helen have been dancing and giggling together for longer than they care to remember! After many years of lessons, social events, workshops and salsa weekenders, Emilie & Stuart started Purple Salsa, and were soon joined by Helen to complete our little team of 3! We had some time off for a few years as we raised families, but are delighted to be back together again now - and back with our Purple Salsa community!

As a team, we pride ourselves on keeping the focus on the ‘how’ of dancing - rather than adding a million moves, we make sure that you develop the moves you have so that you feel confident out on the dance floor. Then adding new moves is much easier! We invite our dancers to take their time working through the classes and resources available, and encourage and welcome mistakes in everyone’s learning - even if that can feel a bit uncomfortable at times!

More about us

Emilie

Emilie is the driving force behind Purple Salsa, and loves bringing her enthusiasm about this amazing dance to everyone she teaches. She is incredibly encouraging, and knows from experience how much work goes into learning a new skill like this - she never did find it easy to pick up new steps, especially if she has to ‘cross the midline’ when dancing them!!

Here’s what she says about the dance: “I fell in love with salsa back in my early twenties, when my Mum started taking me along to the classes she went to (thanks Mum!!). Salsa has brought so much joy and laughter to my life - and it feels like a huge privilege to be able to share that joy with others, through our Purple Salsa community. I love to bring fun and friendliness to the dance floor, and it’s just amazing to see people blossom with the dance as they throw themselves into it. It’s especially gratifying to hear people tell me that they never thought they could dance before, or that they always thought they had two left feet, yet here they are dancing!!”

Emilie also enjoys teaching her Somatic Movement classes, and loves nice cups of tea, a good book, and her big fluffy dog.

Stuart

Married to Emilie, Stuart was gently encouraged into teaching alongside her - and is very glad he was! He actually comes from an illustrious line of dance teaching… Ok, only his Dad, but still!! Stuart’s Dad taught ballroom classes, and met Stuart’s Mum doing that. By a curious twist of fate, Em & Stuart themselves met at salsa classes when they’d both just started out! Stuart brings an energy and humour to Purple Salsa classes that keeps us all giggling, and he loves seeing the dance ‘click’ with people as they learn new elements. He is also the brains and skill behind keeping the tech side of Purple Salsa running - we’re not sure how we’d manage without his geeky brain!!

Here’s what he tells us about his salsa experiences: “My first salsa lesson was on a trip to Copenhagen and I couldn’t understand a word. But it was a lot of fun and I found classes in Reading that I started going to regularly. Since meeting Emilie there, we’ve had some amazing salsa experiences: many dance weekenders, some fab teachers, and starting our own classes. Salsa is so much fun and we’ve made lots of friends along the way - I’m happy that we have Purple Salsa up and running again!”

Outside of salsa, Stuart loves playing ukulele in The Small Strings band, coding, and drinking beer from local breweries.

Helen

Helen first experienced salsa when Emilie dragged her along to a class in Reading. She has been hooked ever since! In fact, it was Emilie and Stuart’s gentle (ahem) persuasion to join Purple Salsa as a teacher that encouraged her to move to Wokingham in the first place.

Here’s what she tells us about her salsa experiences: “Once I’d got the salsa bug, I would find any opportunity to dance - weekenders and party nights were a fave. I love teaching at Purple Salsa and meeting some wonderful people along the way. The thing I most love about salsa is that it makes me smile.”

Outside of salsa, Helen loves gardening, walks in nature and wildlife spotting.