Salsa Rapido® - is not just another brand name but an alternative salsa teaching method that gets you dancing salsa faster, better and having more fun along the way.
I like dancing with fun, confident, stylish people and so that’s how I teach people. Call it progressive or just common sense.
Salsa classes reflect the values of the teacher. So who am I and what do I believe:
My name is Alastair Sadler I'm English and have been dancing salsa since 1992. I created the Salsa Rapido® method in 1995 as a reaction to the traditional ‘dance class.’ It’s evolved into the fastest, most fun and progressive way into salsa.
In 2003 I created the world’s first 1-Day Intensive Salsa Course in London which has proved the longest running and most successful course of its kind anywhere in the world.
I’m still passionate about teaching social dance and the positive effects it has on those who get involved.
Why I believe Salsa Rapido should be fast and fun:
Fast! I work on the assumption that you don’t want to be a beginner for long. You want to walk onto that dance floor with the confidence of James Bond, knowing you can dance.
So learning is just a phase to go through. The shorter that phase is, the sooner you'll be out there dancing.
Can you get out there and salsa? Once you do, you'll discover that learning was worth all the effort. Don’t stop until you can dance. Once there, the chances are that you'll stay in salsa.
Surprisingly, learning quickly produces better dancers with less bad habits and misconceptions.
Fun! Classes should be fun and an entertainment in their own right. If you're having fun you're relaxed and spoiler alert.... you'll learn faster. Associating salsa with fun will draw you back to salsa again for more fun where you’ll meet others who also like having fun.
How is Salsa Rapido Progressive:
Confidence - I like dancing with confident people. Social dancing is a great opportunity to express our inner confidence. I don’t mean showing off, but the confidence we all express when sitting around a table having a laugh with friends. It’s also the confidence of connecting with other humans and together feeling inspired. It’s not about being the best, it’s about being the most you can be. Allowing the most confident version of you to be seen. We seldom get the chance to practice confidence as a social skill but salsa is one way we can.
Method - I’ll use any and every trick, tip, wacky analogy and positive psychology I can, to get you dancing. After over two decades of teaching, I’ve quite a bag full!
Simplification - Salsa is easy and yet often it appears complex, something that will take forever to learn. Salsa Rapido® offers a simple conceptual framework. Parameters or rules within which to operate. Simple classification of types of moves, so once you get one example you’ve pretty much got them all in that category.
De-mystification - Understand the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ becomes easy. Keep the ‘why’ hidden and it becomes mysterious and complex and difficult.
Experience - Showing you what to do is easy. Identifying precisely what went wrong and how to fix it takes experience. Constructing a curriculum that avoids most of the problems and bad habits before they form takes a lot of experience.
Divergent thinking.
Divergent thinking is the approach where there are many correct and creative solutions fanning out in front of you. This is opposed to Convergent thinking when you seek a single perfect way of doing something. Most social dance is traditionally presented convergently. I teach divergently giving you many ways of looking good being creative within the parameters of what works across the world. More about that another time...