Our instructors

The SalsaPassion team is led by Klaus Petritsch who has trained and taught Salsa since 1996 predominantly in the UK and US then Sydney, Australia. He has only recently (Dec 2007) arrived in Cairns.

Since 2001 he is UKA (United Kingdom Alliance of Professional Teachers of Dancing, Club Dance Division) certified teacher of dance.

Klaus’ dance style, technique and teaching methods have been mainly influenced by several UK and US master teachers, such as Leon Rose, Susana Montero, Joseph Koniak, Edie Lewis (the "salsa freak") and ”Super-Mario”.

However, it was only through dancing with a large number of social dancers in the past 12 years while living in Europe, North-, Central- and South-America that he has developed his very universal and comfortable leading/dance technique.

His background includes hip hop, break dance, African dance various martial arts and an unlikely great portion and technique of Argentine Tango. He is also running Australia's leading "Tango Nuevo" (Argentine Tango) school www.funkytango.com).

klaus believes and has proven it many times that anyone who can walk can learn to dance comfortably!

Improvisation and fun with the music and dance partner have kept Klaus's enjoy to actively dance "socially" for such a long time - avoiding choreographies where possible.
He is also a scientist with a passion for teaching in general which reflects in the classes.

In the classes Klaus enjoys assistance from various talented local dancers, some of which have danced and taught Salsa in many countries including Australia for many years.

In Sydney, during the past year Gay Barrie has become Klaus's most supportive and invaluable assistant (she continues to run the Sydney classes with a very gifted partner - see www.salsapassion.com.au. Apart from her passion for Salsa, Gay has an abundance of energy that she tries to distribute amongst various forms of dance ( Latin Afro, Cha Cha, Lambada, Merengue, Bachata and various Indian dances) and team sports like netball.

For private lessons please call 9557 9747 or 0415 431199 or email klaus@salsapassion.com - prices/location are listed here.

Here is an example of fun improvised Salsa demonstrating what can be danced and seen in the social (not choreographed show) Salsa clubs world wide - enjoy!