LAURA MARTINEZ, Co-Director
Laura grew up listening to many genres of Latin music. Her favourite childhood memories centre around dancing to Merengue and Cumbia during holidays with her family. After taking her first Salsa classes in university, she became hooked on dancing. She got into Bachata, Kizomba, Belly Dance and eventually began creating choreographies, performing at events and teaching in St. Catharines. Laura is currently instructing Salsa & Bachata dance classes in Niagara and is planning to offer a variety of other dance styles in the near future.
SHADI DAMAJ, Co-Director
Raised on Hip-hop and playing hand drums as a kid, Shadi had a natural knack for music and percussion. Combining self-teaching with amazing mentors later in his dance career, he progressed to study the Afro-Cuban aspects of Salsa and traveled to Cuba to practice with Raices Profundas. A couple dance competitions later Shadi had racked up 2nd place at the Montreal salsa convention, and 3rd at the Miami Salsa Festival. Shadi later continued spreading the love of Salsa by teaching. Currently concentrating on his career in Civil Engineering, he hopes to later explore what originally made him fall in love with dance, Hip-hop.