Queer Salsa was founded by queer dancers who fell in love with Afro-Latin dance. At the time, few spaces existed in the mainstream dance industry where they could dance freely and safely, or where the roots of this dance were acknowledged. What started as friends learning together quickly became a community, and then an organisation. We are not all of African or Latin American heritage, and we hold that with care and honesty.
Our commitment is to build safer, more joyous, and connected spaces for queer people and allies. Afro-Latin dance is a living, liberatory practice, rooted in the resistance, creativity and collective strength of the communities who created it, and we believe it's one of the most powerful ways to build queer community.
We are registered as a Community Interest Company (CIC), a legal structure designed for organisations to benefit their community rather than generate private profit. As a CIC, we are required to reinvest any surplus back into the organisation and report our activities publicly each year. It is a structure that formalises our commitment to our community.
To build queer community through the joy and power of Afro-Latin dance, creating spaces that are genuinely accessible, culturally respectful and shaped by fairness, care and integrity.
building community
We remove barriers to participation, financial, social and cultural, and see this as a collective responsibility rather than something individual people should have to navigate alone. Our classes and events are shaped by the capacity our community has to give.
respecting the roots
Salsa is an Afro-Latin dance tradition, with histories of migration and displacement at its centre. We prioritise queer people in who we hire, teach and platform, and aim to provide extra support to queer practitioners with Black and/or Latinx heritage in accessing and benefiting from the platform we're building.
prioritising joy and expression
We measure success by how people feel, not how well they dance. We value personal expression, communal connection and fun above technical achievement or excellence.
standing in solidarity
For us, queer joy is bound up with resistance. We stand with queer people and queer causes, and with the wider struggles for racial and migrant justice that run through Salsa's history.
raising the standard
We are committed to fair pay and clear pathways for teachers, organisers and community leaders, so that working in dance can be a sustainable path for people who are often excluded from the industry, whatever their economic situation, immigration status, or access needs.