Meet the Salsa SOS Team!
Salsa SOS have an Amazing team of Highly Dedicated Salsa Instructors!
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Stuart Thomas
Stuart is the Founder and Director of Salsa SOS (limited). His roles include Team Leader, Head Instructor and Teacher Trainer.
Stuart’s background is in Engineering; 8 years in the RAF as a Technician on Flight Simulators and 20 years in the Automotive industry working in R & D.
Stuart realized he was not living the life he wanted and started looking for something that would give him more fulfillment.
For Stuart salsa has been a life changing experience, fulfilling his life-long ambition of being in a position to teach others how to do something he loves doing himself.
When Stuart started teaching, he took the plunge and started his own club, calling it ‘Salsa SOS’, with the intention of developing his own teaching style.
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Rafael Del Busto
Rafael joined ‘Salsa SOS’ in 2009 as an Associate team member, when he agreed to teach the Advanced Cuban Salsa and Rueda classes every Thursday night at…
He is undoubtedly the most famous and successful Cuban Salsa dancer in the UK today; Having won the Tropicana World Open Salsa Championships in 2001 and 2002!
He has also taught and performed at many Salsa Congresses all over the world, and we are now privilaged to have him working with us here in Essex!
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Kim Turner
Senior Instructor & Club Administrator; Kimmy was the first teacher to join and be trained by Stuart, and has been by his side for the last 7 years!
Kimmy has always loved to dance, and was looking for something else to replace nightclub “dancing” which was becoming less enjoyable, when a friend dragged her along to her first Salsa Club.
Much to her surprise she loved it immediately, and she was an absolute natural.
6 months later Kimmy met Stuart at a Salsa Weekender. Stuart happened to be looking for someone to train up as a teacher at the time, and although Kimmy had only been dancing 6 months he saw a lot of potential in her.
Before the weekend was over Stuart approached Kimmy, and asked her if she would like to be trained by him as a teacher. Although Kimmy hadn’t thought never about teaching, she immediately said yes!
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Nik Thompson
Nik, who was the second instructor to join the Salsa SOS team, comes from Adelaide in Australia, and has always wanted to learn to dance.
In April 2003, after seeing an advert for “Fun Salsa Classes for Beginners”, he nervously went along to his first salsa class.
By the end of the lesson, whether it was due solely to the high standard of Kimmy’s teaching or whether ‘her smile’ had something to do with it, Nik was completely hooked!
After his first few months Nik plucked up the courage to try some other Salsa Clubs in the Essex area, and it was then that he came to realize just how unique ‘Salsa SOS’ was.
He was rather disappointed to find that nowhere else offered any kind of structured teaching program or any control of the class levels, and he felt he never really learned anything. Some clubs were better than others, but none ever came close to ‘Salsa SOS’ in his eyes.
Approximately 1 year after Nik started learning Salsa with us, and following the advice of Kimmy, who had been his Beginner Level teacher, Stuart approached Nik about becoming a trainee teacher.
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Angela Black
Angie started learning Salsa as a Beginner with ‘Salsa SOS’ approximately 5 years ago and loved it right from the start.
In fact, Angie enjoyed it so much that after only a few months she approached Stuart about the possibility of being trained to teach, and seeing the potential in Angie, he happily agreed to do so.
Angie quickly discovered that it was no accident that the teachers who had taught her, and she had grown to respect, were as good as they were…
She found the ‘Salsa SOS’ training program to be very challenging, and hard going at times, but the help & support of the other team members made a big difference and she found it very enjoyable.
When Angie started teaching her own group of Beginners all the hard work finally paid off, and she quickly settled into her new role, becoming another very popular teacher with the students.
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Kerry Barker (UKA)
Kerry, one of only a couple of ‘Salsa SOS’ team members with a previous dance background prior to learning Salsa, started dancing when she was only 6 years old – studying jazz, ballet & tap, and took ‘I.S.T.D.’ exams in all three.
Sadly she didn’t continue on to teaching, which she very much regretted later.
Kerry then moved into musical theatre, studying for a BTEC Diploma in Performing Arts at Barking College, and later worked as a dance captain for various different holiday companies.
Kerry also spent several years choreographing stage shows for local theatre companies and most recently she choreographed 2 touring pantomimes, “Babes in the Wood” & “Aladin”, for the ‘Rock and Ruby’ event Management Company.
Her first introduction to salsa was with ‘Salsa SOS’ in Grays during 2006 and loved it from her very first Beginner Class!
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Kristie Matthews (UKA)
Kris started dancing when she was just 9 years old, after being taken along to her first dance class by her mum (who felt Kris needed a hobby!) at the Latin and Ballroom school ’ DC Dance’.
During the 10 years she spent on the Latin and ballroom scene, Kris represented Essex across the country and competed five times at the British National Open Formation Championships, in 2001 achieving 4th place.
At the age of 14 Kris also began assisting in adult classes and teaching classes for children aged 3-16. Whilst at ‘DC Dance‘ Kris achieved Gold Bar Level 2 in both Ballroom and Latin with the IDTA and NDTA.
After splitting with her long term boyfriend & dance partner in 2007, Kris decided to look around for alternative ways to fulfill her need to dance as much as possible - Kris enjoyed teaching, but found it wasn’t enough on it’s own, as dancing was was what she loved doing most!
Whilst looking for something to satisfy her dancing needs Kris stumbled across the ‘Salsa SOS’ website and emailed Stuart to try to get a feel of what to expect.
After a very heated discussion regarding the differences between ballroom and salsa dancers, Kris decided she simply had to go along – even if only to meet ‘that man’ (Stuart) who was sending her those emails!
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