AusLatin - About our Salsa Dance team

about auslatin

Our Philosophy

Welcome to AusLatin Productions - Get ready to Surrender to the Rhythm!

Dance is all about expression, passion and the music, and we are very connected to the music ourselves and hope to share this with you, however we understand that not everyone was born into a culture where dance and music is as pronounced in the latin american and caribbean cultures. We therefore construct our classes in such a way as to take you through slowly so that you feel confident that you're getting somewhere and feel encouraged to dance socially, which is after all the aim of the exercise!

No matter how many left feet you think you have, we know you can dance if you're shown properly, given enough encouragement and time to assimilate and practice, so never fear, if you can walk, you can dance!

Whether you'd just like to be able to have an occasional social dance or you have ambitions of becoming the next World Salsa Champion, we can take you the distance, with experienced Instructors at the helm who are internationally trained with over 20 years of teaching behind them.
Our syllabus is internationally recognized and our senior instructors have been trainers, partners and colleagues of several of Sydney’s internationally recognized professionals.

We hope that you will enjoy learning with us - we honestly do enjoy teaching you and get a great deal of pleasure from seeing you improve, especially when you think you haven't, and we can show you how far you've come!

How we run our classes
We conduct a regular TIMETABLE of dance classes running in courses concurrent with NSW school terms in the Hornsby/Hills districts.
You can choose from two very different sorts of classes depending on your needs. We run Salsa and Latin Jam classes. Check out our course descriptions here so you can choose the best class for you.

Private Lessons
Private lessons are available to fast track one's progress within Salsa dance, or to learn other styles of Latin dance including:- Mambo, Salsa On1, Millenium Style Salsa, Cuban Salsa, Cha Cha, Bachata and Merengue amongst others.
Special Workshops are held periodically to cover aspects of Salsa / Mambo dance for which there has been insufficient time to cover during regular classes e.g. Ladies's Styling, additional men's leading techniques and styling, shines, music appreciation and transposing from Salsa On2 to Salsa On1 or Cuban Salsa.
Periodically we also hold general mixed latin dance workshops to familiarise students with other latin dances like Merengue, Bachata, Cha cha cha, Samba and Zouk Lambada and Tango.

Our Team

Natalie Zeller Director	Joanne Garrington Senior Instructor	Khursheed Irani Assistant Instructor
Scott Zeller Lead Instructor	Xzander Whillier Assistant Instructor	Roger Valle Assistant Instructor	Nathan Toussaint Senior Instructor	Dominic Moore Assistant Instructor

Natalie (Reis) Zeller
Dancer / Instructor /Performer / Choreographer
Complete Dance CV of Natalie Reis

A much sought after dance, instructor and choreographer of Salsa, Mambo and Flamenco dance, Natalie is also well known for her own unique and exceptional teaching methods.

She incorporates an innate ability to break down material with a positive and encouraging delivery to ensure that all her students achieve their maximum potential.
With over 20 years of dance experience and training and 15 years of teaching experience spanning Australia, Europe, USA and the Caribbean, she is one of Australia's finest dance instructors.

Natalie’s dance background spans several genre including Afro Caribbean, Jazz, Contemporary, DanceSport, Flamenco and finally Salsa and Mambo which have become her passion. She has learned from World champions in each field and incorporates into her own style of Salsa, techniques borrowed from all of these dance styles to create her own unique look and feel.

Famed for her exceptional Ladies Styling, Natalie considers styling to be “… a fundamental ingredient of the cake, and not just the icing on the top.”
Though preferring to concentrate on exquisite social dancing with particular attention to lead and follow techniques, Natalie is a highly trained coach, and enjoys preparing couples for professional and amateur Salsa and Mambo competition and performance.

Event Organiser and Promoter

Natalie has been instrumental in the development of the Salsa scene in Australia and New Zealand but particularly in Sydney. Through the creation and development of some of Sydney's major schools and events, Natalie has risen to international recognition, as a motivated and driven force, and a pioneer in the Latin dance industry in Sydney Australia.
Following are several roles played in the Sydney Salsa Scene over the last couple of years:-
Co-founder/ director /choreographer/ Instructor - Latin Motion Dance Academy
Organiser and promoter - Salsa by the Sea (with Randwick council)
Co-organiser and promoter - Sydney Latin Fiesta 2003 (The predecessor to The Sydney Salsa Congress)
Organiser and promoter - Sydney Latin Fiesta 2004
Organiser and promoter - Latin Dance Corroboree and The Inaugural Australian Salsa Championships 2005 which resulted in the current World Salsa Champions coming from Australia! (The predecessor to The Australian Salsa classic)
She has been instrumental in the promotion of Australian but in particular Sydney's top Salsa dancers overseas - opening doors for some of Australia's greatest talents to be recognized internationally. She has been instrumental in the development of opportunities designed create and promote Australia's 5 time World Salsa Champions

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Scott Zeller
Instructor / Performer

A tradesman by day, dealing with exquisite design and manufacturing of quality one off furniture pieces and antique restoration, www.zellers.com.au this talented guy turns his hand to dancing and teaching dancing part time in the evenings just for the sheer fun of it!
Scott has been dancing for about 6 years now, after witnessing live Salsa dancing at a Salsa venue with a live band. So impressed was he by the idea that he immediately signed up for classes with Club Salsa, where he quickly became proficient enough to be head hunted as an instructor for their school.
As one of Club Salsa's star instructors Scott has lead classes of literally hundreds of 'would-be' Salsa dancers at the annual Bacardi Latino Festival in Darling Harbour, into their first taste of Salsa. Later Scott's teaching expertise was sought after and utilised by both Strictly Salsa and Latin Motion.
Always one to give just about anything a shot, Scott later tried performance choreography with Club Salsa and Salsa Republic, appearing at the Sydney Salsa Congress in 2005 as the famed 'Batman' in a themed routine!
Scott's natural curiosity and particular attention to detail have resulted in a unique understanding of dance, music and how to teach it. Scott couples this with a delightful albeit sometimes very silly sense of humour, which breaks the ice and goes a long way to helping Students to relax and learn.
His stature and down to earth Aussie bloke personality goes down fabulously well with the many male students who have been dragged along to dancing - he soon make's them feel right at home!

Happy to now be able to teach so close to home, Scott is a most welcome addition to the AusLatin team of instructors and continues learning more about Salsa weekly to improve his dancing and teaching skills.

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