Chelsea Rose                    Back to Top
Salsa, Styling and Latin Dance
Chelsea Rose is from California and began studying Salsa dance at California Polytechnic University where she attended college. She became an active member of the Cal Poly Salsa Club in 2004 (cpsalsa.com). She served as Performance Coordinator for the club from 2005-2006, choreographing routines, training dancers in footwork, styling and performance presentation, and coordinating venues for performances and demonstrations. She taught weekly classes for the club for 3 years, teaching beginning to advanced Salsa steps and styling, and basic steps of Cha Cha, Merengue, and Bachata. In 2006, she studied under the tutelage of world class Salsa instructors John Navarez and Liz Rojas of SalsaMania Dance Company in San Francisco. Later in 2006 she traveled to Mexico and performed at the 2006 International Salsa Congress in D.F. (Mexico City) with partner Roderid Reyes. Since then she has dedicated her time to teaching, performing, and giving Latin dance demonstrations in California and New York. She offers many levels of dance training including Salsa partner work, ladies styling, spinning technique, footwork and shines, lead and follow technique, and performance presentation. She loves teaching, loves the music, and most of all loves dancing ~ translating Latin rhythms into movement of body and soul.

Jonathan Kline                        Back to Top
Cuban Percussion
Jonathan Kline began study of music with the violin at age seven. By age fourteen he was attending the pre college division of The Julliard School in NYC on scholarship. His study of the violin and music continued at the Boston University School of Fine Arts. While in Boston, he played throughout the area with the jazz group Worlds led by bassist Jamyll Jones. Soon after leaving Boston, he joined the Free Jazz Ensemble led by the German multi-instrumentalist and composer Gunter Hampel. With them, Jonathan performed extensively in the New York City area and toured much of Europe. Interested in all types of music, he has been a member of groups playing Charanga, Klezmer, Celtic, and Balkan music. While in Colombia, he played with folkloric musicians from both the north and west coasts. Largely self taught as a percussionist, Jonathan has played hand percussion for twenty five years. Jonathan's focus on Afro-Cuban music has intensified through his meeting and friendship with Cuban-American percussionist Hiram Jimenez.

Juan Carlos Morales                      Back to Top
Cuban Percussion
Born in Havana, Cuba, Juan Carlos, or “Juanca,” has taught and performed in a wide variety of musical and performing arts. As a member of six years in the Cuban street and community theatre company, Giganteria, Juanca performed regularly at the International Dance Festival of Urban Landscape, the Havana Street Theatre Festival, the Theatre Festival Montaña-Escambray, and the International Street Theatre Festival of Matanzas. He performs as a percussionist, mime artist, juggler, and stilt walker. Juanca’s diverse teaching experience includes instruction in: percussion; physical theatre, mime and movement; stilting; juggling; and costume making from recycled materials. He also has experience in teaching children and individuals with mental or physical disabilities. Juanca moved from Cuba to California, USA, in 2008, where he played Afro-Cuban percussion with the Latin fusion bands Locura and Souljive. Having recently moved to Ithaca, NY, with his wife Annie, Juanca currently works as a musician and organic farmer. Most recently, he taught Cuban Comparsa for Palante, and led an ensemble of drummers and dancers in Cuban carnival style at the 2011 Ithaca Festival Parade.

Michael Luis Ristorucci                   Back to Top
Salsa and Latin Dance
Michael teaches Salsa Casino style and other Latin nightclub partnered dances. His passion for Salsa and Latin music originates in his Puerto Rican cultural roots and appropriation of a world-Latin cultural aesthetic. Michael has studied Salsa formally with instructors in New York City, central New York, and New Jersey, and has learned informally in Puerto Rico, Cuba and Spain. Dance classes are invaluable to new and experienced dancers alike. Yet Michael instructs that a true Salsa and Latin dance acumen also derives from music appreciation, self-teaching, persistent practice – alone, with a partner, and socially – and through the spontaneity of movement and expression generated through enjoyment of music and ambience. Michael helps provide his students with all the tools they need to become great dancers.

Michael began teaching Salsa in the Ithaca and Finger Lakes area in 2005. His instruction emphasizes rhythm, timing, music flow, body expression, lead-follow connection, confidence-building and having fun. Partnered classes combine open step arrangements (“shines”) with partnered turn patterns and guided social dance practice. His “Suelta” (loose) instruction develops choreographic arrangement in line dance format and aims to provide both a workout and great moves for the dance floor.

An added benefit for Michael’s students is immediate integration into a Latin social dance community. In addition to dance instructor, Michael is also a DJ and promoter of Latin music and dance in the Finger Lakes area. He treats his students to the best in dance instruction and to a social context where music and dance is enjoyed.