Frequently Asked Questions

Shoes are the most important thing to consider when dancing – but clothes are essential!

Dancing requires any shoe with a smooth sole that will stay on your foot when raising your heel. Girls: a court shoe with a heel is suitable, Guys: a brogue for you. Flip flops or sandals are not advisable. Your shoes also need a smooth sole, like leather, to be able to turn and glide across the floor like Fred and Ginger! Trainers or rubber-soled shoes will stick to the floor and damage your knees in the long run.

As for clothes, wear anything comfortable that allows freedom of movement. Within Tracie’s Latin Club, the evenings are quite smart-casual – some people wear jeans and others glam it up. So it’s entirely what you feel most comfortable in.

There is no need to bring anyone as we rotate the partners for you. This actually makes you a better dancer than just dancing with one person all the time. So come on your own or bring friends, it doesn’t matter as there are loads of people starting with you at the same time and everyone has lots of fun while dancing together. If you do come as a couple and you do want to stay together, then please let us know on registration so that we can inform the respective teacher.

Our normal classes are for those aged over 18 years and there is no upper age limit …. if you can walk you can dance, it’s as simple as that. If you have children who are interested in learning Salsa, then please do contact us – we have some special family classes.

We can also provide classes for schools or private parties with children – please contact us for details.

We encourage a warm and friendly social scene and we have a broad spectrum of people, so take a chance and enjoy the dance!

Some Salsa classes DO need to be booked in advance (see below).

For Level 1 (Absolute Beginners) & Level 2 (Beginners Plus), we have 6-week courses for Salsa, which must be booked in advance. For Level 3 and above there is no need to book.

There is no need to book in advance for Bachata, Cuban or the Specials classes.

If you haven’t attended our classes before, and you are not a beginner, please check with us about which level would be suitable for you to attend.

Yes – and that’s no excuse!

Our courses for Absolute Beginners cater for people with no previous dance experience – we assume you know nothing!

They are designed to guide you towards having confidence on the dance floor, and we will literally take you step by step in that process.

Each of the styles of dance we teach has a different structure to our classes – please see our Classes pages for more details.

In general, as people learn at different rates, there is no fixed rule for how long you should attend a particular level, so your teacher will advise you when you are ready to progress. However, there is generally a minimum number of regular classes you should attend for each level. For most people, our Level 1 courses for Absolute Beginners will prepare you to progress to Level 2 at the end of the 6-week course. Level 2 comprises two 6-week courses (a total of 12 classes) before progressing to Level 3. If you feel you would like more time at a particular level you are welcome to repeat a course or to remain at any level for as long as you would like. In general, the higher the level, the longer you will need to spend at that level.

Some people are keen to progress quickly and learn as many new moves as possible! It is fantastic to be that enthusiastic, but do remember to ensure that you learn to lead and follow moves well before progressing to harder moves. It is the quality of moves you learn rather than the quantity, and this will really set you apart from the rest. Keeping the rhythm, focussing on lead/follow technique and respecting each other’s ability and balance will make you the King or Queen on the dance floor!

Practise, practise, practise! As with most things in life, the more you practise, the more you will improve! Attending more than once a week will really help you retain the moves and you will feel more comfortable when it comes to social dancing after the lessons have finished. The social dancing is great fun, but also great practice. You really get to find out whether you can lead or follow well in the social dancing, especially when dancing with a partner who has not done the same class as you.

Most of our dancers are addicted because they love to dance in a friendly environment, where they get lots of ‘tlc’ and huge helpings of fun and laughter – GUARANTEED! Our teachers take pride in their teaching with the aim of getting everyone to dance – so come along and join us.

Strictly no! (Apart from the odd fancy dress competition!)

We believe that medal examinations and competitions would encourage dancers to follow a more choreographed set of moves, rather than dance with improvisation and spontaneity with the music. Although we teach routines in our classes, we encourage the leaders to put individual moves into their dance at any point in time, therefore no two dances will ever be the same. This makes the dance very dynamic, improvised, energised and lots of fun!

We only close for Christmas (for 2 or 3 weeks, depending on how the calendar falls), so you can enjoy your classes all year round!

Our 8.15pm classes are for Cross-Body style Salsa ‘On1’ (but we introduce ‘On2’ at higher levels).

We teach Cuban style Salsa classes within our Specials classes, on rotation with other styles.

We also teach other genres of Salsa, such as Cha Cha and Pachanga in our Specials classes and in workshops.

There are Cuban Rueda classes on Saturdays, run by one of our teachers, Olga, in Hedge End.

The onsite car park is for ladies only please (see pink area on map below). Additional parking has been arranged by Tracie opposite the venue in Kwik Fit and Simply Bathrooms, plus next door’s forecourt at Indigo.   We are only allowed to park round the corner in Indigo Print car park in Cambridge Road on Friday or Saturday nights when they do not have a night shift working at their printing factory.

Please note that the stone wall in the Kwik Fit car park, beside the pavement, is reserved for Carpet Factory and we cannot use this area.

Parking on the roads is only for 2 hours at any time.

With very little parking available, please park next to each other in line and sensibly so that we can all maximise the space.