As it gets closer to the 2nd Annual San Diego Salsa Festival here in San Diego this September, there may be many of you wondering what happens at a event like this. Indeed, before I attended my first festival (aka salsa congress) for salsa years ago I really had no concept of what went on during an event like this.

If you are a beginner and just learning to dance salsa, the festival will present to you a massive assortment of options to dance, watch performances, and most importantly learn a great deal about salsa dancing. One aspect of the San Diego Salsa Festival that will be of particular help to new dancers are the numerous workshops scheduled throughout the weekend.

A salsa workshop is a little different from a traditional salsa dance lesson in that salsa workshops allow the instructor to really concentrate on certain aspects of the dance. This is helpful because let’s say you already know how to salsa dance but want to learn some new styling moves without going through the basics once again. A specific salsa workshop like the one Iran Castillo is hosting at the San Diego Salsa Festival might interest you as it will focus on “cool moves” and “On2” dancing.

The workshops during the San Diego Salsa Festival start on Friday night with a beginner’s boot camp workshop that will consist of 3 hours of focused dance instruction for those new to the dance. The rest of the weekend will have workshops hosted by local dance studios like A Time to Dance, Salsa Inferno, and Majesty in Motion. There are also workshops hosted by visiting studios and instructors from as far as Cali, Colombia.

There is a full schedule of times for the workshops already up, but I’m sure it will change a little once the Festival is closer in time.

Until then, feel free to RSVP for the event at the San Diego Salsa and Latin Dancing Meetup Group and find out more information on how to purchase tickets for the event.