Semeneya Studio

I started attending Level 1 salsa classes this past August at Azuca on Saturday afternoons. The classes were fun and very effective. After three weeks of Level 1 I felt I had mastered the basic salsa moves and moved on to the Level 2 class. Since then I’ve struggled greatly with learning the more complex Level 2 moves (there are 5 levels of classes by the way). I’ve taken 5 level 2 classes and feel I have made little progress. The challenge as I see it is there a huge difference, a very big gap between what is taught in the Level 1 class and the Level 2 class. In the Level 1 class they teach you 5 or 6 basic salsa moves. In Level 2 they teach you a choreographed dance routine by demonstrating one move, then another, then another until they have linked 6 or 7 moves together into a single routine. The biggest challenge is that mostly all of the moves are new and each class teaches a new routine with a whole new set of moves rarely repeating anything in the other class. I readily admit I am not a good dancer and salsa dancing is out of my comfort zone but I think there are many people like me and all would find it difficult to learn and keep up. In the Level 1 class there a lot of repitition. In the Level 2 class there is very little if any repitition from one class to the next. Basically, if you don’t learn it the first time, your lost. And the more moves you don’t get the more lost you get and there is no opportunity to practice your weak areas. The last challenge is that I have observed many times students from the upper level classes, level 3 and level 4 participating in the level 2 class. One time I counted 10 students from the upper classes participating in a level 2 class of about 16. When this happens the instructor makes the class even more challenging and those of us who are struggling perform even worse. They need a class or method that helps bridge the gap, no chasm between the skills needed to dance at salsa level 2 versus level 1.

Semeneya is definitely a great dance studio! I’ve gone here for about 1 ½ years and feel like my dancing has improved immensely in a short amount of time. The best thing about the studio is that they provide something for every level of dancing and focus on improving the quality of the dance scene in San Antonio! Though I can attend level 5 classes, I can still improve the quality of my dancing in Level 1 classes! If your looking for an interactive, passionate, and friendly dance scene that you sometimes don’t find at dance clubs, I definitely recommend Semeneya!

Enjoy the classes and the instructors taking turns dancing with you helps. The mini socials afterwards helps putting what you learned to practice. Everyone is cool and non judgmental.

Learned a lot in two months and continue to progress. Large classes are held in small areas and can be a problem. Socials are awesome.

Classes are top notch. If you want to grow as a dancer starting from any level. This is the place to take classes and make new friends. Besides the socials done every Tuesday and once a month usually Saturday, there are at least three social meetup groups that meet regular all over to grow as dancers. The main meetups are «Salsa Bachata Social Group» and «San Antonio Latin Dance» that are open to anyone wanting to learn, improve or just have fun dancing together.

The instructors here are very talented, and there are plenty of amazing dancers. However, they are not very interested in growing the SA dance scene. I used to dance all the time in the DMV (DC, MD, VA) area, and went from beginner to confident low-​intermediate dancer within a year because the scene was so welcoming. Once I moved to San Antonio, it took me a few months to find a studio. I went to Semeneya socials a few times, hoping to start dancing again, but didn’t feel welcome at all. The dancers only want to dance with good dancers and don’t seem to get that in order to have more good dancers, you have to grow dancers by being inviting to all levels. My husband and I also attended a class, and the instructors were really rude to him because he didn’t get some of the steps the second time.