Learn Salsa Shines Online

Shines are an important aspect of Salsa dancing in which the partners temporarily split apart from each other to show off a variety of fancy footwork variations before reconnecting to continue the dance as a couple.

In this comprehensive online course, you will learn more than 50 different shine steps you can use to spice up your social Salsa dancing. In addition, you will learn how to improvise your own shines to fit any piece of music by creatively repurposing the essential vocabulary you will learn in this course.

The shines in this course will primarily be taught in "On 1" timing (LA Style) for the Lead, but we'll also show you several different ways you can easily convert each of these steps into the Follow's "On 1" timing, as well as both the Lead's timing and the Follow's timing for "On 2" (NY Style) Salsa, so you'll be well-prepared to shine while dancing with any partner.

What You Will Learn

    1. Welcome to Salsa Shines!

    2. Salsa Shines as "Good Tricks"

    3. How We Teach

    4. Course Overview

    1. The Three Basic Rhythms of Salsa Shines

    1. Forward and Back Basic

    2. In Place Basic ("Merengue" Step)

    3. Back Breaks

    4. Diagonal Back Breaks

    5. Side Breaks (Side Basic)

    6. Diagonal Forward Breaks

    7. Forward Breaks

    8. Crossover Breaks

    9. Fallaway Breaks (Cumbia Basic)

    10. Combining Basics

    11. Tapped Basics

    12. Double-Time Taps (Mambo Taps)

    13. Step Touch (Piano Step)

    14. Lock Taps

    15. Hot Toe (to Change the Timing)

    16. Inverted Basics

    17. Tap and Go

    18. Tap Tap Go

    19. The Slide

    1. Right Spot Turn

    2. Left Spot Turn

    3. Broken Left Turn

    4. Interrupted Left Turn

    5. Back Spin

    6. Slow Right Turn

    7. Slow Left Turn

    8. Right Paddle Turn

    9. Left Paddle Turn

    10. Quarter Turns (The Chase)

    11. Locked Right Turn

    12. Locked Left Turn

    13. Instant Turn

    14. Bounced Half Turns

    15. Bounced Full Turns

    1. Jazz Square

    2. Crossovers

    3. Forward and Back Crossovers

    4. Side and Cross

    5. Touch and Cross

    6. Flare (Cross and Touch)

    7. Forward and Back Flare

    8. In and Outs

    9. Out and Ins

    10. Double Taps (Tap Tap Crossover)

    11. Suzy-Qs

    12. Long Suzy-Qs

    13. Suzy-Q Plus

    14. In and Out Suzy-Q

    15. Suzy-Q with Double Taps

    16. Suzy-Q with Side and Cross

    17. Suzy-Q with Grapevine Kicks

    18. Suzy-Q Kick

    19. Suzy-Q Double Kick

    20. Suzy-Q with Paddle Turn

    21. Suzy-Q to Locked Left Turn

    22. Strut and Suzy-Q

    23. Long Strut

    24. Cross Steps (Three Ways)

    25. Backing Cross Steps

    26. Shuffle Step (Forward)

    27. Shuffle Step (Backward)

    1. Getting Into and Out of Salsa Shines

    2. The Follow Role in Salsa Shines

    3. The Lead Role in Salsa Shines

About this course

  • $49.00
  • 77 lessons

The Music

Here's a preview of some of the music this course will teach you to dance to:

Your Instructors

Nick & Melissa Enge

Nick & Melissa Enge are social dance instructors at the University of Texas, where they teach hundreds of students how to dance every semester. They are known for their relaxed, fun-loving approach to dancing, which puts even the most terrified students at ease. Given that their in-person classes are always full, with a waitlist, they created this site so that anyone, anywhere can learn from them at any time, and experience the joy of dancing!

Misty Enge

Misty, Nick and Melissa's Siberian Forest Cat, is named after the early 20th century dancer Mistinguette, inventor of the Apache dance. Whenever she graces a lesson with her presence, she is always sure to steal the show.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • What will I learn in this course?

    In this course, you'll learn more than 50 different Salsa shine steps through more than four hours of step-by-step instruction. While each shine will initially be taught in Lead's "On 1" timing, you'll also learn how to convert each shine into Follow's "On 1" timing as well as "On 2" timing for both roles. In addition, you will learn how to incorporate shines into your social dancing, how to improvise new shines and dance more musically, and how to incorporate body styling.

  • Why should I learn Salsa shines online?

    In our online classes, everyone gets the best view, instead of having to crane their neck to see what the teacher is doing. In addition, when learning online, you can watch the lessons over and over again (now, and any time in the future), as well as rewinding or slowing down the video if you need more help with a particular step.

  • Why should I learn Salsa shines from you?

    In developing this course, we evaluated hundreds of shine steps we could teach you, then picked only the very best ones: the ones that we see the most often on the dance floor, the ones that our students most enjoy dancing, and the ones that will most useful for you to know in the future. Then, once we had a list of the very best shines, we thought long and hard about the most effective ways we could help you learn each one. As opposed to many other online sources of shines where you might only get a quick demonstration of the step, in the 4.75 hours of instruction you will receive in this course, you'll actually get a step-by-step breakdown of each individual shine as well as many specific tips about the finer points of dancing them.