Jaime Jesus
Jaime Jesus has been the lead Instructor for Latin Dance Australia since 2003. His amicable personality and ability to explain the most intricate of details has earned him a reputation as Australia's best male Instructor and one of the best instructors in the world.
His reputation has carried him to instruct thousands of dancers all over the world in places such as: Brisbane, Adelaid, Perth, Darwin, Alice Springs, USA, Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, China, Belgium, Germany and Spain.
As a performer, Jaime has turned himself into one of the most sought after dancers worldwide. His original style and trademark choreographies have taken audiences by storm and landed him international offers to perform in every major international congress around the world.
Jaime has spent the last two and a half years winning 7 out of 8 salsa competitions with his last competition giving him the title of "Australia Salsa Champion", contested by some of the best salsa dancers from all over Australia. Thanks to this success, Jaime has become a regular judge in most of Australia's salsa competitions and has been invited to judge international salsa competitions such as the World Amateur Salsa Championships in San Marino. Recently, he has also been a guest judge in competitions in Spain, China, Korea, New Zealand and many more.
His biggest achievement has a judge was his success in being selected as one of the judges in the 2nd and 3rd series of the ABC Television Series Strictly Dancing, Australia's number one dance competition. Here Jaime became the face of Australian salsa as he was viewed by over 1.5 million viewers around Australia every Friday night during the 2005 and 2006 series.
Liz Raciti - "Little Liz"
Liz Raciti, nicknamed "Little Liz" and "Lizzy Never Dizzy", has earned a reputation as the best spinner in Australia. Her precision, speed and control are hard to match.
Little Liz traveled overseas in 2003 to Los Angeles to learn from the best in the world and attended the Puerto Rico Congress where she was first introduced to Salsa On2. After attending the workshops and watching the amazing performances and social dancing, Liz returned to Australia inspired to take her dancing to the next level.
Her rapid climb up the salsa ranks was spotted by one of her former instructors, who invited her not only to become a member of the LDA crew in August of 2004, but also to become his dance partner as well.
This was the beginning of the Jaime Jesus and Little Liz chapter and the start of Liz's professional career. Liz and Jaime have since been travelling all over Australia and around the world, teaching workshops and performing in both national and international events.
This year alone they have been honored to teach amongst some of the best instructors in the world at over 12 international salsa events around the world and over 15 national events all over Australia.