Meet your instructor, choreographer and performer of SUDC - Andy Moore

Dancing isnt just a hobby, its a passion, its my love! I live to dance, morning noon and night show that dance floor!

Always up for a challenge

Andy Moore from SUDC and Salsa Latina UK first got into dancing in 1997 at the age 21 and over the years has taught at the highest levels in two very different and diverse dance scenes (ie the salsa industry and street dance) and met many amazing people from the UK and abroad. Over the years he has taught in major dance congresses and performed on stage in front of 1200 people and still to this day love to spread his passion for dancing and most importantly having fun dancing.

How did you get into dancing?

My first experience of dance has got to be in the 80's when Michael Jacksons released the Thriller video and album and like so many people was inspired by the creativity and choreography and the talent. I can remember being 16 and turning the school disco with tight black trousers (totally non cool,lol) and a glove that I cut the finger tips off and stuck sequin stars on plus a jacko hat and pretending to be jacko. Sadly back then I had zero coordination and hey guaranteed with my outfit I wasn't that popular with the ladies. So basically when I was younger street dance class wasn't really around so I was more the ubad social dancer.

How did you get into salsa dancing since you have taught all over the UK salsa scene form 2000 to 2005 and still run your salsa jazz classes?

I think it was 1997 when I first experienced salsa dancing after I attended a 3 hr dance workshop on salsa I went to see a Salsa band at the Hawth theatre in Crawley and as you do when your young I though hey ive done my 3hr workshop Ic an dance salsa.............. WRONGGG... I got there and there was these two latin looking guys dancing with all these ladies who looked amazing. It turned out that these two guys were the Marcel Brothers (Richard and Paul who later on in my dance career would teach for) who taught in the local area and since I was up for new challenge signed up to their classes the following week. So after maybe 3 months of going to one class a week I was dancing across the salsa world in the south east 5 evenings a week....Crazy times.

In 2000 I was asked by what was the biggest Salsa promoter at the time Salsa UK to join their teaching team teaching virtually every day of the week in Salsa clubs across south london and the rest is history I went on to teach for Salsa UK all the way up to 2005 at various events congresses working together with some of biggest promoters and performers in the UK Salsa scene.

The funny thing is a few years later evenything came full circle as well when after coming out of the salsa scene I was asked to teach kids street dance at Richard Marcels (Choreographer for Strictly Come Dancing and BBC artistical director) dance school. It was great not only to work with someone so much natural talent in choreographing and performing but also amazing to work with my peers and one of the main people who really inspired me to start my real dancers journey.

How did you get into street dance? (2004 to current)

Well I think it was 2004 and I dated a girl called Helen for about 2 months and I'm sure she suggested going to Pineapple dance studio's and I thought why not try something different. So off we went to Pineapple and tried a cuple of classes and hey total shock to the system. The level of dancing was amazing and I was totally challenged and ached so much and I was totally rubbish but I thought im gonna keep going back! So there I went every saturday for about 18 months for 3/4 classes in a day! Helen gave up (plus I got dumped,lol) and I just kept going.

In 2004 a friend of mine and salsa instructor Mark Water said why dont you get some qualification so you can teach in gyms etc for which after hard work I did and in 2005 I opened my first class in Horley at the Oakwood Sports Centre teaching young adults in the local area.

What do you love about street dance?

For me personally I like the constantly mental and physical challenge. The dance is so diverse and every choreogrpaher out there has their own style and take on the dance which makes it so diverse! Within urban you have all these amazing styles popping, locking bboying, street, krump commercial dancing which all are danced quite differently which makes the dance so exciting and a challenge. For me I will always be the student trying to learn something new.

What do enjoy about salsa?

The salsa scene is interesting for sure, its very sociable and the great thing about salsa if you do it for long enough you can virtually travel to any club around the UK and you will bump into people you know. One of the great things is that you can go out for a night of dancing without any trouble and its a pretty non threatening atmosphere for ladies as well. Its all about the music and the dancing!!

TO BE CONTINUED