About Olympia Salsa School
Our school is based in Olympia, Washington providing a variety of instruction, experience and services. Visit our homepage for a complete list of our offerings. Please feel free to contact us with any questions regarding planning events, learning or travel.
Salsa is a Spanish word that means sauce in English. It is a creation of different ingredients. The most commonly known Salsa is, of course, the one we eat often with tortilla chips and tacos. There is also music and dance. Salsa in Spanish can also mean that which makes happy or animates. That defines what we offer and teach at the Olympia Salsa School, a mixture of fun experiences engaging learners in music, dance, language and culture. We draw on the deep well of Cuban dance and music, which can’t be separated from the language and culture, ultimately about enjoying the beauty of life through creative expression.
Salsa is a Spanish word that means sauce in English. It is a creation of different ingredients. The most commonly known Salsa is, of course, the one we eat often with tortilla chips and tacos. There is also music and dance. Salsa in Spanish can also mean that which makes happy or animates. That defines what we offer and teach at the Olympia Salsa School, a mixture of fun experiences engaging learners in music, dance, language and culture. We draw on the deep well of Cuban dance and music, which can’t be separated from the language and culture, ultimately about enjoying the beauty of life through creative expression.
About Scott Saunders
Scott Saunders
Scott has been bridging worlds with immersion in language, music, dance, rhythm, and culture since childhood. Raised in a Northwest American family, youngest of six, music and movement was a steady. He’s always loved music and movement. Growing up with a mother violinist/concert master and a father piano tuner, he spent many hours traveling with dad to tune pianos, and mom at concerts and rehearsals. Older siblings played and sang, at church our family stood out singing hymns, lol. He lost interest in practicing playing with challenges of teenhood until he discovered the power of rhythm through the Mytho-Poetic men’s movement in his early 20’s. He then lived in Mexico, traveling to Cuba and beyond, where he fell in love with the passion and peace of Afro-Latin music.
Scott has been bridging cultures and communities with music and movement in the Olympia area for many years, always nurturing his passion for music and dance from masters of varied cultures, focused more and more in Cuba since his first trip with the Caribbean Music and Dance program in 1995. Since then, he has traveled to Cuba fourteen times, with stays ranging from one to eleven months. Scott has always had the good fortune to meet and study with some of Cuba’s most talented artists. Explore the gallery to see some of the projects and groups he has worked with. He loves to play drums/percussion, sing, and dance. Students always comment how his passion for the music and dance is infectious!
Scott has been bridging cultures and communities with music and movement in the Olympia area for many years, always nurturing his passion for music and dance from masters of varied cultures, focused more and more in Cuba since his first trip with the Caribbean Music and Dance program in 1995. Since then, he has traveled to Cuba fourteen times, with stays ranging from one to eleven months. Scott has always had the good fortune to meet and study with some of Cuba’s most talented artists. Explore the gallery to see some of the projects and groups he has worked with. He loves to play drums/percussion, sing, and dance. Students always comment how his passion for the music and dance is infectious!
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He holds an M.A. in Human Development and Leadership, is an Adjunct Faculty teaching Cuban Salsa Dance at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA and is an Advanced Certified TaKeTiNa Rhythm Teacher. Scott has hosted artists instructors to teach music, dance, language, and culture from other countries including Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Mali, Senegal, Austria, and Cuba.
Scott’s background in music and dance is varied, but always returning to his love of connecting with movement, language, music, culture and community. Bridging and exchanging here and there, whether that be American with European, African, Latin American or Asian. There are stories and threads/connections with many of people from those listed cultures. He has always returned to the Spanish speaking due to facility with the language and culture, through friends and community connections/relationships. Scott has always worked to share his appreciation of native speakers with the students and communities he works with. |
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"I feel most alive and energetic when I am singing, dancing and playing music…it is a language of love and shared appreciation of that which cannot be properly defined, only experienced…some call it being in the flow or zone."
-Scott
Guest Instructors
Scott has been traveling to Cuba since 1995 in order to experience and learn more about the vast complex of Cuban music and dance culture. He also attends classes, events and festivals whenever possible, as well as bringing guest Cuban artists to Olympia to teach and perform.
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