Jennifer Schmitt

Hello. I have been dancing informally in some form my whole life. My 2 older sisters used to dance with me as a baby. I used to watch them practice for Cheerleading and Pompom's starting when I was 3 and I would imitate them. I still remember some of their routines! Then I followed in their footsteps and did Cheerleading and Pompom's in both Junior High and High School while going to teen-boppers dance juicy bars every Friday and Saturday night, dancing the night away. This continued all thru College (go Illini!) as my much needed get away from studying engineering.

Dancing has always been a passion of mine, my biggest, although I haven't really had any formal training. Then after College, I tried country line dancing which was ok, but I didn't like the music, then I tried Swing, and that was a little better, but something was still missing. Then, at last, a girlfriend of mine mentioned salsa dancing to me and she taught me the basic in the office one day then I ventured out to a club. The rest is history, I was forever hooked! I have been a salsa and bachata addict ever since, and that was almost 8 years ago. I started going out to Latin Bars in Chicago (where I lived up until 3 years ago) anywhere from 4-7 nights a week. It worked out great since I am a night owl, I would go out with my regular friends then out dancing with my salsa friends. The Salseros would just teach me on the side, it was great! Then Chicago started having the Congresso, which I have attended every year. I have also attended the San Francisco Congresso a few years ago. I travel out there fairly regularly for work, so I have another salsa pod there as well as in Munich. This year I also caught a small part of the NY congresso.

I love to travel and do it often, even if just to Chicago. I always judge a place by their salsa clubs. Another reason I love salsa is you can go anywhere in the world and connect, feel right at home, it is a common language we can all speak. When I came to Indy, the first Salsa dancers I met were Sylvia, Lisa, Yang, Erin, & Taz. I go out dancing as much as I can, whether I am here or on the road. Last month I did my first performance with Marques, Ryan, and Chimere, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I would like to do more performing, but as a result, I am realizing I need to pick up the pace and actually train and learn more, which I am very excited to do. Last week was also an inspiration being on the salsa cruise..... wow, amazing dancers and workshops. I also found another potential new love in latin dancing..... tango. We'll see what the future holds, but I will always be Latin dancing!