Yang Xiao

I've been dancing Salsa since Spring, 1998. I fell in love with Salsa at the Jazz Kitchen, where I first witnessed people dancing to this fast and intoxicating music. My friend who took me there was a very good teacher. Couple of quick lessons later, I got totally addicted. I became a regular at the Jazz Kitchen and the Madame Walker Theatre. For two, three years, I could count how many weeks I missed dancing in one hand. People who first looked at me funny became more encouraging. However, I wasn't satisfied with just being a good club dancer. I started learning from different instructors and Salsa videos.

In 2001 I became an instructor at the Red Brick Dance Studio and performed with their dance team at various local events. Dancing was no longer just a hobby for me anymore, it became a passion and a job. It gave me the satisfaction that my other jobs never gave me. Then I met my partner, Erin, in 2002. We started training together and since then have performed in front of thousands of people at festivals, corporate functions, school, etc., and traveled to Salsa congresses to learn from the pros. We decided to start INtoSalsa in the summer of 2003. Well, the rest is history.

Since INtoSalsa became a full-time job for me, it's like a snowball getting bigger and bigger. There's little time for anything else. However, I'm happy because I get to do what I love for a living. My goal is to develop a vibrant Salsa scene in Indy and grow INtoSalsa into a top Salsa dance company in the Midwest. With five days of Salsa parties a week and hundreds of students taking lessons, we've made progress, but there's still much work to do. I hope soon Indy will make a footprint on the Salsa map, and one day people will compare us to Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, and Miami. It could be just a wild dream, but I want to make it come true.