Baltimore Salsa Blog

Tanya’s passion for music and dance took her to a professional Hip Hop dance company in New York City at age 18. After dancing with the company for a year Tanya decided to study Criminal Justice and Psychology at Rutgers University where she first discovered Salsa in 1998. Tanya came to Maryland in early 2000 and began to focus on Salsa and Mambo. After performing and teaching with Psyon Mauricio for 3 years, Tanya became the Co-Director of Mezzlocutis Dance company in February 2006.

Tanya has a love of teaching fundamentals. She believes that everyone must learn to walk before they can run—without falling. She is known for Breaking down movements to their simplest forms, and steers students towards what they need to know in order to execute basic movements and develop them into complex patterns. In September of 2006 Tanya founded an all women’s Mambo group called YemaShun Dance Company. Within a year Tanya brought YemaShun Dance Company to an international level by performing at the New York City Salsa Congress in September of 2007, and taking the company to Guatemala, she was asked to perform again in 2008. In April of 2007 She left Mezzlocutis Dance Company to focus on YemaShun and expand her teaching possibilities.

In 2009 Tanya took a break from teaching and performing salsa and mambo and went back to Rutgers University to complete her degree. After a year away she is back with a reenergized passion for teaching. Tanya has reformed both her Dance Company YemaShun and Mezzlocutis Dance Company with Psyon Mauricio and is excited about the new companies.