About

Who is behind Tartan Salsa?

We are a group of Carnegie Mellon students passionate about Latin dance. We are a club for students, run by students. The majority of our members are graduate students, but we also have many undergrads, postdocs, and other Pittsburgh community members in our club!

Our goal at Tartan Salsa is to promote Latin dance and culture at Carnegie Mellon, the Pittsburgh community, and beyond!

Join us!

Why learn salsa and bachata?

These social dances are not only very fun to learn and practice, they are also a door to a whole other world!

Below are just some of the reasons we love them...


When you learn these dance styles, you'll not only be memorising steps: you will be immersed in their history and understand their origins, context, meaning, and evolution... all of which will improve your dancing too!


Whether you are an experienced musician or a casual listner, learning about musicality, recognising rhythmic elements, and dissociating instruments in a melody will undoubtedly allow you to better understand what you are dancing to, but it will give you a deeper appreciation for music of any genre as well.


Through dance, you will find you encounter people from all kinds of cultural backgrounds that you might not have run into otherwise. Salsa and bachata bring together a diverse community that welcomes anyone and everyone. Whether you go to regular classes or just attend socials, you will start recognising familiar faces and unwittingly end up making new, close friends.


What you learn here, you can take anywhere. Salsa and bachata are internationally taught and danced: you can continue your training wherever you might end up living next and keep enjoying your dance nights out, almost anywhere in the world!


What better to help deal with stress from work or classes than to pop into a relaxing dance class: not only will you get a break to see friends and have fun, but you will also be exercising while you do it. As you learn these dances you will find you can easily calibrate between energy levels, allowing you to decide exactly how intense or chill you want your workout to be! And imagine how many steps dancing can contribute to your fitness tracker!


If you got all the way down here, maybe you don't need any more convincing... What are you waiting for? Join us! :)