Salsa in New York
A twelve-week Foundations cohort at Cre8ive NYC in Chelsea, from your first basic step to a real social floor, then weekly classes for the people who finish it. Private lessons by appointment, for one person, a couple or a group.
Salsa Foundations
Foundations runs in twelve-week cycles. You learn the tools of the dance in order, with the same people each week, and by the end of the cycle you can walk onto a social floor and dance with a stranger. There are no drop-ins: Foundations is the door, and the weekly classes beyond it are for people who have come through it.
Cohorts start four weeks apart, on Sunday afternoons: this autumn on 11 October and 8 November. You can join a cohort during its first four weeks; after that, the next one. Miss a Sunday and you make it up with the cohort four weeks behind yours, or in a private lesson.
Classes meet at Cre8ive NYC, 134 West 29th Street, second floor, in Chelsea. Bring smooth-soled shoes and water. Dates and passes are on the schedule.
After the cohort, classes run on a monthly membership, and the rate you join at is the rate you keep, however far you go. Curious but not ready to commit? Come dancing first: a MAMBROSO or Met Dancing night is the drop-in.
Timing, the basic step, body mechanics and the shines that make you look like you belong on the floor. No partner needed. For students who have completed at least one Foundations cohort.
Leading and following, the frame, cross-body leads and turns. Partners rotate, so you learn to dance with everyone. For students who have completed at least one Foundations cohort.
Musicality, harder patterns and your own style. By invitation, after time in Level 1.
You do not memorise a choreography. You learn how the dance is built so you can make it your own.
A cohort learns faster than a crowd. Small groups, the same faces, real progress you can feel by week four.
Every cycle ends on a social floor in New York, and my nights across the city are where students go dancing.
The nights I host
Every cycle ends on a social floor, and these two are mine, both in Flatiron. MAMBROSO's nights, and Met Dancing's through November, start with a lesson, so you can come before you have taken a single class.
Salsa nights
Speakeasy Salsa: six nights, October to December, in Flatiron, with a beginner lesson every night. Two of the six are for members and the guests they bring.
Current students come to every night free, through the XXavier Student membership on MAMBROSO's Luma. It comes with the cohort.
Thursdays
A singles night in Flatiron on Thursdays from October to December. Through November: a lesson first, then partners change with every song. December's two are vinyl lounge nights.
The classes
Footwork in rows, then partners who rotate, then the floor. These are the classes that open my nights across New York: the same people each week, and by the end of a cycle they are dancing with strangers.
Private lessons
For anyone who wants to move faster than a class, or has a date on the calendar. By the hour, in Manhattan: at my building in Chelsea, at yours, or in a studio.
For one
You and me. Salsa or bachata, at your pace, built around what you want to be able to do.
For two
Learn to dance with each other. Good before a wedding, a trip, or a first night out dancing together.
Three to thirty
Friends, a team, a birthday. One room, one teacher, everyone dancing by the end of the hour.
Occasions
A first dance, a class at your party, a lesson to open your event. Two hours, planned with you.
Rates
| Where | One hour | Four hours | Eight hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| At homeThe amenity floor of my building, in Chelsea | $120 | $430 | $815 |
| At yoursYour apartment, office or venue, in Manhattan | $150 | $540 | $1,020 |
| In a studioCre8ive NYC, two-hour sessions, room included | $340 per session | $1,225 four sessions | $2,310 eight sessions |
A second person is $25 an hour more. Four hours are ten percent off, eight are fifteen. Ongoing clients: ask about a custom package.
About
I am a dancer and teacher in New York, a software engineer by trade, and the founder and host of MAMBROSO, a New York dance experience that has run more than sixty nights since it opened. I have danced every day since October 2016, three or four hours a day: salsa On1 and On2, bachata, zouk, kizomba, contemporary and ballet, with years of MMA and jiu-jitsu at SBG International alongside them. I started on the West Coast, in Los Angeles and Portland, have trained and performed around the world, and have danced with the Mambo Royalty All-Star Dancers at Barclays Center, with Tito Puente Jr. for the seventy-fifth anniversary of “Ran Kan Kan”, and at Madison Square Garden for a Knicks halftime. I have been teaching clients since 2022. I teach salsa the way it is danced socially in this city, On2, with the music first, and the technique underneath it is built on body mechanics, so that you dance well and keep dancing for a long time. My classes are for adults who want to become dancers rather than learn a routine, whether they have never taken a step or have been stuck at the same level for years.
Every song is a conversation. I teach you how to hold up your end of it.
Book
Classes and cohort passes are on the schedule. For a private, couple or group lesson, or anything else, tell me what you have in mind and when, and I will come back with times.
Or write to hello@xaviertejeda.com
Work
A launch needs a whole commercial layer: brand, website, event calendar, content, sales pipeline, printed materials. Most founders hire five freelancers and become the project manager. I build it as one system and run it, with a clean handoff defined from day one. These are the ventures I have built it for, my own included.
Case studies
A New York dance experience: Speakeasy Salsa in the Flatiron lofts and live music nights, run as one calendar under one brand system.
BuiltBrand system v2.0 (wordmark, badge, numerals, tokens) · mambroso.com · Luma calendar and membership · a guarded media library · the fall season kit
67 nights since November 2024 · 2,375 registrations across all channels · featured by Time Out New York, August 2026
A boutique members club above the Flatiron District: one crafted evening a month across three private lofts on West 23rd Street.
BuiltFull brand system (Paper and Evening modes) · flatironsocialclub.com · Luma calendar and membership tiers · newsletter and content calendars · print and fliers
Relaunched to a 741-person list · a fall season of six members-only evenings
Three private event venues on one block of West 23rd Street, sold as four brands: each loft on its own, and the Collection over them.
BuiltBrand guidelines for all four · four websites · the sales pipeline, rate structure, proposals and agreements · the shared venue calendar · content calendar
Sales infrastructure closing five-figure private-event bookings
An Italian-American event caterer launching in Manhattan with a calendar of house-run tastings and dinners.
BuiltIdentity (seal, monogram, lockup) · website · Luma calendar · Instagram launch set and content calendar · menus, tasting cards and table pieces · the first dinner, planned and promoted end to end
Foundation delivered in three milestones · Dinner No. 001 ran in September 2026
The university's New York regional club, given a brand of its own: the classic New York coffee cup, reworked to serve Tritons.
BuiltBrand system and toolkit · a summer event campaign with its content calendar · Luma calendar · print and social kits
A full summer season of events, announced and recapped on one system
One calendar for every University of California alumni community in New York, so a UC graduate can find every school's events in one place.
BuiltThe UC|NY wordmark and system · lu.ma/ucny · the links hub and Welcome to New York guide · per-campus distribution kits · the Sunday Funday tentpole
Nine campus clubs on one calendar
A singles night where the dancing is the introduction: a beginner lesson with partners rotating, then a room full of people who came to meet someone.
BuiltMark, brand system and guidelines · website · Luma set for the fall season · six nights across two rooms
First night in October 2026
How an engagement works
A one-time build with a defined finish line: everything the business needs to exist publicly and sell. Installments land beside visible milestones.
A capped monthly role that keeps it running: events, content, sales, and a short monthly report.
When you or your hire take the wheel: credentials and a walkthrough, not a negotiation. Either side can call it with thirty days' notice.
Everything is yours from day one: the domain, the accounts, every file. I hold admin access, never ownership, and every system carries its own documentation.
Work with me
Write to me with what you are building and where it stands. Fees are quoted per scope, in writing, with the market rate shown beside the offered fee.
New business: work@xaviertejeda.com