This thesis investigates the Australian Latin Dance scene’s evolution and role in fostering cultural connections (1989-2024). Using mixed methods — autoethnography, community leader interviews across Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, plus dataset analysis — the research tracks the scene across three Eras: Unified Salsa (1989-2007), Life Outside Salsa (2008-2018), and Recess & Re-Renaissance (2019-2024). Focusing on Salsa, Bachata and Forró, the study reveals an inclusive community making significant contributions locally and globally. Key findings highlight cultural bridge-builders, organisational dynamics, and pandemic adaptations. This documentation enriches Latin Dance scholarship and establishes groundwork for future research on interpretations of connection.
I am here writing my thesis about Latin Dance, writing about the difference between Ballroom dancing and Latin dancing. “One stand for the other as Italian stands to Spanish, not the same language even though they both come from the same Latin root, both beautiful in their own way, just different. Translatable, with some similarities, still not the same.”
And my mind went on a tangent… I am here thinking that I find all things beautiful… beautiful. All dances are beautiful in their own way. I like some better than others, and some work better for me, and I connect with dancers more closely dancing Forró at the moment. But I know that each Latin Dancer chooses their own dance style, and feels their own Nirvana through their favourite dance. My dance is not better than others, it’s only better for me, at this moment. I have danced Zouk, Bachata, Salsa, Kizomba…
I find all people beautiful, beautiful… I cannot fathom why it is logical to think that if one person did something wrong, all people of that colour, or ethnicity, or religious belief will be bad or do bad because that one person did something wrong. (To me a good person, an authentic person, a person who does what is good for the world in any little way they can, for their loved ones, who does what is right, not what is easy, a person who listens, a person who is kind to themselves, who is responsible for themselves, that is a beautiful person.)
I also cannot understand why anyone could think that if a community or a country made unwise decisions in the past, they are destined to make bad decisions in the present or future, because of past decisions they may have learnt many lessons and might be able to make wiser decisions. I understand there are many influences, education, and pre-dispositions that could be construed as indicative that there is a chance that bad decisions will be made, but we cannot just assume that a past decision will determine a future decision, that’s prejudice. We need to be able to give future generations a chance to make future decisions.
I just think I want a world where there is more space for love for all things beautiful…
We spoke at length about the effects of global warming, the devastation of wars, radical religious and political views. Ways of thinking around prejudices and inequality that we thought were disappearing but are rising again. We talked about isolation, that in Australia, 25% of households are of single occupancy, and that online dating doesn’t seem to be working very well. (ABS, 2021)
And yet, I go out every week, I meet and see hundreds of people who break barriers of age, colour, gender, background, abilities, body shapes… People who speak different languages and “would never be in the same room if not for one reason”, to invite each other… to dance…
In 2024 I was honoured to be accepted into a Master of Research program at Macquarie University, in Sydney, Australia. This is my Thesis:
Dancing with Diversity – Mapping the Evolution and Impact of Latin Dance in Australia
I grew up dancing ballet, jazz and contemporary in Brazil. When I came to Australia, I worked as a school manager at a Latin Dance company and fell, with passion and sometimes obsession, in love with Latin Dance. Immersed in the Australian Latin Dance community since 2005, I possess a unique vantage point to document central yet underrepresented events that have shaped the global Latin Dance community through an autoethnographic perspective.
In order to explore and analyse the Latin Dance sector, I engage in an ethnographic fieldwork practice. I will undertake interviews with 6 key personalities in the Latin Dance Scene who established companies and events in Australia. The interviews, analysis of archival materials and primary sources available will enable me to research and write the recent history of Latin Dance in Australia.
For my Master of Research project, I am mapping the current number of Latin Dance Schools, Venues, Music groups, and Events, in the community. I am focusing on 3 Latin dance styles: Bachata, Forró and Salsa. They are representative, most dancers dance at least one of these styles. Lastly, Sydney has regular parties, events, classes and groups for Salsa, Bachata and Forró.
My research questions are:
What is the recent history of Latin Dance in Australia, in the last 25 years?
In what ways is Latin Dance significant for Australian Society?
How does Latin Dance foster inclusiveness and which barriers does it break?
How significant is the Australian Latin Dance scene for the Global Latin Dance community?
Latin Dance came from Humble origins as documented by various scholars. Dormani; Carwile; Delgado; said that it was originally danced by the lower classes;Salsa scholars Cabanzo, Hutchinson, and Dormani, documented that it came out of the Latin American “barrios”, the immigrants’ hoods of America. Brazilian specialist in Forró, Fernandes, mapped a similar trajectory for the style when it came from the drought driven Northeast of Brazil to conquer the whole country. The various styles became accepted by the middle and upper classes and took the world by storm creating a widespread fever, documented in literature by Borland, Wilson, and Sloat, to name a few.
There is a fair amount of Literature on Latin Dance, particularly overseas, but the academic discourse on the history of Latin Dance in Australia is limited, leading to a concentration of knowledge in specific styles and regions: such as Mathews’ PhD thesis on Samba de Gafieira, Couple Samba, with Rio Rhythmics Academy in Brisbane; Samba Queen Lillian Shaddick’s Master’s about Samba no Pé, individual Samba, in Sydney, Bendrups who writes on Latin Music and Dance in NZ and Australia.
This scarcity necessitates caution among scholars to avoid monofocal analysis. However rich the literature worldwide is, it’s not a widespread coverage, and where there are gaps, there are risks. That’s why we need more research and more literature, with more rigour. My research contributes original knowledge to this gap.
The media practically ignores Latin Dance.
In this gap I hope to register some significant events and accolades that Australia has earned, and are unregistered. Such as:
The Sydney Salsa Congress that in 2009 had parties with about 4000 people on one dancefloor.
The Sydney Bachata Festival created in 2008, still running, that was the first International Bachata Festival in the world, and their creators were awarded by the government of the Dominican Republic for their contribution to the Dominican culture.
The concept of Brisbane as the Brazilian Dance Mecca outside of Brazil; mentioned by Mathews in her PhD thesis.
And the many international Samba, Salsa, Bachata, Reggaeton champions Australia has.
In a Post-Covid World, of lone households, where many people are so hungry for connection, I believe Latin Dance has much to offer. The benefits of dance have been documented in literature, for mental and physical health, for community, to serve as a conduit between cultures and generations. Studies in articles by Cone & Cone, Iuliano and others, Maraz and others, Aguiñaga and others, are a few specific to Latin Dance.
But the aspects that most fascinate me are the powers of connection, the breaking of barriers I mentioned at the start, and that scholars have registered, Wilson, Carwile, Varea, Arterianus-Owanga, Huthcinson, Renta, have written about this across the globe. Ethnographer Jewett calls the strong connection between couple dance partners, a “semblance of intimacy”, and that is another point for exploration in my research project.
In this power of connection may lie great potential. I agree with this reporter who was listening to salsa in many Eastern languages in the middle of a war region, and thought that Salsa could contribute to world peace.
On the dancefloor, I find what the author Julia Baird calls a sense of awe, in her bestseller “Phosphorescence”, I find it watching other dancers, through the intimacy of my dances, the connection with the community and the people. That is why I keep going back to the dancefloor, to seek connection, to experience the complexities of multiculturalism, inclusion, and the beauty of a world united.
This is what I want to foster with my thesis, create a groundwork by studying and highlighting the benefits of Latin Dance to society in Australia, contributing to the global dialogue and stimulating future conversations.
How do you eat a Universe that contains 50k words + 2 podcasts + a new job + a website + a workshop + a writing mastery mentoring package? One bite of 1667 words at a time.
I have just released my Creative Space Mastery Podcasts in English and Brazilian Portuguese, with my new website: creativespacemastery.com
Somehow, I have also completed the Nanowrimo.org writing marathon, writing fifty thousand words in November.
Finally, I started at a new job. How? I asked myself. It’s a focus strategy, where I prioritised the tasks to secure the new job, got the words for the day (1667 words per day), got through a couple of tasks for the podcasts each day. Following inspiration, always. A phrase from one of the books from my collection of mini books is at the bottom of the principle I follow:
“Sit down to write what you have thought, and not to think what you shall write.”
William Cobbett
I use it and expand it… where I follow inspiration for guidance rather than trying to force its hand.
This year was manic-depressive, the old word for bipolar. It was fret with highs and lows, with moments of ecstatic joy, such as my sister and brother-in-law’s wedding, travelling with my parents, and having time for my creativity with a maturity to use it, as I didn’t have in 2010 when I took a sabbatical year for writing (back then, my time was filled with anxiety, while this year was full of joy). On the other hand, I call this year bipolar because if I had some great moments I also had the death of important people around me, uncertainty, dejection and other challenges.
This year, on one of the many occasions when I didn’t get a job, I also decided to stop the suffering and instead of working harder, I decided to work lighter. I concluded that if I spent my savings and finished with no job and just stress to amount for the time I had spent, it wasn’t worth it. But if I had advanced my creative projects, I would have spent it well.
From then on, I would spend half a day job searching and the rest of the day, creating. For guidance, the very next day, I walked the twelve kilometres of the Narrabeen Lagoon by myself, meditating on what was the starting point for my creative projects, where my inspiration wished me to go. What did heart and logic say?
They said that Point Zero was the Podcasts, they were my heart poured out.
They were something that I had been working to create for a while, I had been to Toastmastersto learn more about public speaking, I had been writing the content, and they would kick start the other projects. As I walked, and danced by myself, around the lagoon, among cockatoos and ducks, trees, flowers, flies and bees, the plan was set. When I sat down that week, a one-day-workshop for Creative space mastery came out. Fully structured and organised.
I follow inspiration, faithfully, so I gave it all my dedication and love and the ideas I had been compiling and throwing in a folder gained form, gained order, shape, movement and logic. It is beautiful to see a narrative “become”. And just like that I had the content perfectly set and organised for my podcasts. And as a bonus, a day-workshop was created.
When November came about, a flood of inspiration came through. I had the scripts for the first episodes of the podcasts ready, the content for the related website, and the book about creative writing that is in its second draft was the perfect material for the writing marathon.
It was easy from there. Full creative flow. Never have I experienced so much of it. When you go through a lot of rejection of your abilities and gifts it is easy to forget to see these gifts, these abilities. That’s why having psychological help is invaluable.
I have 3 angels, I show up for support sessions I set and the help I need, and the people who help me showed me the gift of having a hiatus from work at the prime of one’s life. With gratitude in my heart, creative Muse was generous and this month, it is all being born at creativespacemastery.com.
I’m self-published and by no means known for my writing. I’m unemployed at the moment, waiting for the right employer to find the best project support officer they could find.
Meanwhile, I’m done suffering with the rejection emails both for the creative applications and the job applications. Instead, I’m praying the storyteller’s serenity prayer and following my inspiration. I’m splitting my time and doing what I do best: creating compelling narratives, funny moments, generating positive thoughts even through my cover letters and resumés.
I’m splitting my time between my job applications now, and my creative projects. And next will come a Podcast because there is one thing I have mastered:
A regular, productive, creative practice!
It doesn’t matter what I’m going through, how happy or sad, how anxious or depressed or how hyper and excited, which is equally distracting, I can produce good quality productive outcomes. I can also be creative both when I’m very busy at work, which I did when I was working full time and studying for my Masters of Creative Writing, and now that I have too much time on my hands (which sometimes can get people overwhelmed and they don’t know where to start)>
I developed a method, a framework, a process that people can follow to craft a recurring creative process and named it Creative Space Mastery.
Now, I’m in the process of developing my podcast about it! Watch this space!
I believe we are all geared for creativity, and we are able until we die.
Only death is a true impediment to creativity, right?!
(my own thoughts)
No person should be disbelieved in their ability to create incredible art, products, solutions, ideas, kindness, magic, words, sounds, tears, joy… more than anything, no person should disbelieve their own ability to create something absolutely special.
Sometimes we have to let go of creating something specific, in order to find our talents in a very unexpected area, somewhere we thrive and achieve unbelievable highs.
No matter how many years of classical ballet I strived through, I was never able to grab my right leg with my left hand, in a split, and brush my left ear with it. My genetic make-up never permitted my elasticity to get there. At most, in the height of my fitness level at fifteen years old, I managed the spit, sweating profusely. And cursing.
I’m still a dancer in my heart, and I still dance in the living room and as a hobby, Latin styles, but my passion, my magic, morphed to another area where I’m better able to create art: storytelling.
I’m glad I kept believing though, deep down inside…
The reason I write today is because I need to write the narratives I want to read. I need to make my own story and read my own power in my storyline and not let others determine what is available for me to read. I need to create in the world the possibilities I see in my mind’s eye. I’m tired of the same old story where everyone conforms to what is dictated by the same old tales and tired run-through formulas. I want fresh, unused, strange, and unique; my voice deserves to be out there. Today I am all powerful.
I am equally comfortable talking to a hard core scientist as I am with a reincarnated psychic astrologer, and I believe, most ardently, in both their rights of believing whatever they want. I noticed this week that I was listening to a course about skepticism and how to improve thinking processes with the same eagerness I listen to the possibility of the existence of aliens in the Universe. I enjoy being open to the possibility of mysteries, aliens, ghosts, multiple dimensions, universes and timelines, imagining there could be another me who is already a full time writer, and so many other possibilities. Would there be another world where the first contact has already been established? Ah, the wonderful world of imagination!
On the other hand, I’m not easily duped, not prone to believing in conspiracies, fake news or falling in cults, even though I believe in positive energies, alignments of planets, power of goddesses, and much of that crap (smile). I think I accept more than I exclude, but it doesn’t mean I can be manipulated or believe blindly. Just means I’m open to ideas, even if I don’t know if they are real. I can see they could be real, or I can make them real in a book.
I’ve noticed that we carry ghosts with us, all the time, hundreds of them. More, if we have narrative minds. There’s the boy from fifth grade that was going to notice you, and hold your hand; the audition that you were going to master and be chosen as the soloist and that would change your path forever, and so many others. They happen at the moment people make a decision, different from the one you want, and your fantasies created another path for them — in your spirit — and a ghost is born, tethered to your soul. You are surrounded. Let them go…
For someone who dislikes the taste of alcohol and has a sort of spirituality that is a mesh of all that is good from several faiths and discards much of all that is structured from these same faiths including most of prayers, finding that, first I have a favourite prayer, and then, that my favourite prayer in the world, The Serenity Prayer, is iconically used by the Alcoholic Anonymous is somewhat ironic. The original brings me peace and wisdom and joy, but then I adapted it to my own writing mission. The way it came to me, is to help me on the way, and every day it guides me further in my storyteller role.
Storyteller’s Serenity Prayer
[Adapted by Tania Crivellenti]
May Source, give you grace to accept with serenity, the things that cannot be changed; Courage, to change the things which should be changed; And the wisdom, to distinguish one from the other.
Living one day at a time. Enjoying one moment at a time. Accepting hardship as a pathway to enlightenment and manuscript.
Taking this sinful world as it is, and being authentic to it, even when transforming it, making it into written words; Not as you would have it, but truthful, even in fiction.
Trusting that Source will make all things right; If you surrender to their will, so that you may be writingly happy in this life; Find yourself in creative flow often; And supremely happy, with the legacy you leave, forever in the next.
taniacreations.com 