Liliya (Lily) Petrova

At the age of eight, Lily started dancing and performing modern ballet for a couple of years. Later, she also danced Latin American and ballroom dances. In 1990 Lily joined one of the famous Bulgarian folklore formations "SVETLINA". Since then she has performed in many International Folklore Festivals and competitions in Greece, Switzerland, Holland, Germany and Bulgaria.

Her passion for dance brought her to the magic of salsa. She says "When I start dancing salsa in 1999 I didn't know that this is salsa, just my body start moving with the rhythms". Since then she learnt Cuban style with one of the most famous Cuban instructors in Sofia - Angel Lopez. In 2001 Lily and her partner won the prize for the Best salsa couple in a competition organised by a TV show for music and dance.

Lily has also learned salsa with the very famous salsa instructor in Florida Mr. Herrera. In 2005, Lily and her partner were invited to start teaching salsa for beginners and intermediate students at a newly opened dance studio in the centre of Sofia.

Later that year, she was invited to teach salsa with Rogelio (Roy) at Latinos Bar in Wellington. Since then she has been teaching Salsa, Merengue and Bachata in Wellington and has also performed a few times with Cazino.com and Rafael Ferrer. At the end of 2006, she taught classes with Ramnish for a couple of months at Latinos Bar.

In August 2007, the idea for Salsa Therapy was born and she has been teaching with Ramnish since then. Lily has also choreographed a performance for her intermediate students at Latinos Bar, co-choreographyed a Salsa Picante performance and also has plenty of experience choreographing wedding dances for couples.

Ramnish Gupta
Ramnish started dancing salsa inspired by some of the performances at a Latin Beat event in Wellington. He completed most of his early training in Wellington with instructors from Salsa Magic, Latinos Bar, Cuban Fusion and Salsa Bomba and furthered his training overseas (mainly in Australia and Germany).

After teaching with Lily for a couple of months at Latinos Bar, he joined Cazino.com - Rafael Ferrer Noel's Performance Group.

He has performed with Cazino.com at various events such as International Dance Day 2007, NZ pacific Salsa Congress 2007 and at Feet With Heat's Dance Extravaganza. He has also performed with Salsa Bomba on TVNZ's Good Morning Show.

In 2007, he set up a performance group called "Salsa Picante" and competed with his team at the National Champs in Auckland (2007) as well as the NZ Pacific Salsa Congress 2008. He was also a part of the Salceroc team that came second in the Dine n Dance Off in September 2007. He still frequently competes in the couple selections.

In August 2007, Lily and Ramnish decided to start teaching together again and have been teaching as "Salsa Therapy" since then.

Annie Ferris
Annie started dancing Salsa a few years ago in Wellington and did most of her early training in Wellington and furthered her dance training in Sydney.

Annie is passionate about all Latin American Rhythms, although her main focus is on Salsa and Bachata. She dances various Salsa Styles including Cuban Style and LA Style.

Annie has been teaching Salsa and Bachata with various dance schools in Wellington since 2007 and has also been a part of many performance groups in Wellington.

She has been teaching as part of the Salsa Therapy team since 2007, teaching and performing with Lily and Ramnish.