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 moved to New Zealand and was invited to teach salsa with Rogelio (Roy) at Latinos Bar in Wellington. Since then she has been teaching Salsa, Merengue, 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.

"Salsa Therapy" Dance School was created in August 2007 by Lily and Ramnish and was dedicated to promote Salsa and other Latin American dance styles in Wellington New Zealand.

Lily has also choreographed a performances for her intermediate-Advansed students, co-choreographyed a Salsa Picante performance and Perform herself at salsa events and private parties. She has plenty of experience choreographing wedding dances for couples.

Robert Chiu
Robert started his salsa training with SalsaTherapy in 2008 and quickly expanded his dance exposure to various different dance styles, including Cuban and Linear salsa, Bachata, and most recently Zouk-Lambada.

Robert has trained under some of the world's best, including Jamie Jesus, and Oliver Pineda from Australia, as well as Kadu and Larissa who are widely regard as one of the world's best in Zouk-Lambada. Robert is one of a few in New Zealand who teaches Zouk-Lambada.

Robert has been teaching as part of the Salsa Therapy team since 2009 and now he is one of our main instructors teaching and performing with Lily since June 2010.

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. Ramnish is also a certified and trained Zumba® instructor. Since 2007, Ramnish has also been invited to teach at National events in New Zealand such as the NZ Pacific Salsa Congress and the National Rueda Festival.

Ramnish Gupta moved to Germany in June 2010 and he is teaching and leading his own dance school called ZOUKSTERS