Reena C. Reyes
Founder & Director. Master Instructor, Choreographer, Artistic Director
About Reena:
Half Filipino, half Colombian and born in Kentucky!
Reena’s passion for dance started many years ago as a child. She attributes her journey to her environment and her blood. She learned to appreciate music and dance from her family. Reena has a mother who was a passionate ballerina, an uncle who was a dancer/impersonator and a grandmother who was and still is a professional singer & pianist. Reena was first introduced to formal dance training in classical ballet which gave her the basis for the movement, structure, and discipline useful for teaching and in creating her own syllabus. Over the years, she explored other styles of dance including Hip Hop, African Dance, and Latin Ballroom, but she always loved the authentic Latin Dances the most. Having a father from Cali, Colombia, a country recognized today as "The World Capital of Salsa", it was destined for Reena to own a Latin dance studio. Reena took many months of training as a Latin Ballroom Instructor which ultimately paved the way for her own unique style of teaching. In 2009, she opened The Dance Place, along with her friend and colleague, Mark Jeffers. The studio provided a centralized place of dance and focused on promoting culture and dance of the Latin Ballroom and more. This seed later flourished into a home of the more specialized Latin Dances, past the ballroom. After meeting her Cuban husband shortly after opening The Dance Place, a new stage and direction was soon arising. Thus came The Salsa Center Dance Studio; A Latin Dance Studio specializing in the Latin Dances, many of which are Cuban and the original Latin dances.