Liz Raciti and Allan Dantas, Latin Dance Australia
Little Liz - Liz Raciti
Liz Raciti, also known as "Little Liz" is known for her amazing spins, ladies styling, smooth sensual body movements and musical interpretation. The dance styles that Liz performs and teaches are salsa on 1 and on 2, ladies styling and spins technique, samba, zouk lambada, samba de gafieira, bachata, cha cha, forró and axé.
Little Liz started to learn to dance in 2002 and after falling in love with salsa, Liz travelled overseas in 2003 to Los Angeles to learn from the best in the world and to attend the Puerto Rico Salsa Congress in San Juan, where she was first introduced to salsa on 2. After attending the workshops and watching the amazing performances and social dancing, Liz returned to Australia inspired to take her dancing to the next level.
Her rapid climb up the salsa ranks was spotted by one of her former instructors where he invited her not only to be a member of the LDA crew in August of 2004, but it was an invitation to become his dance partner as well. This was the beginning of Jaime Jesus and Little Liz!
Liz has been teaching at LDA since 2004 and one of her passions is teaching people how to dance. Liz is known for her fun, detailed style and precise teaching methods. Liz teaches every style of dance for Latin Dance Australia including the regular classes in salsa on1 and on2, samba, zouk lambada, samba de gafieira and forró.
Since 2004, Little Liz has travelled the world teaching and performing salsa with her dance partner Jaime Jesus. Liz has taught at salsa congresses such as the UK Salsa Congress, Hong Kong Salsa Festival, Singapore International Salsa Festival, Japan Salsa Congress, Korea Salsa Congress and Asia Latin Festival, Malaysian Salsa Festival and LA Salsa Congress plus many more!
One of the most recent forms of dance Liz has fallen in love with is zouk lambada. Along with her zouk dance partner, Allan Dantas, they are taking Australia by storm with their sensual style of zouk.
Allan Dantas
In 2000, Allan started dancing in Brazil at Cia de Dança Marcelo Amorim. With a background in zouk, salsa, samba de gafieira, bolero, forró, tango and cha cha, Allan started his teaching career in 2002 for salsa, samba de gafieira, bolero and zouk.
His first national performance was at the first Brazilian Salsa Congress in 2001.
In the northeast region of Brazil, Allan started promoting/organizing dancing events in 2005 and in October of 2006, promoted the biggest Latin dance event, DANSAL Nordeste. During these events he also promoted the Brazilian regionals for the World Salsa Open in Puerto Rico.
After the first DANSAL Nordeste Allan decided to open his own dance school, DS3 Studio in Natal, teaching all forms of Brazilian and Latin dances.
Allan joined Latin Dance Australia in October 2007 as soon as he arrived from Brazil and is now the main instructor for zouk, samba de gafieira and forró. Well known for his fun teaching style and smooth moves, Allan is also recognised as one of the main promoters and instructors of zouk in Australia.
Allan has performed and taught at many major events in Australia including the Sydney Salsa Congress, and also internationally at the 2009 Hong Kong Salsa Festival and Abu Dhabi International Salsa Festival.
In 2009 Allan and Little Liz introduced zouk lambada and samba de gafieira to the United Arab Emirates at the 2009 Abu Dhabi International Salsa Festival.