About Diana Sanchez

Diana Sanchez, born and raised in Honduras, came to the United States in 1997 at the young age of 15. Five years later(2002) she discovered something that changed her life forever…Salsa Dancing. During this year Diana met Johnny Bravo and a gang of friends with whom she started hanging out with every weekend. Johnny Bravo is a great dancer and is well known in the salsa world for his famous spins (bravosalsa.com) He was the first dancer that ever encouraged her into taking private salsa lessons. She took a couple of classes from him focusing on the basics including cross body leads. Those classes motivated her into learning more, but due to finances she couldn’t afford to pay for any more private classes. As an alternative, she would go out and watch and study other people dance and try to learn. Her inspiration to want to learn how to dance came from the best dancers at the time such as Liz Lira, Olivia Dasso, Johnny Bravo, Francisco Vasquez, etc. As she sat around and watched them dance deep inside her heart she wished that she could move, dance and follow like them. She knew that in order to accomplish what she wanted she had to dedicate time and money but this was hard to attain with the responsibilities of work and school.

Diana constantly went out to salsa night clubs, despite the fact that good dancers would not dance with her because she didn’t know how to follow very good. She didn’t care; she still had fun just by watching them dance. During that same year 2002 Diana met Cristian Oviedo (cristianoviedo.com). Cristian and Diana were both amateur dancers. They discovered that they had a good connection dancing together when Diana kept a promise to one of her school instructors. She had promised that she would do a show for the school’s dance production. Not knowing who to dance with, she asked Cristian and that’s where the dance chemistry began. This connection lead to them entering the 2003 world famous Mayan Salsa Competition: Amateur Division. Without any coaching and with little advice from other dancers, they worked hard on their routines and deservingly won first place. This was an excellent accomplishment since it was the first time they had ever competed. Diana was so excited, she could not believe they had won. Winning that competition for this new and upcoming dancer meant a lot to her. It turned out to be more than a trophy, it opened doors and opportunities that she never expected. Unfortunately, Cristian and Diana could not keep dancing together and each had to go separate ways.

In the middle of 2003 Diana met Rico Bravo Jr. Johnny’s younger brother, (ricobravojr.com). They partnered up and again without any coaching went into professional competitions. Diana was still an amateur dancer, but Rico gave her the opportunity of taking her dance skills to the next level, the professional level. In 2003 they were semi-finalists at the conga room salsa competition professional division. In 2004 Rico and Diana represented L.A. in salsa events such as, Las Vegas Salsa Congress, Salsa Extravaganza in Palm Springs, NYNJ Salsa Festival, and were finalists at the conga room professional division competition. In January of 2005 Rico and Diana started a dance team Bravos De La Rumba Dance Company, in a short amount of time the team became successful. Also in 2005 Rico and Diana coached by Rico’s father (ricobravo.com) Rico Bravo Sr. were finalists at the 10th Annual Mayan World Salsa Competition Professional Division. You can visit clubmayan.com to watch their performances. Later on that year they represented Los Angeles, in the Born To Salsa Bash in Miami, Las Vegas Salsa Congress, Utah Salsa Congress, and Vancouver International Salsa Congress.

Unlike other dancers Diana has no other dance training background, but surely has enough of what it takes to be a great salsera, she has character and most important of all she has flavor. Diana’s talent has given her the opportunity to perform as a dancer for major events such as the Ritmo Latino Music Awards and the Latin Grammys, giving her the chance to meet Latino Celebrities such as, Jerry Rivera, Charlie Za, Albita, Alicia Villareal, La Ley, Don Omar, Laura Pausini among others. She has also been featured as principal and background dancer for various movie productions and t.v. shows.

Diana’s talent and passion for dance has placed her among many of the great females salsa dancers in the L.A. area. She quotes “I enjoy dancing, I love it and no matter what I will keep dancing until my energy is taken away from me, and as long as I can I will bring this passion for dance to audiences and to people who want to learn how to dance”.