Bio

Linda Camacho

Linda Camacho, who is of Mexican and Irish decent, was born and raised on the "Southside" in Worth, IL. She began dancing at the small age of 3 yrs.old. She spent 10 yrs. studying ballet, tap, jazz, and tumbling at a small dance studio on 115th and Western in Chicago called "Valquette's". Named after the Valquette sisters, one of which performed at Radio City Music Hall. Their true love for show business had a contagious effect on Linda. She learned to LOVE the insanity of it. She also feels fortunate to have had a live piano player in every class. Having played the piano herself, Linda has an excellent understanding of music and counting.

By the age of 12, she fell in love with the sport of gymnastics and completely dedicated her life to it, practicing hours a day. She was on a competitive team until the age of 16. Balance, grace, and flexibility were her greatest attributes.

Linda's Latin blood was awakened when her Mexican gymnastic coach, taught her her first Latin dance, Cumbia. She immediately fell in love with latin music, dance, and the Spanish language.

Linda later hit the scene when Salsa was first emerging in popularity at then hot spots such as "Casanova's" and "Cairo's". Having a strong dance background, she quickly picked up the moves. She eventually entered and won some contests at "Dynasty" where they would film the show "Salsa Caliente". This was Linda's first experience with television and she loved it.

She met her now 10 year dance partner, Oswaldo Camacho, while entering a contest with a different partner at Dynasty. A week later, they had the chance to dance together and had immediate "dancer chemistry". It wasn't until a few years later did they hit the Salsa scene professionally. They quickly built a reputation for their unique style and abstract moves. Their high-energy and dynamic style still grabs attention everytime they hit the local clubs. Linda and Oswaldo were also the first to perform featured exhibitions in the Chicago Salsa clubs. They love to entertain!

They have been seen on T.V. shows such as Cristina, the "Caliente" dance show, CLTV (with Lisa La Boriqua), "Lo Nuestro" segment with Jorge Barbosa, Univision dance highlights and the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times Newspapers various times. They've also performed in many Salsa Congresses as well.

With all this experience, and after many requests, Linda finally decided to start teaching in 2005. She is a natural born teacher who guarantees patience with every student and is dedicated to helping anyone learn who truly wants to.

Linda has done many performances in the Chicago downtown clubs, but being from the South side suburbs, she noticed a need and great interest for more classes and venues out there. In January of 2008, Linda decided to single-handedly conquer the Southside and launched her website, "Salsa on the Southside.com". She is ecstatic about this new project and hopes to highlight more instructors and places to go dancing on the South side as well.