Today we’d like to introduce you to Jean Vergaray.
Hi Jean, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started taking my first salsa class at 16. I was already passionate about the music and the dance, but never in a structured way until then — and I got hooked fast. At 18, I got more proactive about growing my skills and joined a dance team at a studio in Jackson Heights, Mambo Bravo.
That gave me real exposure to the broader salsa scene in NYC. Plus, being on the performing side of things let me travel, teach, and meet so many people I still call friends today. Once I started teaching, I realized my true calling wasn’t dancing itself — it was helping others learn. My talent turned out to be less about performing and more about making the art of learning to dance feel easy. After three years teaching in dance studios around NYC, I took the risk and opened my own.
As much as I love dance, I love being an entrepreneur just as much. Bringing those two passions together felt like the obvious next step, and that’s how Salsa in Queens (SIQ for short) came to be.
SIQ is a beginner-friendly dance studio whose mission is to build community through Latin dance, art, and culture. We’ll be celebrating 10 years in January 2027, and we’ve grown enough that we’re now exploring opening additional locations.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
In short, the road has been bumpy. My biggest challenge in our first year was managing work-life balance — running operations, teaching, working side jobs, and going to school full-time, all at once. I graduated that first year, and while that was a huge relief, it didn’t solve my second biggest challenge: money.
No one really talks about the financial pressure business owners face while they’re still establishing themselves. For me, it meant making sure everyone else got paid before I paid myself. Those first few years I was living off credit cards, which put pressure on me both personally and professionally.
By year three, I’d built the studio up to the point where we were profitable, and I could finally pay myself consistently and on time. It went well enough that I quit all my side jobs to focus on the studio full-time — I made that move in January 2020. Then COVID happened.
That was, without a doubt, the hardest challenge we’ve faced. We were forced to pivot the business in multiple ways like going virtual, and once possible, teaching classes in the park and other small spaces until we could get back into our studio. Some of the decisions we had to make were also the most devastating, like canceling our lease or only keeping on team members whose sole income came from dancing. But our approach to weathering the pandemic ended up setting us up for a comeback — and a big one.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
SIQ is a beginner-friendly dance studio whose mission is to build community through Latin dance, art, and culture. We specialize in salsa and bachata classes for students of all levels, with a particular focus on those starting from zero.
We’ve built a beginner “cycle” program that eases students into the dance, helping them discover how easy it can be to learn, carrying them from their first steps with the rhythm all the way to mastering the dance and performing on stage.
We’re incredibly proud of the community we’ve built, which is what truly sets us apart from other studios. People often reach out simply curious about learning to dance, but what keeps them around is the community they find themselves part of almost immediately.
What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to me is that every person has a positive experience with us. I care deeply about helping people learn to dance, and through that, find their confidence. I want every class to be enjoyable not just for the material people learn, but as a break from everyday life.
Pricing:
- Open House (trial) is $26 (they get an introduction to Salsa and Bachata in one 1.5hr class)
- 1 moth cycle is $117 (meets once a week for 4 weeks)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://salsainqueens.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/salsainqueens/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SalsaInQueens
