James Castro (UK/Dubai)

It all started back in 2000, when James first started to dance salsa, when a hatred for the music but a love for the dance was enough to get him hooked. The first years were spent finding avenues to learn within Dubai, but soon found that the only way was to travel outside the country, visiting the many festivals around the world. Seeing the performances as a spectator at the 2003 LA and UK Congresses was the time that James knew he wanted to perform at these various events. However, it wasn't until 2007 that he got his chance to be on stage at an International Congress.

After being a sports coach for over 6 years, teaching was a natural progression to make and 2003 saw him establish regular salsa classes in Dubai. James spent the next couple of years teaching and performing with various dance partners across the Middle East.

During the Summer of 2005, James started training with Alex. After performing at the Dubai Salsa Festival that year, they decided to form a partnership that has been going strong ever since. They have been continually working hard to improve all aspects of their dancing.

James has since taught and performed in a number of countries around the world such as Bulgaria, Turkey, India, Japan, Greece, Malaysia as well as several others. In August 2008 he created with Alex "Mambo Classico", their Pro Team for which they have high hopes and they are currently working on a number of other projects for 2009.