Both have been the home of dancer and salsa teacher Camila Serrano.

Ms Serrano traces her love of dance back to her childhood, having grown up performing (not only is she a dancer, but she loves to sing and can play saxophone, too).

She grew up in Bucaramanga, a city framed by towering mountains that lies near to the border with Venezuela.

Ms Serrano met her husband, Australian Todd Neale, on a trip to New York, and the couple later lived in the city for five years.

Ms Serrano said she had many Latin friends and would often go out dancing in New York, but when she and her husband decided to move to Melbourne, that changed.

“Latin music has taken over in Melbourne, but 10 years ago when I arrived, it wasn’t like that,” Ms Serrano said. “So I stopped dancing.”

But in 2015, she played host to the manager of Cuban band El Son Entero and spent a week dancing and singing with the band, an experience that reignited within her her intense passion for music and dance.

“I realised I needed that in my life,” she said.

Ms Serrano has lived in Castlemaine with her husband and two children for seven years, drawn by the desire for more space and cleaner air.

She teaches classes in both Castlemaine and Kyneton.

When she began teaching she had just a handful of students, but now she has some 50-odd people attending her classes.

Her students range from teenagers to people in their 70s, and she explains Colombian parties are similar, bringing together people of all ages.

She has also started organising parties with Latin music and dance, the next being held at the end of this month.

In the future, she hopes to teach dancing more in schools, and maybe even branch into dance therapy, having studied psychology at university.

For Ms Serrano, dancing is not simply a physical activity: she is interested in the history, the story behind each dance. As she explains, some of the dances she performs originated where slave trade began in Colombia.

She said these dances were rooted in the experiences of African slaves and indigenous people, who took the dances of their Spanish subjugators and adapted them, weaving in their own rhythms and steps.

“For them, dancing was a kind of making fun of (the Spanish),” Ms Serrano said, a small act of rebellion when they could not fight back.

For Ms Serrano, dancing is also a celebration of her culture. It is deeply embedded in the Colombian way of life: people go dancing to have fun and shake off the stresses of the day.

“Salsa for me is that connection with my roots,” she said.

Ever fancied dancing the salsa?

Castlemaine dance teacher Camila Serrano has begun organising parties that offer people in central Victoria a taste of Latin culture.

Her next Fiesta de Salsa, to be held in Castlemaine on Saturday, June 30, will feature a live band, a performance of the Currulao dance which hails from the Pacific coast of Colombia, salsa dancing, and “little surprises in between”.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Ms Serrano said.

She also hosts a salsa class before the party so people can build some skills before hitting the floor, and on Saturday, June 23 will host a Cuban salsa class in Bendigo at 2pm.

For more information on the event or tickets, visit the Facebook page or the Theatre Royal ticket website.