Kara Richey

Teaches: Salsa

Kara Richey has been dancing since the age of three, training extensively in ballet, jazz, lyrical, hip hop, and contemporary styles. In middle school, she earned multiple national and world championship titles as a competitive all-star cheerleader before continuing her dance training at the Academy for the Performing Arts, where she competed with the elite company and won several regional and national titles. She later joined the Dance Team at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and performed nationally with the university’s hip hop crew, Physical Grafeeti.

Alongside her early career, Kara continued to pursue dance and movement education, traveling to national hip hop workshops, World of Dance events, and training opportunities. She also earned her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Certification through Pavones Yoga Center in Costa Rica and has enjoyed teaching yoga for over a decade.

After moving to Cleveland in 2019, Kara immersed herself in the Latin dance community through Viva Dance Studio, specializing in salsa. She joined the competitive Ladies Styling team, Azucar, in 2020, where the team earned third place in the amateur division in the World Salsa Summit, and later joined the partner performance team, Saoco de Mambo, in 2023. With Saoco de Mambo, she earned amateur runner-up honors at the World Salsa Summit and won first place in the amateur teams division at the Paramount Cup in 2026. Today, Kara teaches salsa, Latin fusion styles, hip hop, and yoga classes while continuing to perform and compete.