Ricardo Murillo is a Cali-based salsa dancer, instructor and founder of Salsa en Conexión. He is best known internationally as a World Salsa Championships Cabaret winner and as one of the Colombian dancers who helped bring salsa caleña to a wider congress audience.
Ricardo began dancing in Cali in 1994 at Son de Luz. His early career was closely tied to Stilo y Sabor and to his competition partnership with Viviana Vargas. Together they won the first World Salsa Championships Cabaret Division title in 2005, which was televized live on ESPN, and the win helped to put Colombian salsa on the map and inspire a generation of Colombian salsa competitors.
After Stilo y Sabor and his work with Delirio, Ricardo spent several years teaching in Fukuoka, Japan, where he worked with Tiempo Iberoamericano as a Latin dance instructor. That period became an important part of his development as a teacher: he taught salsa caleña and other Caribbean rhythms, learned from Japan’s disciplined dance culture, studied alongside teachers of other styles, and used the experience to refine the methodology he would later bring back to Colombia.
In his current work, Ricardo teaches through Salsa en Conexión with Claudia Núñez. The school began from Ricardo’s experimental classes in 2022, was restructured in 2023, and reopened in Cali in 2025 after growth and international touring through Asia and Europe. Its methodology focuses on social dancing, connection, technique and a more conscious way of teaching salsa caleña.
Ricardo’s teaching is especially useful for dancers who want to understand Cali-style footwork without treating it only as choreography. His classes connect the athletic vocabulary of Colombian salsa with partner communication, musicality and practical social dance skills.