Marisa Craig is a San Francisco salsa instructor, performer, and team director of Karel Flores San Francisco, a Bay Area salsa footwork team. She is a managing instructor and principal dancer with KFSF, and has performed and taught at salsa festivals such as the San Francisco Salsa Festival, Hello Dance Fest, and Nova Dance Fest.
Marisa began dancing as a child, training in styles such as jazz, hip hop, and lyrical. At 17, her Colombian mother took her to her first salsa lesson, and she was immediately hooked. She went on to train for many years under Isidro Corona of Montuno Dance Company, where she became a three-time amateur World Latin Dance Cup champion. She has also trained under former KFSF director Natasha Tia and continues to study and perform with Karel Flores.
In the Bay Area, Marisa is active as both a team director and community organizer. She organizes The Beat salsa social in Berkeley, along with other socials, workshops, and training events that support the local mambo scene.
Her teaching blends disciplined performance training with a deeper interest in movement as a personal and expressive practice. Marisa has also studied psychology and Dance/Movement Therapy, and she is especially interested in the ways dance can heal, transform, and help people connect more fully with themselves. Through her classes and team work, she aims to help dancers build confidence, explore their own movement, and bring more authenticity and presence into their dancing.