Sharon Pakir
Sharon Pakir was trained in salsa, cha cha and merengue by Gupson Pierre, Asia Pacific’s leading instructor for Latin dance. He has taught worldwide at the world’s largest salsa conferences and is the Director of Singapore’s leading dance school, Attitude Dance Studio.
Gupson trained Sharon to international standards in just 1.5 years, to be his dance partner in representing Singapore and later, Australia, on an international level. They made their debut teaching and performing Salsa in Australia at the first Sydney Salsa Festival 2002, and traveled together to the Hong Kong Salsa Congress 2003 where they performed and taught workshops together. Sharon also attended the Korean Salsa Congress in 2004 and 2005 with Gupson to teach and perform.
Sharon regularly represents Melbourne at Australian salsa events interstate and locally. She has been chosen to instruct at every Sydney salsa/latin event held and consistently has full-house attendances at the workshops for these events. She has also instructed in Brisbane as well as Adelaide, and has been invited to Perth and Canberra to conduct workshops. Sharon has the unique position of being the only female instructor who is invited to teach at events without need for a dance partner, as Sharon dances effectively as both a male (lead) and a female (follow). Sharon also was instrumental in the success of the Melbourne Latin Dance Festival 2005, held at Dallas Brooks Hall.
Sharon now adjudicates salsa competitions, such as the bi-annual Copacabana International Amateur Salsa Competition in Melbourne. In addition, she judged at the first Australian Salsa Championships in Sydney 2005, and was the only interstate artist chosen to judge the world qualifier Australian Salsa Championships in 2007.