Team coach and choreographer Rebecca Connaughton said salsa dancing was traditionally a partner dance, but because of a nationwide shortage of male dancers, competitions had evolved in recent years to allow dancers to compete individually.
While it is not historically authentic, it certainly has not held the women back.
The group of five dancers recently won the Adult Salsa Team category at the 2012 New Zealand Salsa Solo Championships in Christchurch, without the help of male counterparts.
Mrs Connaughton said the team was ecstatic about qualifying for the international competition. The women will compete against dancers from around the Asia-Pacific region in Brisbane in November.
Group member Christal Allpress said the women were speechless when they were announced the winners, because they were not professional dancers.
Some members of the team started salsa dancing purely by accident.
"I came along for Zumba classes, initially. Somehow, I got involved with salsa classes because they are on in the same place," she said.
"It's so much fun."
Despite having relatively little experience in the dance style, the women in the team had other background experience which they had drawn on, Ms Allpress said.
"I did ballet for 10 years and competitive rock'n'roll dancing.
"I had to unlearn a lot of old dance habits and learn new moves. Getting control of my framework and being light on my feet was a new challenge."
The judges were impressed with their choreography, stage presence and technical ability.
The women will spend the next three and a-half months fine-tuning their routine, and will have a practice run at the South Island Salsa Championships.
