Outskirts Press, INC.

I began dancing in Europe in my early teens. Fast forwarding to the early 1980s, I began study in the American syllabus while teaching at the John Saionz Fred Astaire School in New York. There, I met the great dancers and teachers, Armando and Laura Martin, who were fundamental to my career in the states. Having begun in the International style, I was fortunate to be able to continue with my principal coaches, Irene Donaghey and Peter Eggleton. After a visit to the studio, the renown dancer, Vernon Brock, took an interest in my dancing after watching me practice some jazz choreography for the Sounds in Action Dance Theatre Company, which I was performing with at the time. Vernon connected me with another top coach, Ms. Dagmar Jarvel, with whom I completed my training in the American syllabus. Dagmar, which she only allowed us to call her in private, is credited with having written the Fred Astaire dance curriculum of the time. I have been coaching and judging since completing my adjudicatorship with John Morton in Los Angeles in the early 90s. I have owned and operated two very successful studios in Alaska and Hawai'i, and have assisted many others around the U.S. in the opening and operating of their studios as well. My parents, who were in forensics and coronary care, were also dancers and musicians—urged me to study music as well as kinesiology (the study of muscle movement through time and space). I came to understand the relationship of these elements in a way that the average student/teacher usually does not. It was this that gave me a competitive edge and allowed me to become known as more than a competitor, but as an expert in movement and dance. I decided to stop competing to further a study in kinesiology as it relates specifically to partnership dance. It has led to a very rewarding career. I have been training dancers from weekend social free stylers to World Champions using the movement training techniques that I have called “DanceKinesis: The Missing Dimension in Ballroom & Latin Dance” for over 25 years. The book by the same title now brings the concept and program to you. It details and teaches the beliefs, concepts and principles of the program. Working together with the DanceKinesis workbooks and DVDs, you can begin to retrain your body to move in a more proper, efficient, relaxing and fun manner for dancing and just everyday life. I knew that DanceKinesis was the missing dimension in Ballroom and Latin dance, but I needed to put it into a format that would be most helpful to dancers. I sought the opinions of social and professional dancers world-wide, and now this world-class body, movement and dance training system is the tried and proven result of their responses.