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About Siggi The Dancer

Next to my passion for geeking is my passion for dancing. I love any sort of couples dancing (i.e. ballroom style). Currently my favorite dance styles are Waltz, Country Two-Step and east coast swing (also known as Jitterbug, six count swing, etc.) as well as a dance call Cowboy Cha-Cha. I've been known to freestyle (also sometimes called fast dance or simply shake your thang) but I usually don't enjoy it as much. I have to be in the right mood to freestyle and the song has to move me.

I first got into dancing while attending Pacific Lutheran University (PLU). A female friend from school wanted to take dance lessons and wanted someone to go with her as her dance partner; I guess I let her talk me into it. We signed up for two back to back classes, Country Two Step and Country Ten Step, at Green River Community College, School of Continuing Education. While ten-step might sound like it is five times more complex than two-step I was able to learn ten-step much much faster than two-step. I believe the reason for that is that ten-step is very programmatic. It has a very definitive pattern to it where as two-step is all about leading various moves and dancing to the beat of the music.

I was never exposed to musical education in any real sense so detecting the beat of the music is something that didn't come natural to me. I feel I was also hampered by lack of coordination (aka two left feet) which I think has improved greatly over the years. I believe I was pretty bad at the whole two-stepping after my first few classes but I totally fell in love with dancing.

My dancing repertoire is still lacking as it consists mostly of American dances. Even when it comes to American dances I'm still missing West Coast Swing and I only know few basic Night Club Two step moves. There is also the quickstep which I never done. I've taken an intro classes in few Latin dances but haven't focused on any of them. So the list of dances to learn is much longer than the list of dances I do know. There is Tango, Latin Cha-Cha, Salsa, Rumba and Meringue to name a few Latin dances that I still want to learn in addition to the American dances I have still to master.

I've taken classes through various venues and from various instructors over the years, mostly either through various Cities' Park and Recreation department or through a Collage or University of some sort. I've enjoyed them all until I signed up for classes through the City of Kirkland taught by a certified instructor by the name of Lynn Gross. I did not enjoy her teaching style and ended up dropping out after the second class. I believe that is the only time I haven't completed a class series I signed up for. Naturally I don't think I'll ever take another class from her.

Few years ago I started taking dance classes at a private studio in Renton WA called The Rocking Horse Dance Barn. It's off the beaten path in Renton Highlands just east of the Renton city limits. It is an old barn that has been turned into a dance studio with a 4000 square foot hardwood dance floor, killer sound system and the whole nine yard. They have lessons in the evenings Sunday through Thursday in a wide variety of dances. Their instructors are some of the best dance instructors I've had. Pretty much all the dance classes I've taken over the last few years have been there. Every now and then I stray and take a class someplace else but I always end up back at the barn. We typically take at least one class during the week if not more.

Every Friday and Saturday night they host a dance that's always a lot of fun. Since it's not a bar people just go there to dance. On the weekend we typically are out dancing, unless we've got something else going on. Fridays we are pretty much always at the barn. Saturdays we are typically either at the Barn or we're at a dance DJ'd by Ron Bohlin, the Dancing DJ.