Growing up in the heart of white America, I didn’t have much exposure to dance. My hometown didn’t have a dance club. Even if it had, I’m not sure I would have gone. I still remember in our dance unit during gym class that I kinda liked and was kinda good at it. When I say kinda good, what I really mean is I have rhythm, not necessarily grace. Fast forward to 2004. I find myself living in Munich, where going to clubs is a regular part of the culture. This is when I realized that I love to dance. It was mostly hip hop at first, but pretty much anything played at the club would suffice. One of my club skills is that I’m pretty good at mimicking what the go-go dancers can do. It either pisses them off or they make it a challenge to stump me.

Final pose with partner Ana Maria Manrique

In 2005, some colleagues of mine mentioned they found a salsa class and were wondering if I was interested in joining them. I actually had some interest in salsa already, but didn’t really know how to start, this was a perfect opportunity. Two weeks into the class, one guy quit. The other guy finished the series, but didn’t continue after that. I got hooked. I took a few series and began social dancing once a week.

I unfortunately left Germany only a few months after I had started salsa. When I moved to Columbus, I wasn’t sure what I was going to find. I looked for On1 salsa, but couldn’t really find anything at the time. I did find someone (Shezronne Zaccardi) teaching on2 salsa. Although I was hesitant to change styles, I eventually came to love dancing salsa on2. I even did a performance group on2 when I was there.

After Columbus, I moved to LA, the home of on1 salsa. I was in love with on2 salsa and didn’t want to switch back to on1 (most on2 dancers would agree). It wasn’t difficult switching back, but I definitely missed dancing on2. I did a couple performance groups with Latin Dance Forever (Juan & Jorge Purizaca).

Eventually I found Raul Santiago, which is when my dancing really took off. I’ve done a couple performances with Raul and will likely do more. I also competed in a ProAm competition at the International Hustle & Salsa Competition in Miami, Fl, dancing with Yesenia Serratos, Raul’s partner. Here are my results:

ProAm Cha Cha with partner Yesenia Serratos	Dance	Level	Place
	Cha Cha	Adult 1 Bronze Amer.	2nd
	Cha Cha	Adult 1 Silver Amer.	1st
	Cha Cha	Adult 1 Gold Amer.	1st
	E C Swing	Adult 1 Newcomer Amer.	2nd
	E C Swing	Adult 1 Bronze Amer.	2nd
	Hustle	Intermediate	3rd
	Merengue	Adult 1 Newcomer Amer.	1st
	Merengue	Adult 1 Bronze Amer.	2nd
	Rumba	Adult 1 Newcomer Amer.	1st
	Rumba	Adult 1 Bronze Amer.	1st
	Salsa	Intermediate	2nd