How my fear of Ballroom Dancing turned into a Happy Addiction!

Hi !!! My name is Mike and I am a Ballroom Dancing addict….

It wasn’t always that way though!

Nobody in my family danced and some even considered it sacrilegious.

When I would go to a club, I was good at dancing by myself, and girls would come up and ask me to dance. After a few times of them back-leading me, they stopped asking. While dancing, my responsibility as a man, is to lead. But, I had no idea how to lead, and I was ashamed. I remember drinking myself into a stupor to avoid failure. It put quite a damper on my social life, in general. Not to mention that it was quite dangerous.

Finally, at the end of a 3-week stay-cation, where I watched multiple dancing movies each day - Danny Kay, Fred Astaire & Gene Kelly - I decided I need to put aside my fear and take dancing lessons.

Mike & Gabriella at a Competition in Puerto Rico

I parked in the lot of a mini-mall and looked at the door of the dance studio on the 2nd floor, for about 1 hour, trying to gather enough courage to climb the stairs and walk in. Eventually I did.

It changed my life! I gained so much from walking thru that studio door that first time 24 years ago:

Confidence, because I mastered something that I feared.

A sense of style that went beyond 100 % cotton, permanent press pants with tube socks. 😊

A universal language, Dance, that enables me to interact with people from all over the world.