George’s favorite dances:
- Slow Foxtrot For its incredible, smooth, classy music
- Rumba When I dance it with my lovely wife it’s magical
- Waltz There’s nothing like its majestic rise and fall
- Paso Doble The drama of a matador and his cape
- Viennese Waltz Danced well, truly the dance of kings
A little bit about George
George began ballroom dancing after watching a dance competition on television in 2002. Committed to working hard, he and Wendy became the BC Latin champions in their age group just three years later, holding that title undefeated for the next seven years. They trained under some of the world’s top coaches including Arunas Bizokas, Andrea Faraci, Martin and Diana Lefebvre, Vibeke Toft, Denis Tremblay, Oleg Yedlin, Anya Klimova-Preston, Ann Harding-Trafford, Roland Mitchenko, Darina Jeleva, Paul and Olga Richardson, Colin James, Toni Redpath, Luca Baricchi, Wendy Johnson, Nadia Eftedal, Glenn Weiss, Mirko Gozzoli, Taliat Tarsimov, Andy Wong, Barb Child, Jane Edgett, Kyryl Dudchenko and Peter Eggleton.
George has completed the Canadian DanceSport Federation’s teacher certification program in both Latin and Standard genres.
George is a marketing professional, providing branding, advertising and web design services to a variety of companies. With a long history of excellence in advertising communications, including several years as a creative director in one of Canada’s most prominent advertising agencies, George brings this artistic side into dancing, seeing the dance as a canvas. He’s especially passionate about musicality.
Why I love teaching dance
Dancing fulfills a need that most people are born with but that many suppress over time. Watch kids when music comes on and they just naturally start to move. In contrast, all that most adults are likely to move is a finger or maybe a little bobbing of the head. Guys especially suppress the dance urge, afraid that they’ll look stupid or that it’s too hard to learn. So when people are willing to open themselves up to bring that element to life it gets me excited. I love helping them discover what they’re really capable of!
I believe that ballroom dancing is the quintessential “man” skill. Just like a guy should know how to drive a standard transmission car, he should know how to lead a lady on the dance floor. So I encourage men to take up partner dancing, and I love to coach and support them in learning to do it well. But at the same time, I’m tough on guys because they have a responsibility as leaders. I try to help them understand what that role is all about. When they take their job seriously, they turn into amazing dancers. Helping them develop the skills to be a great dance partner is awesome!
