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Music and dance have always been an integral part of my life. I love to sing; from belting Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” around the house at age 3 to currently singing in a barbershop women’s chorus called Harmony on the Sound on Wednesdays. I studied ballet with the Royal Academy of Dance until high school and since then I’ve always had an interest in learning swing dancing. I enjoy big band music and it just looked like a lot of fun, but I was too afraid to go without a partner.

One day I casually mentioned to a coworker that I was trying to find a place to learn how to swing dance. Six months later I took my first West Coast Swing class on a Saturday and I’ve been dancing, and addicted to dancing, ever since. I only wish I hadn’t waited so long to try it!

While West Coast Swing is a tad different than the swing dancing I had envisioned, I enjoy getting to dance to a variety of music, with a variety of fun and friendly people, in a variety of places. I am constantly learning more about the dance and about myself, and loving every minute of it.

My parents have been taking ballroom classes for as long as I can remember. Personally, I never had any use for dancing besides bouncing up and down to the beat of the music at weddings and parties. I grew up in Redding, CT, and I moved back to the Connecticut area after graduating from college.

My mother, hoping to find me a local hobby after my move to Stamford, had no idea what kind of a monster she would create when she suggested I attend a dance class with her and my father. I immediately responded to her suggestion with, "Mom, I don't dance." She kept pressing, and the next thing I knew I was attending Erik's beginner Hustle class in April of 2008. I was hooked. I took Hustle classes for four months before deciding to try out West Coast Swing. It took me a little longer to get attached to this dance, but then I attended my first dance event – the music, the people, and the energy on the dance floor were addicting.

I've been a competitive West Coast Swing dancer since, attending dances and competitions regularly, and it's changed my life. West Coast Swing is a way for me to express myself, respond to the music, release stress, and make new friends. I am now part of a community that spans countries, and I feel blessed to have met and befriended so many amazing people.

In my spare time, I work at a hedge fund in Old Greenwich. I am also an avid skier.

Born and raised a jersey boy, I Started out as a city kid growing up in Jersey City, NJ. Eventually, as life would have it, I ended up a small horse property owner on a 6 acre farm in Freehold NJ. About 2 years ago I gave all of that up and moved here to CT close to where I have worked as a commercial photographer for the past 12 years.

With a new life, and a new unfamiliar state in which to live, I needed to find new friends and interests so I started taking salsa lessons locally twice a week at a night club in Stamford.

One night as I was leaving the club I glanced at an old poster that was promoting West Coast Swing with Erik Novoa.

From that point on, there was no turning back. I became a regular student of Erik's Hustle and West Coast Swing classes wherever he taught. In doing so, I came upon a great community of people who now I consider my good fiends including Erik and his wife Anna.

With encouragement from Erik and my fellow student friends I started competing at dance events. Attending them now has turned into an addiction. Having the chance to dance and party with people that you love to be around and who understand your passion goes beyond rewarding and fulfilling.

This dance community has changed my life and my only regret is that didn't find it sooner.

Bobby remembers dancing in front of the TV as a small boy in his homeland of Cuba! He picked up the Hustle back in the 70's when it was THE dance being done in all the nightclubs....now he and his wife, Renee (one of our Student Instructors) enjoy learning new moves and combinations in Erik's Hustle class, and as he says...."you really need to practice to get better!" He is also a beginner West Coast Swing dancer but hopes to eventually improve in that dance too! He enjoys competing and has placed First or Second in all his competitions. Come out and join the fun and ask him to dance!!

Bobby has lived in the area for most of his life and is now an American Citizen. He can be found at any of the local public golf courses on his days off. He is a licensed Massage Therapist and works at the Agora Spa in Stamford.

Beginner J&J Hustle MADJAM 1st Place
Novice J&J Hustle Disco America 1st Place
Strictly Hustle Novice Disco America 2nd Place
Strictly Hustle Inter MADJAM 2nd Place

Born in a natural 2nd position, my parents placed a bar in my crib when I slept to ensure I walked and stood like a normal child. Now in present day, I have rediscovered what my body wanted me to do all along...Dance.

I started dancing Salsa in college, and knew I wanted to continue with the art when I moved to Connecticut. Thinking I was signing up for a Lindy Hop class, I quickly learned the amazing style of West Coast Swing. I fell in love with the dance's smooth style, and the potential for musical interpretation.

I have been dancing now for almost 2 years and regularly attend competitions and social dancing around CT, NJ, and NYC. I have met many wonderful people from around the United States and Europe, and have made a second family of my own in the West Coast Swing Community. I challenge you....the reader...to give West Coast Swing a chance, and have it magically transform your life as it has already transformed mine.

Growing up in Queens, New York, going out clubbing was the thing to do in the late 70's and 80's. I had done "THE HUSTLE" then and had a great time dancing and meeting many people. Going out dancing by myself back then was easy to do.

I learned about Erik's Hustle dance class in Norwalk, CT through the "Fairfield Citizen Newspaper". When I saw the ad, I was a widow for about 6 years and had always danced with my husband. We were always the first ones up at parties. When he died, I did not dance at all and thought this would be a way to go back to dancing so I joined January 2010. Dancing the hustle now is different than the way I originally learned. It is definitely a new experience and a fun one at that.

I am a New York City Hairstylist. I have 2 daughters 18 and 20. I enjoy being very active I ski, play tennis at least 2 times a week, bike , hike, and love my personal trainer, and now dancing is back on my list.

I came to dance kicking and screaming, led by my husband at the time, about 8 years ago. We signed up for lessons at a local dance studio, where we learned our ballroom basics. My husband had an old-Hollywood vision of us dancing in formal wear at the Rainbow Room to Frank Sinatra.

Who would have thought that years later I'd be single and dancing in old jeans to the Pussycat Dolls. It was actually the song "Don't Cha" that I heard when I went to my first West Coast Swing class, some 3 years ago. Erik was teaching at Al's Place, a dive bar in Fairfield. The intermediate class was doing a routine to this song, and we beginners were watching in total awe. It was the first time I was at a dance class where people were dressed in cool casual clothing and the women were wearing flats. That appealed to me right away. And it was the first time I saw people partner-dancing to popular music. Exciting contemporary music. Music I would never have heard at a ballroom dance, and would never have heard at all if not for my exposure to this dance. I was hooked.

I phased out my participation in ballroom dance, though I do love a California Mix, when I can find one, because it gives a nice variety of dance options, including Hustle which I also learned from Erik. I try to social dance in the metro area and will go to the occasional dance event, especially one that is not focused on competition. It's great to be part of a dance community, to have made lasting friendships, and to now know how to dance to music I love. This is especially life-changing for me, because dancing was never part of my life.

When I'm not dancing I'm doing freelance writing/editing/research. I've developed many books and materials for educational publishers and am currently working on content development for a mobile app.

Originally from New Rochelle, New York, I have a vague recollection of taking a dance class or two as a child. Looking back, I now regret that I never stayed with it. My mom was a piano teacher, and I didn’t want to do that either. I guess you could say that I was a bit rebellious as a child. As the years went by I had no idea that one day, dance was going to change my life so profoundly.

My first real connection to dance started 5 1/2 years ago when I went to the Terrace Club in Stamford. At the time they hosted a Ballroom dance on Sunday nights that drew some of the best social ballroom dancers in the area. All I could do was freestyle dance to disco music, but after watching the dancers there I realized I wanted to do something more than just wave my arms around and move my hips. I spent the next 3 years learning all I could in both Ballroom and Latin. Around that time, my dance instructor suggested that I take a west coast swing class. After just one class, that was both challenging and fun, I knew this dance was going to be something special for me.

We started dancing several years ago. Sandy, a direct-mail expert, had been busy running her own marketing agency. Ed, who was working more than 60 hours a week for a major software company, needed something to help him relax. He no longer had the time (nor the knees) to keep letting off steam the way he had been for many years: off-road motorcycle endurance racing. We also wanted to do something together, as a couple.

We'd been going out socially with another couple, and we all realized that what we mostly did when we went out was eat, eat and eat. We spent money, we put on weight, and we got indigestion.

Together, we all decided to try something else with our nights out -- to try learning how to actually dance with people (rather than "freestyle": standing in one spot and wiggling). It was a little scary -- both of us had some musical sensibility, and like everyone else at college, we'd learned some kind of "freestyle" thing, but we'd never had any real training, nor really knew anything about actually dancing with a partner.

Bruce and Laura met in 2009 and were engaged to be married in 2010. Although they have moved out of Connecticut to pursue Laura's medical career, they will dance at their wedding in 2011 in Connecticut. They met because of dance and great music.

Bruce Couillard

I play saxophone, and for years I'd watch from stage while people were dancing to the tunes.  I decided to try swing dancing myself, and became immersed in CT's East Coast Swing & Lindy dance scene.  In early 2006, Susan Chen invited me to classes that had just begun in Fairfield; it was there that I first met Erik Novoa, and began learning West Coast Swing.  I've been a part of Erik's dance community ever since, and he and Anna are two of my best friends. Dancing has introduced me to more friends and fun than anything else I've done, and continues to make my life better.

In 2009, I attended Midsummer Night Swing at New York Lincoln Center with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and the introductory swing dance lesson taught by Erik and Anna.  Erik said to change partners every few moves, "or if you find someone you like, you can stay with them."  In the next moment, I found Laura, and we stayed together.  We're still together!

I came out of the womb loving music, but never had much opportunity to pursue it. I lived vicariously through my daughters and their recitals growing up.

About four years ago my brother found Erik's West Coast Swing classes and introduced me. It was love at first dance. I would dance about once or twice a week, but what really jump started my dancing was going to dance events.

Finding myself divorced after a long, and for the most part happy marriage, I embraced dance. It's part of my new dawn. The events are especially wonderful, offering workshops, competitions, entertainment and dancing until you drop. I find the dance community to be passionate and inviting.

I'm a registered nurse who also enjoys racquetball, the great outdoors, oil painting, cooking, travel, and life!

While in high school, ( John Jay in Cross River, NY) I volunteered in a community theater, doing musical productions. Worked my way up to lighting director, even continued that for another 10 yrs. It was at my first cast party held in a nearby restaurant. Two of the cast (one my teacher in H.S., with his wife) moved tables out of the way and danced some kind of swing to jazz music that was playing, WOW, that was COOL !

I've taken some lessons here and there, now learning the details of Hustle with Erik and meeting some great friends!
Living at Lake Candlewood, hobbies include slalom waterskiing and snowboarding.