Dave Cooper started partner dancing in college, learning jitterbug, but after graduation put it on hold to work on career and family. When the kids were old enough, he started going to Monroe Hall Sunday night dances in the mid-1990s learning line dancing, Night Club Two-Step, Country Two-Step, and West Coast Swing. He branched out, taking group lessons with Kelly Casanova in the Santa Rosa area and going to lessons and dancing at the legendary Kodiak Jack’s in Petaluma. He went to his first West Coast Swing Dance convention in 2000.
In the years since, he has taken group and private lessons from the world’s best West Coast Swing dancers and taken seminars and intensives on teaching and judging the dance from Kelly Casanova, The Golden State Dance Teachers Association (Skippy Blair and associates), Myles and Tessa Cunningham, Mario Robau, and Robert Royston. He became a certified dance judge through the GSDTA and has judged in several conventions and for Bay Area dance contests. He dances at conventions at the Intermediate and Masters levels. He has performed dance routines with groups from WnY Dance and JT Swing and did a routine with Brenda Shatto in the Rising Star and Masters (at the US Open Swing Championships) categories. He was also a pro for the local “Dancing with the Stars and Stripes” veterans’ fundraiser contest.
He has taught numerous beginner classes for the local swing dance club and other folks and is currently teaching several 4-week class series on West Coast Swing for the City of Santa Rosa Parks and Recreation department.
Phone: 707 292-5572
Email: phandance@comcast.net