It began with tap and acrobatic classes when I was a kid, and then Jitterbugging my way through high school and winning the Jitterbug championship in Chicago’s Harvest Moon Festival dance competition which was held at the Chicago Stadium and attended by 22,000 people. Next up, a two-year full dance scholarship with Edna McRae at her studio in downtown Chicago’s Fine Arts Building which led to my first professional dance jobs touring the country with the Barnes and Carruthers State Fair Show and then to Milwaukee to work in revues for Bob Simpson and back to Chicago for more Simpson nightclub revues at the Del Prado and Edgewater Beach Hotels. Two summers at the Starlight Theater in K.C., Missouri followed, and then it was off to NYC to study with jazz dance teacher Luigi and look for work. Some of the choreographers that I’ve had the pleasure of working with are: Bob Avian, Pat Birch, John Butler, Danny Daniels, Grover Dale, Harding Dorn, Larry Fuller, Peter Gennaro, Tod Jackson, Alan Johnson, Gene Kelly, Joe Layton, Tony Parise, Wakefield Poole, Jerome Robbins, Herbert Ross, Anna Sokolow, Jimmy Starbuck, Rudy Tronto and Onna White.