Buddy Schwimmer

Buddy Schwimmer (born 1950) is an award-winning West Coast Swing dancer, a choreographer, and the inventor of the Nightclub Two Step. He has also been known as "The King of Swing", as well as "The Man with a Thousand Moves". He was a performer on the 1977 television variety show Dance Fever with Lynn Vogen, as well as the 1992 show "Big Band Ballroom Bash".

Schwimmer has founded his own swing competition, organizes the World Swing Championships in Las Vegas, and works as a dance teacher and coach.

Biography

In 1965, at the age of 15, Schwimmer invented a new American partner dance, which he called "Nightclub Two Step". He developed this dance while practicing dance with his sister and searching for a way to dance to popular slow ballads.

Schwimmer had a dance studio in Costa Mesa for 22 years, and worked out of Moreno Valley for 10 years, teaching on the road.

In the mid 1990s, Schwimmer opened the "5-6-7-8 Dance Studio" in Redlands, California.

On July 31, 2006, Schwimmer's "5-6-7-8 Dance Studio" suffered a major fire while Schwimmer was in Los Angeles watching his son, Benji, compete on the program "So You Think You Can Dance". The studio, which holds both private lessons and classes with from 5 to 25 students, resumed full operations in September 2006.[1]

In 2011, the studio 5-6-7-8 suffered another bout with mother nature and was forced to close. Buddy, being undaunted, found another building and built a bigger and better studio and reopened under a new name, "Schwimmer's The Dance Center" (http://www.schwimmersthedancecenter.com/) with over 6,000 square feet (560 m2) of dance floor and 3 rooms for classes, the largest being approximately 3,000 square feet (280 m2). The New studio located at 1445 West Park Avenue, Redlands California 92373 held its Grand Opening in March to over 400 visitors dancing the night away to the music of Jumpin' Jack Smith with special exhibitions by Benji Schwimmer, Torri Smith and Brennar Goree, Tom and Sossy Hyatt and many others.

In 2012, Buddy purchased a campground in Arrowbear and plans to open a "non-profit" camp so that everyone can experience dance! His "Buddy Schwimmer's Resort to Dance" is currently undergoing renovations.

Children

As of 2006, Schwimmer's son, Benji Schwimmer, who is sometimes called the "Prince of Swing" after his father, is the reigning United States Showcase Champion of West Coast Swing,[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] and the winner on the 2006 televised competition So You Think You Can Dance.

Buddy also has a daughter, Lacey Schwimmer, who has won national dance championships and came in fourth in season three of So You Think You Can Dance. Lacey has danced for six seasons as one of the professionals on Dancing with the Stars. Buddy appeared in the 13th season to help Lacey's partner Chaz Bono. Buddy also taught Jared Murillo, who has won national titles with Lacey Schwimmer. Murillo trained in West Coast Swing directly with Buddy Schwimmer.

He is a Mormon and brought his children up in the faith.

References

  1. ↑ Garcia, Catherine (2006-09-07). 5-6-7-8 reopens, Benji considers offers. Redlands Daily Facts, September 7, 2006. Retrieved on 2009-09-29 from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-10976714.html.
  2. ↑ 2005 Showcase champion: https://web.archive.org/web/20141021225451/http://usopenswing.com/2005_division_winners.html
  3. ↑ 2008 Showcase champion: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:L_IsQ8ZCiUgJ:usopenswing.com/2008_division_winners.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
  4. ↑ 2009 Showcase champion: https://web.archive.org/web/20150407210329/http://usopenswing.com/2009_division_winners.html
  5. ↑ 2010 Showcase Champion: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:PVYYA1lqL0wJ:usopenswing.com/2010_division_winners.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
  6. ↑ 2011 Showcase champion: https://web.archive.org/web/20141021225455/http://usopenswing.com/2011_division_winners.html
  7. ↑ 2012 Showcase Champion: https://web.archive.org/web/20141203073901/http://usopenswing.com/2012_division_winners.html
  8. ↑ 2013 Showcase Champion: https://web.archive.org/web/20141127192413/http://usopenswing.com/2013_division_winners.html
  9. ↑ 2014 Showcase Champion: https://web.archive.org/web/20141203073906/http://usopenswing.com/2014_division_winners.html

Bibliography

External links

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