Working -- Sam Sanders

-- Story by Christine Carrillo; photo by [tk]

HE IS:

A man who knows how to move

Finding his niche

A former student of Arthur Murray Dance Studio and an avid dance

enthusiast, Sam Sanders turned his passion for dance into a career. For

two years, he has taught salsa, swing, waltz, rumba and many others at

Arthur Murray, leading him to believe he has found his niche.

“I’ve wanted to do this ever since I was 14,” he said. “I enjoy making

people get the same feeling that I do when I dance. I think it’s

something that fits me.”

That feeling he gets when he dances has driven him to always try to

learn more. Even before he started teaching, when he saw people dancing,

he would ask them to teach him a few steps. As a result, Sanders managed

to develop quite a repertoire of dance moves all on his own.

One step beyond

Using that motivation in his training, Sanders now finds he can

incorporate his knowledge of different steps to enhance the dances he

likes best.

“I like freestyle club dancing the best,” he said. “But I can’t

actually categorize my favorites because some ballroom dances are better

than freestyle dancing for different reasons . . . so knowing both is

good.”

And knowing a lot more than two is even better.

Even though he has had the opportunity to enter competitions himself,

a run of bad luck has hindered him from doing so. However, he has had the

opportunity to compete with his students.

Top of the dance heap

During a competition in Las Vegas recently, Sanders and a student

competed and won first place in every competition they entered. His

student was also named top newcomer student, a very significant moment

for the both of them.

Not all of his students are at the competing level, and Sanders never

seems to have any problems with adjusting his teaching methods.

“There are so many different ways people pick up information,” he

said. “As long as I’m going as fast as they can learn it and they’re

happy, it’s OK.’

Some of his students might enjoy knowing that learning the various

types of dancing for his teaching position did have its challenges for

him too.

“The rhythm dances like cha-cha, salsa, swing and rumba I actually

clicked with a lot better [than the smooth dances], but it was harder to

get the hip movements down,” he admitted.

Teaching a feeling

Having overcome the hip-movement challenge he faced in the beginning

of his career, Sanders now has time to enjoy the teaching process.

“I think it’s kind of cool that I can teach a feeling,” he said. “When

you learn a dance, a lot of people get really happy about it. People have

fun with it, it’s kind of like teaching people fun.”

That’s all Sanders thinks dancing should be.

While he understands that many people only feel carefree when they

dance and no one’s watching, he strives to get his students to take that

feeling onto every dance floor. He never plans to stop.

“I’d like to do this for as long as I can, until my legs fall off at

least, and then I’ll figure out how to dance in a wheelchair,” he said.