Bio

Mihai's teaching is defined by curiosity, creativity and compassion. He constantly grows and improves his pedagogy and curriculum, comes up with many unique exercises and loves giving individual feedback in a gentle, useful manner. Mihai started dancing in 1997 and has been teaching blues full time since 2005. He has taught workshops and festivals in over 20 states and has been invited back in almost every town. He has also been DJing blues, swing and tango since 2003 and organizes San Francisco's Friday Night Blues - the world's first and largest blues-only weekly dance.

Longer, Past Bios

I am primarily a blues dance organizer and ambassador, and my teaching reflects that. I love to provide the spark that gets people addicted to blues dancing. To me, teaching is not filling an empty vessel but lighting a flame. Dancing of any kind was scary and foreign to me until my junior year in college, when a couple of friendly folks got me started with East Coast Swing. That passion has been driving me ever since to dance and learn where opportunities exist, teach and organize where they do not. I love to dance, from the giddiness of lindy hop to the intensity of tango and to the soul of blues.

I learned lindy hop and blues almost exclusively on the social dance floor and developed a very unique and connected style. I soon realized that the best way to serve my students was to get fully committed to improving as a dancer and as an instructor. I owe a good deal to Brenda Collins, Andrew Sutton, Bill Borgida, Heidi Fite, Solomon Douglas, Damon Stone, Laura Glaess and Peter Strom.

As a former high school math teacher, I have always been interested in and committed to my students, and their testimonials show that. I tend to quickly and efficiently focus on exactly what they need, drawing on my eclectic experience and creative teaching methods to find a way to help them get to that "A-ha!" moment. Among the metaphors and drills I have come up with are...

• the faster-and-faster position-to-position drill (Feb '07)
• the increasing connection drill (Jan '07)
• consecutive tiny movements for clear endpoints to every move
• "the hulk" for engaging your core
• "the T" for adding twists and turns
  

I have been teaching blues in the Bay Area and beyond since November 2004. Besides teaching 1-3 hours a week at Friday Night blues and other venues I manage, I have taught in Chico, Portland, Seattle, Boulder, Tulsa, Memphis, Nashville, South Florida, Honolulu, Hilo. Every organizer has asked me to come back and teach within a year. I have DJ'ed events or house parties in all of the above plus San Diego, Sacramento, Tacoma, Denver, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Austin, Tampa.