G2G Classes at Google

I got tasked by Google to put together a series of “G2G dance classes” that is, Googlers teaching other Googlers how to dance.  It’s been really fun giving my friends a chance to shine.  There are so many Googlers that are talented dancers and experienced teachers, and it’s great to help them with the back end business so they can enjoy teaching.

I’ve known Rebecca since right after college, when I met her through the Stanford dance community.  She taught with me at Starlite Dance Club for many years before joining Google, and she was always a super pro at working with new dancers.  I teamed her up with Stephen Ames, who I’ve also known since he was my teacher at Body Therapy Center.  He was such a good teacher I knew that the two of them would be excellent together teaching beginning swing.  If you haven’t checked them out yet, they’ve gotten great reviews so far teaching their swing classes on Mondays at noon.

I’ve known Alexei since he was a student of mine at Starlite and fellow compatriot at Jeffrey Lynn’s dance camps.  Since then Alexei has become a rock star Argentine Tango dancer – he goes out tango dancing 5 nights a week!  We couldn’t find any experienced ladies who were free to be a demo partner with him – so I’m enjoying partnering with him to teach this tango class, Tuesdays at 7 pm.

I only recently met Rasika, but she’s been dancing her whole life.  Her mother owns a dance studio, and Rasika grew up with traditional Indian dance.  I was so impressed with the choreography that she put together for the Googlemela show, it’s great to give her a chance to teach some more!  Her Bhangra class on Wednesdays at noon have been awesome so far!

Dobromir has been teaching G2G salsa longer than any of us have even been at Google!  I had heard a great deal about Dobromir from my husband, Heraldo, as they worked on similar teams.  I first met Dobromir at the Google Holiday party in 2005 when we had a grand time dancing during the party, and we got to hang out even in Tokyo!  We’re happy to have Dobromir continuing to teaching salsa on Thursdays at 5:30 pm.

Both Stephanie and Dounia have taught G2G bellydance before, and it’s really fun to have them teamed up to teach together!  Sadly both of them were out of town last week so I had to cover the class myself – hopefully it was helpful to the people in the class, even though it’s not really my style.  But it was lots of fun and quite a workout.  The next two Fridays at noon the class will be with Stephanie, and the last two weeks will be with Dounia.

I’m excited to get to help bring more dancing to Google!