Mark Christopoulos
**Mark recently appeared on Channel 9 on the Kerri-Anne show. Check out the footage at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9KxffIjMYY
Mark has been teaching for Swing Patrol for the last five years and was immediately noticed for his amazing flow and fluid body movement. Commonly referred to around Melbourne as THE best guy to dance with on the social dance floor Mark was an original member of our Performance troupe Scat Pack, has had success on the competition dance floor but more than anything is a great teacher who obviusly loves the dance and the music.
In January 2007 Mark will be re-locating to Sydney to be part of the Sydney Swing Patrol teaching team and that is a huge boost for the team in Sydney.
I’ve loved dancing from a very young age.
I’ll never forget the feeling of shock and mortification when I received a standing ovation from my entire family after they had secretly witnessed a rousing and uninhibited dance to my Dad’s new Michael Jackson record (Bad Album). Which may explain my persisting inhibition to dance exhibition.
I think Jacko put it best when he sang, “I just can’t, I just can’t, I just can’t control my feet!”
However being a young boy my dance potential was not honed but rather channeled into sport, soccer. It wasn’t until my late teens that I started to go out at night and regain the exhilaration of moving to the music. Surprisingly, I quickly grew weary of dancing by myself at the young age of 17 and abandoned pub, club and rave dance floors looking for something new. Inspired by the movie “Swingers” I sought out swing dancing and quickly found myself absorbed in the Melbourne swing scene. And it went a little something like this:
Frankie Manning Workshop 2002
Bill Borgida
Melbourne Swing Festival (Harlem Hot Shots)
Lismore Dance Camp 2005 & 2003 (Steven & Virginie, Kevin & Carla, Peter & Caitlin, Joel & Allison)
Scat Pack 2002
Hellzapoppin’ Finalist 2002 (Noni Clarke)
AJC Medium Swing 3rd Place (Nicole Smith)
Seaford (Seaford Community hall)
Glen Iris (Glen Iris Church Hall)
Mornington (Primary School)
Richmond (RCH and The Depot)
CBD (CBD nightclub)
Collingwood (Vibe Bar and Café)
It’s been a fantastic adventure and I continue to look forward to meeting great new people and dancing to great music.
I’ll see you on the dance floor,
Mark
Apr 24th 2008. Mark probably hasn’t noticed that we have added this here but it was such a lovely email that we wanted everyone to read it.
Hi Scottie and Claudia,
Having returned from my honeymoon, I have finally had a chance to email you with this.
On my wet and windy wedding day on the 29 March, I was driving to the ceremony through St Kilda with all the groomsmen loaded on board and saw a mother who was carrying her child slip on the pavement and fall over. I was in the process of pulling the car over to come to her assistance, but was proud to see another gent offer his help first - none other than swing teacher, Mark Christopolous. It really made me think about what a wonderful bunch of teachers Swing Patrol has - all of whom are selfless and help make the swing community, .... as a whole, a pleasure to be a part of.
I would like to acknowledge Mark for providing a sterling example of thoughtfulness to others in the community - both in his teaching and his gallantry.
Cheers,
RM
