Adam Douglas

**Adam recently appeared on Channel 9 on the Kerri-Anne show. Check out the footage at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9KxffIjMYY

Adam's first bit of fun with dancing was doing the group dances, 'Nutbush' and 'Grease Lightning' during those mandatory dance classes in high school. Yes, it's was daggy, but the end result was that he found it heaps of fun to do and generally, everyone on the floor was 'getting into it'.

After he moved from country Victoria to Sydney over a decade ago, he experimented with different styles of dancing including interpretational, country and settled on Ceroc for a few years to try and perfect the art of daggy dancing.

Fate stepped in when Richa (a fellow Sydney Swing Patrol teacher), a long lost friend who had disappeared overseas, finally popped back into his life and hassled Adam to try a lesson or two at the new Swing classes in Balmain with Trish & Derek. Having bounced around the Jazz circuit listening to musicians ply their trade at the Harbour-side Brasserie, Side-On cafe, the Basement, and other establishments, he decided to give it a go as the music sounded kind of cool.

It only took a few lessons for the addictive qualities to kick in, but once Adam noticed himself tapping his foot to the music and wanted to move more, he was sold. He eventually increased the number of days dancing Swing, taking lessons from as many teachers as he could find until there was no time left for other styles of dancing. He became 100% Swing and never looked back! The look of Swing dancing was impressive, the feel of leading and following with a partner was fantastic, even the fashion and hairstyles of the era made an impression with Adam adopting (and maybe trying to
revive) the slicked back look!

Nowadays, Adam enjoys the Sydney swing community that has been developed of the last few years. Oh and he still likes those daggy dances, but prefers the swing versions such as the 'Jitterbug Stroll', and the 'Shim-sham' among many others. Now, Adam teaches on Monday nights along side Trish (who also was one of the teachers of his first Swing class!) at the Metropolis.

Personal Highlights:
- Meeting his lovely girlfriend Romi at his first Lismore Dance camp.
- The scary first time he competed in a competition at the Sydney Jitterbug Championships.
- Realising it wasn't that scary and managing to come 4th in the 'Like a Virgin' event and 1st in the 'Up & Comers'!
- Making lasting and meaningful friendships that without Swing dancing, he never would have met.