Dance is the paint brush of the human body – space and time its canvas.
Each body moves in its own unique way revealing the dancer to the world.
Movement is in my body, dance is in my spirit, community in my heart and travel is the road before me.
Each step I take in the world is aimed at sharing movement, dance and community with as many people as possible.
Having been a dancer for nine years and a body in motion since I started running before I crawled, I am out to share my passion with as many people as possible, especially with you.
Leveraging my skills in social media, marketing, business and community development I work to help studios and communities like yours grow, sharing your passion for dance with as many people as possible. Check out the Consulting page for more on what I can do for you.
If you are interested in having me come to your community to teach check out the Lessons page. If you are interested in having a guide to help you along your own personal dance experience check out the Mentorship page.
Who Is The Dance Nomad You Ask?
That would be me – Carl Nelson.
My passion for dance began in University at the Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York. I was 18 and the story goes mostly like this.
I graduated high school and was moving 8 hours away from home. I wouldn’t know anyone there so I researched some of the clubs they had available. One stood out to me – RIT Swing Club. It was 2001 and the Gap Swing craze, movies like Swingers and Swing Kids, and bands like Brian Setzer and Squirrel Nut Zippers had heralded the revival of swing dancing in popular culture. I didn’t know this at the time. All I knew was that I liked the music that my high school jazz band played. So, I decided to check out the Swing Club when I got there.
As with any school there are often Club days where you’ll find everything from the Chess Club to the Robotics Club out on the quarter-mile trying to draw students into their midst. The Swing Club was no exception – they had a boombox setup and were dancing for everyone. It looked like a blast, so I signed up.
As a geeky, slightly angsty teenager on my way to Swing Club (a few months later) I crossed over the hill along the quarter-mile separating Academic side from Residential side and watched the sunset over the school. It was gorgeous. It hit me then that I had found something that I loved to do. That I was passionate about. I walked into club that day and a friend of mine commented, “Carl, you’re smiling.” She had never seen me smile, in the months I had been going to dance something had changed.
Ever since those formative days at RIT dancing has been an inseperable part of my life. I traveled all over the country taking workshops, going to camps and competitions. I lived in Montreal where I helped build a dance studio from a one-man show to a sustainable community business.
Now I travel all over the world teaching and spreading my passion for dance with others. I have competed and won against some of the best dancers in the world. I have performed for corporations, public events, schools and fellow dancers alike. The best part of it all is the joy that dance brings to peoples lives, how it can help shape us as people and form a worldwide community of friends.