Ballroom dancing was not necessarily something new for Susanne. At the age of thirteen, Susanne started attending a ballroom group class in her native Germany. “It was the standard class that everyone took and we learned just the basics.” She stayed with the class just until the final Ball, participated in that, and never went back. Years later, she met her now husband, Antoine, and he mentioned trying dancing. “He suggested that we try going out and so I made him a gift certificate that said we would and we never did.” Fast forward – a PhD in Physics and a move to the USA - to 2012 and Susanne found herself at Arthur Murray Walnut Creek. “I knew Antoine wanted to do it and I thought to myself, ‘This is it! It is time to redeem that Gift Certificate I gave him over a year ago!” She bought him a gift certificate for Christmas and the rest is history!
Nowadays, Susanne says dancing does so much more for her than she ever thought it would. As a physicist, she says she is surrounded by mostly men. “When I first started [working as a physicist], it was so strange being the ONLY woman in a group of eleven. Now, I think I’ve assimilated and I don’t even notice it. Sometime I think that my colleagues don’t even see me as a woman anymore!” As a result, Susanne says she sometimes finds it uncomfortable tapping into her feminine side and dancing is providing her with the opportunity to do so. It is helping her push her boundaries; so much so that she is currently working on a steamy Tango routine with her husband and the help of their instructor, Amar.
Whether working on her Tango routine or her fantastic ladies only Cha Cha routine with Amar to Michael Jackson’s “Bill Jean”, or simply joining in on Group Classes and Parties, Susanne and her husband have become a staple at our studio! “I’ve seen so much progress with my confidence and I’m feeling much more comfortable from when we first started! Dancing is definitely something I see us doing for a long time!
