Dance Lightning-Dance Instruction
Country Dancing, With a Cajun Flair !!!
Dance Lightning Was Created in
New Orleans by Herman J. Ahlers Jr.
Herman had a unique background, his mother was married twice so most of her children were Italian, Herman's father was German and he was raised in a section of New Orleans with many Cajuns. As a kid he was very confused, was he German, Italian or Cajun ? His mother just called him a Hines 57 a (Mutt). Ha Ha !!! The point is, he picked up some parts of dancing from each nationality. From the Italians he learned to dance using his hips, from the Germans the Bavarian Polka, and from the Cajuns he gained great stamina and learned to dance very fast. That is how he got the nick name of " The Energizer Bunny" because he keeps going and going and going.
Most People are Amazed !!!
He soon learned that he loved to dance. He started dancing on his mothers feet when he was seven years old at weddings. He later learned Disco and became The Top Dancer in New Orleans. He won every competition they had, at that time. When Disco died, he moved on to Classical at Fred Astaire Dance Studios in Slidell, Louisiana and taught there for three years. He also competed in the Tango competition and took 3rd place in the United States Finals. It was a lot fun, but very rule intensive. To him it was so much to remember, it wasn't as much fun as he had hoped.
In 1987 he moved to Texas to find no one dancing Classical, so he figured he had to learn Country Western Dancing. Since the human body only moves in 183 ways and all dancing is made up of these 183 moves, it was pretty easy to learn. He did learn to country dance and found out all the Cool and Sexy moves he learned in Classical Tango and Ch-Cha could be used in Country Dancing and with none of the fun stopping rules.
He found what he was looking for.
So then, he started teaching Country Dancing at Cody's In Harker Heights (Nights), also he was teaching days at Central Texas Collage in Killeen.
When Cody's closed he moved to Austin and started competing in dance contests with his wife. In 2001 They had the largest dance contest Texas had ever seen (The Dance Across Texas - Dance Contest). There were over 1800 clubs involved. It was sponsored by all the radio station in Texas. Each club would have dance contests to find there best dance couple. Herman and his wife won his club. Then the 12 closest clubs got together and there best competed. When all was said and done the top 5 couples would win prizes. Herman and his wife took 2nd place the other four were all from UT and their Major was Dance. They practiced 6 hours a day. Not to shabby for a Cajun from New Orleans especially since he didn't even make a routine for the contest. He just went out and danced, like he did every weekend.
He bounced around to several clubs but none felt like home until he found Grahams Central Station in Pflugerville Texas. Now he gives private lessons to individuals and couples.
Why private lessons ? Because he can teach so much faster than most instructors, therefore large groups just slow him down. Most people can be trained in only 5 Hours.
He also used to teach in a studio but when the students went out to a club, the amount of people messed them up and made it difficult to move around. So now he teaches at the club, then once the students are ready, they go out and practice on the dance floor.
This way they learn the moves and how to navigate around the other dancers.
Once You Complete His Training,
You Will Know More Moves,
Than 90% of All the People You Will Ever Meet !!
