How did Tom start dancing?
“My grandmother, Lois Koerner, was a champion Charleston dancer in Chicago in the 1920’s, and one of my best memories of her is doing the Charleston with her when my brother and I were spending New Year’s Eve with her as Guy Lombardo’s Royal Canadians played on the television. She died when I was 12, but I know that she must have been a wonderful dancer in her day. “I started dancing while at the University of Virginia in 1976. The girls in my dormitory told me that I would never get a date (or anything else) so I should try an alternative approach, i.e. dancing. At that time, the disco craze had yet to begin, however, UVa had (and still has) a rich tradition in Shag dancing. It was nothing like the Carolina Shag, although it was done to Motown and Beach music. (Now it is called the Prep Step.) Primarily done by drunken fraternity boys, it was relatively easy to learn and not intimidating at all. Shortly after beginning my career as a UVa Shag dancer, disco took hold and I found that m
