Christy Kam is Meetup's Organizer of the Week for August 27 - September 3, 2007

This week we head south a bit (but not too much) for a stop in Philadelphia. Although the City of Brotherly Love

is famous for its classic cheese steaks, we're here for a healthier alternative.

Our Organizer of the Week utilized her childhood passion to make a dream come true. She found Meetup.com and had

the perfect platform to share her life-long passion with her neighbors. Her passion? Dance! And everybody's

groovin'!

Lets visit with the newly crowned US Amateur Champion for the American Style Latin Dances... Our Meetup Organizer of the Week for August 27 - September 3, 2007 Christy Kam and City Center Dance

Thanks, Christy!

1. I love the idea of your group. I think its great that you open your studio and provide free lessons to

   your Meetup members. Do you find people come more for the lessons or the social aspect?

   We usually have quite a few people that come for the lessons, but a lot of times, they tend to leave during the

   social dance - I wish they'd stick around, but maybe as we start rotating the dances in, they'll feel more

   comfortable with the rest of the dances and be tempted to stay and dance.

2. When did you start dancing and what has prompted you to continue dance as your career?

   I started dancing when I was 3 years old. I started by dancing ballet, but after a really bad ankle injury, I

   couldn't do pointe work any more, so I looked to other types of dance and found ballroom - I've been hooked on it

   ever since, and my partner and I were recently crowned US Amateur champions for the american style latin dances,

   also called rhythm (cha cha, rumba, swing, mambo, and bolero). We were also runners up for american nine-dance

   nationally (cha cha, rumba, swing, mambo, bolero, waltz, tango, foxtrot, and viennese waltz).

3. How long has your studio been in operation?

   We've been open for a little over a year.

4. Is there a specific dance most members request, or do you find most people open to learning new

   steps?

   I find that people usually like salsa a lot, but it's difficult to teach in these free lessons because the level

   is so different - I find that a lot of people are very open to learning how to dance to different types of music,

   however, since even when we have more random styles of dance (we had hustle last month), we have a pretty good

   turnout.

5. How has your involvement with Meetup.com changed or enhanced your personal and professional life?

   The Meetup.com people are a very fun group, and we've gotten a lot of people to try out ballroom dancing and

   latin dancing that my not have wanted or known where to look to get started before. It's also a great way to keep

   people informed about what things are going on in the specific areas that people are interested in.

6. What were your expectations regarding starting this group and have those expectations been met (or

   hopefully exceeded).

   I really wasn't sure what to expect when I first joined, but thought it might be a good way to meet other people

   who wanted to dance or learn how to dance in the Philadelphia area. That has definitely been shown to be true -

   we've even had people coming from as far as over an hour away to attend our dances!

7. Do you have a personal favorite dance?

   Personally, I'm a salsa junkie - I love the fast rhythms and the improvisation that goes along with it. . then

   again, I wouldn't necessarily be able to do away with the other dances, either. :-)

8. Do you have any big plans for the future of your Meetup?

   We're thinking of moving our studio to a newer and larger location within a few months, and we're hoping to have

   a free open house week and dance extravaganza, so we'll definitely be posting that over Meetup.com and letting

   everyone know about it.

Be sure to share your congrats with Christy in the Organizer Forum!