YOUR INSTRUCTORS: John Kelly (of New Brunswick, N.J.) and Phyl (of Brooklyn, N.Y.) are pretty much average people like yourself that go out on the weekends to dance and have fun. Though well known and looked up to in central Florida's nightclub circuit, the two are essentially just a couple of "down to earth" people who have taken an immense enthusiasm in freestyle dancing, and followed it up to the point of where in John Kelly's case; has not only become one of the best freestyle rock and roll dancers in central Florida, but has actually created a new style of rock and roll dancing with his own "Flip-Rock" version.
 | JOHN KELLY: The director and co-producer of the films: "75 Easy to Learn Rock and Roll Dance Moves" and "50 More Rock and Roll Dance Moves", is an accomplished and admired "freestyle" rock and roll dancer. Despite his "multi-talents" though, he is still "you." He's been through the same "fear of dancing" that many of you beginners have .... and to this day constantly strives to improve himself and learn new moves just as you experienced dancers do. "PHYL" : A student of John's, had only been with him a short while before "75 Easy ..." was made, but in that "short while" had quickly picked up much of what it had taken John years to learn. Assisting him in "75 Easy's ..." part 3: "Show Biz and Shock Effect" and again in the final segment of "50 More ..." she is a perfect example of how quickly you can learn when you have a good teacher. |
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HOW JOHN KELLY "Cured his own lifelong fear" and learned to dance: First of all: Just so we've got some kind of an understanding, I (John Kelly) am a lot like you ... I was like you before I learned to dance ... I was like you after I learned to dance ... And I am very much like you right now; at the present moment. Mean it! Other than my quirky ways and "alleged" brain damage, I'm just a "Joe Blow" on the streets ... just a "working stiff" like you. The only difference between us (and I'm talking to some of you experienced dancers too) is that I kick-ass on the dance floor. Always! Anywhere I go ... And every time I go there! |
I am "You" ... |
It wasn't always like that though (new dancers / beginners now.) Not being as fortunate as some of you lucky people that would have no problem with getting up and dancing if you knew how—I, up until ten years ago was in the other class of non-dancers who are just plain and simply; “afraid to dance.” My problem wasn’t because I was shy either, the problem was that I felt that I had no rhythm whatsoever, and the few attempts that I had made at dancing were extremely awkward and stiff—For not only did I not feel the music, but I felt that I looked ridiculous. Yeah … it was bad. It was a real bummer too because I really wanted to learn how to dance, for being single, and not being able to dance was really putting a hurting on my social life. You wouldn’t believe how many potential girlfriends I’d lost over the years by refusing to go out on the dance floor with them. |
One Sunday morning though back in 1996, after loosing another possible girlfriend the night before, I decided that something had to be done about the situation. Fortunately, at the time I was studying different types of self-hypnosis and was getting pretty good at it. So putting together what I had learned from the many hypnosis books I’d read and what I’d been taught at Rutgers University, I hooked up with my old buddy Dr. Joey and together we devised a 45 minute per day / three week program to cure my fear of dancing. And it worked! It worked like a charm! It was an absolute miracle! I wasn’t even a week and a half into the program when my mind and body wanted to dance. So although I faithfully continued my daily mental sessions, I decided to "go for it” and hustled on down to Block Buster, intent on renting some “Learn Rock and Roll Dance” videos. Problem was, I found out; they didn’t stock “Learn Rock and Roll Dance” videos at the time. So … I did the second best thing, which was to rent a couple Michael Jackson videos to see what I could pick up from them.
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