I. The First area of Experience

At 10 years of age, Ken began studying music. He learn to play the recorder then. He switched to drums at 11. He began learning the guitar at 15. He played guitar as a accompanist for a young lady at 20. He taught guitar for several years in his 20's. At 28 he began studying voice and continues taking at least one music lesson per week giving him 48 years of musical training.

II. The Second area of Experience

The second area also comes from his childhood. He began at the age of 12 to study Physics. He had the goal of becoming a nuclear physicist. He still loves the subject of Physics and it gives him insight on movement

III. The Third area of Experience

In college, he majored in Theology and this helps him organize his thinking allowing him to create a philosophy, theory, and method of dance resulting in his own style.

IV. The Fourth area of Experience

In college, he obtained a job at a European Health Spa as a personal trainer. He studied Kinesiology, which is the Physics of human movement. This area helps him understand how bones and muscles work.

V. The Fifth area of Experience

At the age of 28, he enrolled in a d​ance teacher training program at a Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Savannah, Georgia.  The Corporation opened a local studio in Savannah and there was a shortage of qualified teachers in the area and so they began a training program.  He enrolled and graduated in December of 1983 when he received a Bronze Associate degree at the time.

VI.  The Sixth area of Experience

He has studied Ballet,Jazz,Modern,Tap, and Appalachian Fltfoot dancing.  He has also studied other areas that relate to dancing.  Areas that have the appearance of dance but maybe not the essence of dance, such as Aikido, Tai Chi, and the Alexander Technique.  He has collected every dance syllabus he can find and has written his own syllabus for twenty dances through twelve skill levels.

 

He has taken the learning from each of the areas of study in his life and incorporated them into an organized method of dancing.  He calls his style of dancing "The Interrelated Scientific Social Form of Dance"

 

Educational History of Patricia Howard

I.   The First area of Experience

She had an extensive musical background.  She started singing with her family at an early age and sang in various church choirs.  At one time, she was the director of a choir in a church she attended.

II.   The Second area of Experience

She has spent the last 30 years working as a Medical Transcriptionist which gives her the ability to understand the anatomical side of dancing.

III.   The Third area of Experience

In the late 1970's and early 1980's she discovered dancing when she went to a disco with a friend who could dance well.  She signed up for dance lessons at a Fred Astaire dance studio where she met the instructor that would become her husband.

IV.  The Fourth area of Experience

In the late 1980's, she competed as a Pro/am with her husband, Ken Howard.  In the early 1990's her husband was working then at an independent studio that needed a reliable instructor to work with the single men.  She worked as a partner for these men and her husband taught them as a couple.  In this way she learned the most effectively way to teach dance.

V.    The Fifth area of Experience

In 1998, Pat and her husband started their own dance school where she began teaching both groups and private lessons professionally.  She specializes in teaching beginners while Ken focuses on the more advance levels.

 

She is known as the heart of the Butterfly Ballroom while her husband is the brain.

She has competed and performed with her students and husband since 1998 in at least 9 shows.

 

Ken and Pat are both published authors with articles published in various dance magazines including Dancing USA and Amatuer Dancer.