My Favorite Mario Robau Quote

[Christopher Meyer]

Dancing is an AMAZING activity. You can go up to a gorgeous woman that you've
never met before, spend three minutes touching her virtually anywhere on her
body, and she THANKS you for it afterwards!

Mario Robau, Jr.
at a workshop in Bethesda, MD
Spring, 1991

[Mark E. J. Newman]

Victor Eijkhout (eijk...@cupid.cs.utk.edu) wrote:

>Eh, this was before he got married? :-)

Oh no, he still says stuff like this all the time. He *says* it doesn't
bother his wife. I have yet to hear her opinion on the matter... :-)

Mark.

[Victor Eijkhout]

In article <meyer.8....@tiber.nist.gov> me...@tiber.nist.gov (Christopher Meyer) writes:

Eh, this was before he got married? :-)
--

Victor Eijkhout ..................................... `As for his conducting,
Department of Computer Science ......................... "It was awful" said
University of Tennessee .................... [a band member]. Eventually, he
Knoxville TN 37996 ........................ learned to follow if not to lead
+1 615 974 8298 ................ the band.' [About '30s bandleader Glen Gray]
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~eijkhout/ (Rumour has it that Canter & Siegel Kibo!)

[Victor Eijkhout]

In article <3ci335$3...@newsstand.cit.cornell.edu> new...@msc.cornell.edu (Mark E. J. Newman) writes:

> >Eh, this was before he got married? :-)
>
> Oh no, he still says stuff like this all the time. He *says* it doesn't
> bother his wife. I have yet to hear her opinion on the matter... :-)

I've heard that Mario will be competing at the SOS Grand National
(Charlie & Jackie organising, in Atlanta GA early '95). Will this
be with Erica (his wife)? And who was his partner when he
won the US Open?

ObFondMemory: it seems to be custom at Buffalo Gap and other events
to get all instructors on the floor, and let them mix their different
styles. It was quite a sight seeing Daniel Trenner (Arg. Tango)
lead Erica into tango-style WCS syncopations ...

[rl...@cornell.edu]

> And who was his partner when he
> won the US Open?

If we're thinking of the same competition, it was Valerie ("Val") La
Femina, who is based in St. Louis. I had heard she was retiring from
dance. She was out of sight for a year or more, but recently resurfaced
doing a guest stint at one of the NYC studios (Stepping Out or Dance
Manhattan). She's hot--I'm glad she's back.

I know some women who were turned off by the fact that he installed his
fiancee (now wife) as his teaching partner, since at that time ( a couple
years ago) Erica wasn't very experienced. They thought it was a raw deal,
since for the same price they used to get Val, an excellent dancer and
experienced teacher. I've never seen Erica dance so I can't speak to it.

> lead Erica into tango-style WCS syncopations ...

I wish someone would lead *me* into them...sounds like fun...

Robinne Gray
rl...@cornell.edu
Ithaca, NY

[Jeffery Marc Kletsky]

rl...@cornell.edu wrote:
: > And who was his partner when he
: > won the US Open?

: If we're thinking of the same competition, it was Valerie ("Val") La
: Femina, who is based in St. Louis.

That was his *second* U.S. Open win -- 1991 to Benson's "Baby Workout"
(a "hustle" in "straight eighths" which isn't swing music, according to
another thread ;-)

His first win was with Frances Bostwick (Dallas, TX) in 1990 --
dancing to "Just A Little Bit" off the Red, Hot & Blue album.

: I know some women who were turned off by the fact that he installed his

: fiancee (now wife) as his teaching partner, since at that time ( a couple
: years ago) Erica wasn't very experienced. They thought it was a raw deal,
: since for the same price they used to get Val, an excellent dancer and
: experienced teacher. I've never seen Erica dance so I can't speak to it.

Erica was certainly an experienced and hot dancer at the time. She had
previously been taken under the wing of Randy Albers (another
U.S. Open champion.) I understand that some other greats had the same
experience, for example Sharlot Bott. Erica was competing with
Christopher Joe -- they made the finals at the '91 Open and placed, as
I recall.

Erica is a joy to dance with and can follow *anything*

As far as women complaining about Mario's workshops, my understanding
is that followers only attend them so that they can survival-back-lead
the patterns for the month that we leaders think that we are leading
them after the workshop is over ;-)

Jeff

[Bart L. McJunkin]

Jeffery Marc Kletsky (jkle...@netcom.com) wrote:
: As far as women complaining about Mario's workshops, my understanding

: is that followers only attend them so that they can survival-back-lead
: the patterns for the month that we leaders think that we are leading
: them after the workshop is over ;-)

Yeah, he's always got the hottest moves. And when
I'm thinking that hard, the lead sucks.

ObFavMarioQuote: We're holding down barstools in the hotel
lounge and talking about dance-related topics when Mario
says, "I love to talk about dance, and I'll talk all night.
But if I have to get off of this barstool, I gotta charge you!"

Bart.
####################################################
mcju...@hpspkla.spk.hp.com

[JLube]

To add another Mario story:
At the recent UCWDC contest in Dallas, Mario was a judge, MC, and
instructor. His "outfit" for the weekend was a cowboy hat and loafers
without socks. Only he could make this work.

Regarding his wife: I took one of their classes during the weekend and
found her knowledge of what he was teaching to be extrodinary. It was
worth the $ I paid to see them.
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