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Jeannie was born in Orlando, Florida and spent her very early years in Miami, Florida. She was endowed with her mother and father's traditional values and unique qualities -- her Father's design engineering background and her Mother's diverse creativity. Jeannie attributes her strong character, creativity, diagnostic abilities, analytical mind and focused determination to her parents. |
The Early Years: |
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Jeannie began performing almost as soon as she could walk. At 3 1/2 she became a member of the Screen Actors Guild as a professional actress and dance performer. During these very early years, Jeannie trained in ballet, jazz and tap with dance instructor and competitor, Joe Michaels, of Joe Michaels' School of Dance in Miami and New York. Between runway and print modeling, television commercials and dance shows the pair was in high demand. Jeannie's first of many national television commercials was for the marketing premiere of "Gatorade." With a talent agent in New York and a contract with the Coronet Modeling Agency in Miami, Jeannie was already more than just a pretty face. She had real talent; a rather precocious prodigy. She was the first runner up in the Little Miss Florida Contest, and began performing at 4 years old on cruise ships to the Bahamas. Immersed in the Cuban culture by family business and social ties Jeannie, even at this young age, was heavily influenced by the multicultural Cuban/Latin influence on the Miami music scene; an influence that spawned her love of Latin music & dance. This early love of Latin music and dance skill was enhanced most significantly when she opened for the exuberant percussionist and dance band leader, Tito Puente who rose to stardom in the 1950's mambo dance craze. |
The Teen Years: |
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As her teen years approached, Jeannie's father retired from a highly decorated military career and the family moved overseas to revisit places her folks had been stationed at before Jeannie was born. The family visited many countries including India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Germany, France, Italy, Holland, and Denmark. It was this early, intensive travel across three continents -- European, North African, and Asian --- that exposed & fired Jeannie's multicultural love of all music and dance. In particular, she dance trained in Spain and Morocco. In Spain she trained with a legendary female flamenco dance master developing the speed and rhythms of Spanish footwork and the challenging castanets. In Morocco, she studied Arabic belly dancing; mesmerized by the rhythms of Arabic music and the fluid movements of their dance. In her mid-teens, Jeannie's family returned to the United States and eventually settled in Tucson, Arizona. There She continued her modeling and acting career, which included appearances on the television series "Little House on the Prairie". She continued her dance training with years of ballroom dance instruction from Ron and Carol Montez, Vernon Brock, and many of the other top competitors of that time. |
The Early 80's |
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The Disco craze of the late 70's and early 80's brought dance once again to the forefront of popular culture and nightlife. Jeannie was busy teaching, winning dance contests, performing in stage and club shows, auditioning for and appearing on television shows such as Dance Fever and Star Search. After the Disco era, fitness and aerobics became the new popular rage. Jeannie choreographed and stared in numerous aerobic dance reviews - the aerobic equivalent of dance shows - and trademarked her own aerobics program. Most importantly, aerobics complemented her foundational knowledge of body mechanics - the formal/informal study of optimal body positions while in movement - and accented the crucial connection between correct dance technique and proper body mechanics including proper posture, lightning pencil turns, intricate syncopations and well executed, complex moves and routines. In the midst of this frenzy of dance and aerobics, Jeannie successfully founded Active Now Sportswear, a company to manufacture and market sportswear & accessories of her own design. This was a natural outgrowth of her personal clothing, dance costume and accessory design and creation for many years. Equally important, it reflected her design and creation of her own dance costumes and accessories - a feature she is known for at competitive dance events. Her designs were sold internationally in major department stores, boutiques, and could even be found in the gift shops at Disney World. For two years, Jeannie taught dance and correct body movement at the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind. She helped those students use their keen sense of "feel" to "listen to the music" through the vibrations of speakers placed on the dance floor. Students learned to associate the beats from different vibrations with various kinds of music. Finally, students could create body movements that were appropriate to different musical vibrations, thus, dance. This unique learning strategy significantly enhanced a student's self worth, confidence and pleasure. In the process Jeannie developed equally novel dance learning strategies for all her students. Strategies that can accelerate the dancer's transition from step patterns to the almost magical ability to "dance to the music." This and other strategies are embodied in Jeannie's various workshops. The combination of increased self worth and enhanced dance skills for all her students at all levels increased satisfaction and confidence. |
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The Mid 80's: |
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In the mid 80's Jeannie's life was shocked by the loss of her father and dramatically changed by a serious auto accident that caused permanent, serious injury to her spine. So serious that her doctors told her "You will never dance again?" Ironically, the Doctor's cruel medical prohibition was the perfect motivator for the painful gutsy multiyear recovery that defied that medical warning. These years would be the most challenging of her life and her dance career. To dance again with minimal pain, Jeannie had to reach into her previous dance training to glean, refine and invent new techniques and strategies of body structure, strength building and efficient, fluid body movement. She had to re-examine in detail and re-learn, movements that had been second nature to her before the accident. It was these new and refined techniques and strategies that rebuilt her dancer's body and restored her skills AND provided the unique basis for the "body mechanics" focus of her dance instruction today. This recovery process, plus her engineer's knack for analysis passed down by her father, gave her a technical and diagnostic insight into further defining the elements that make partnership dance work well. This unusual re-examination of the fundamentals of dance technique created an insight that perhaps no other experience can duplicate. Slowly Jeannie eased back into dance performing, while putting extra energy into her commercial career as the principal actor in over ten national television commercials including First Chiropractic, Mitsubishi, Toyota and General Motors spots. Dancing once more, Jeannie moved to Los Angeles to continue her professional career through continual acting classes and dance training with, among others, Karen Voight and Dupree Dance Academy. She also had a role on NBC's soap opera, "Santa Barbara". |
Late 80's & into the 90's: |
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By the late 80's and early 90's, Jeannie had focused on West Coast Swing; instructing and competing at the Champion of Champions level on the West Coast Swing Circuit, placing in the top five in the Classic & Showcase Division of the US Open Swing Dance Championships while also dancing and winning in Division I UCWDC. In the early 90's, the Actors Union strike stalled her Los Angeles acting/talent career. So, drawn back to the clean air and healthier lifestyle of Arizona, Jeannie returned to Tucson. There, Jeannie split her energies between her business, Active Now Sportswear, a clothing design, manufacturing and sales company, talent work and dance. Talent work included national commercials, music videos, modeling, and the choreography of national TV campaign commercials including Bulls eye BBQ Sauce. Of course, Jeannie's dance world encompassed private dance coaching, corporate conventions, and public dance instruction at various clubs including the Cactus Moon Café. Jeannie's reputation as a Champion competitor/Master Level dance coach continued to grow throughout the 90s, as she became widely known for her graceful elegance and fierce energy. Her reputation was magnified by her ability to detect the technical root of a dancer's problem and solve that problem through the principles of "body mechanics" combined with correct dance technique. Simultaneously, Jeannie's student following grew rapidly as dancers at all levels sought the efficient and fluid use of their bodies to "feel" and interpret music. During her 1993 World Swing Dance Championship Jack & Jill Finals, Jeannie tore the PCL of her right knee. Jeannie continued to compete and instruct during the next 5+ years while sheparding and rehabilitating her often swollen and painful, degenerating knee. In late spring, 1999, Jeannie began rehearsing a routine for the November 1999 U. S. Open Swing Dance Championships. Several days before the Open, in practice, the knee gave out totally and 2 days before the Open Jeannie was forced to undergo emergency knee surgery. Again, intensive rehabilitation was required even as Jeannie continued to teach -- often from her wheel chair on the dance floor -- a fully booked private coaching schedule and a weekly public class at the Cactus Moon Cafe. With a wonderful support group of family, friends, and students, she was able to make a fast recovery and give her original, albeit postponed, 1999 competitive performance at the May 2000 Grand National Swing Dance Championships, Classic Division.
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The last few years have been full of intense travel and teaching across the U.S. and abroad. Travel included teaching on both Alaskan & Mexican Rivera Cruises. Continuing to compete, she has won numerous Invitational Jack & Jill placements as well as earning the title of 2001 Dallas Dance Pro-Strictly Swing Champion and the 2003 Dallas Pro-Strictly Swing 2nd Place Champion. Jeannie has continued to compete at the U.S. Open Swing Dance Championships and at other events. She has been everything from event emcee, workshop master instructor, event director & coordinator, competitor to name a few titles. As the director & promoter of the "Smooth Swingin' Sunday Dances", Jeannie also stays busy promoting social dance and giving voice to some of the wonderful musicians in Tucson through her Big Band Dances.
Her acting and modeling career is keeping her busy with work on the upcoming Stephen King T.V. movie "Desperation" to air fall of 2005 and numerous television commercials as well.
The Salsa Dance Craze has been keeping her busy teaching people to enjoy the great Latin rhythms that are in abundance in the diverse Tucson Latin scene. When home in Tucson Arizona, she conducts weekly classes and coaches privately.
Today: |
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Jeannie lives and teaches in Tucson, Arizona amongst her full time "family" of students, friends and her lovely mother. At home, Jeannie enjoys gardening, her web design work, tending to her pets (one dog and two cats), hiking in the surrounding mountains and, believe it or not, social dancing as often as possible. Jeannie travels much of the year to dance events teaching, performing and competing. During the year students also travel to Tucson for intense study with Jeannie. Tucson provides a fabulous backdrop of great climate and culture for those dance vacations. Jeannie's mom, Frances adds her own sparkling personality to her enthusiastic interest in Jeannie's dancing. Frances frequently attends Jeannie's workshops and travels with her to dance events hanging out until sometimes 4:00AM to watch her daughter socially dance the night away. Jeannie credits her mother for giving her a strong sense of self that enables her to be the teacher she is today. "She has given so much love to me and hopefully I am able to continue the giving through my teaching to others I meet and work with." Jeannie Tucker |
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