He Loves His Swing Shift : Costa Mesa Studio Owner Is Blazing Trail for Blacks in Ballroom, West Coast Dancing

Martin Parker didn’t set out to be a pioneer, but it’s a role he seems to play with the same unpretentious aplomb he embodies on the dance floor.

Parker, 35, is one of Southern California’s top social dancers and instructors, specializing in West Coast swing, the exuberant dance widely known by its jitterbug and Lindy Hop variations. He’s also one of few African Americans in the area teaching swing and, one of less than a dozen anywhere in the country to compete in the exacting international-style waltz, fox trot and other ballroom dances, according to aficionados.

“At first, I didn’t look at it this way. I was just dancing because I loved it,” Parker, of Huntington Beach, said the other day. “But I’ve realized I am kind of paving the way for other blacks to go into the field.”

Up to 50 students a night attend Parker’s classes at Danscene, the Costa Mesa school he has owned for five years. Most popular are his lessons in West Coast swing, which has endured and flourished since the Big Band era.

Leading a recent beginners class, he cued the basic moves he mastered over a decade ago, swiveling his hips subtly as he danced along with his students: “And ah five, six, ready go: Triple-step, triple-step, rock, tuck, turn, under-arm pass.”

“Today, West Coast swing is very contemporary,” he said in a subsequent interview. “Back in the ‘40s they were mostly doing a lot of footwork and not so many turns or patterns or arm wraps and pretzels.”

Phil Adams, a longtime friend of Parker’s who runs a leading Los Angeles swing studio, says Parker’s versatility sets him apart. Most social dancers specialize in one area, such as ballroom. But Parker excels in Latin dances--such as samba, rumba and cha-cha--and the hustle, widely practiced in the disco era, as well as ballroom and swing.

“He’s probably the best all-around black social dancer in the country today,” Adams said. “He’s also one of the only black dance studio owners I know.”

Fewer blacks than whites are involved in social dance and swing in Southern California, he said, but he believes that has to do with exposure, or the lack of it, more than anything else.

Parker’s introduction to dance came while attending high school in Long Island, N.Y., where the hustle and Latin dances were the rage in his predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood.

Initially disinterested, “I got to see some really good dancers,” he said, “and I got hooked.”

Then, after his family moved to California, he got a job teaching ballroom dance in Long Beach, riding the wave of renewed mainstream interest triggered by the 1977 John Travolta hit, “Saturday Night Fever.”

The early 1980s ushered in a resurgence in the popularity of West Coast swing, and Parker’s first venture into major competitions. With former partner Toni Piazza, he made the finals three years in a row at the prestigious U.S. Open National Swing Dance Championships, finishing second--by only one-tenth of a point--in 1985.

The pair trained with Dean Collins, of Glendale, one of early Hollywood’s hoofers who appeared in or choreographed such 1940s movies as “Buck Privates,” starring Abbott and Costello, and “Living it Up,” with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.

Collins “showed us some movies of what he did when he was younger, and I was really impressed,” Parker said. “I started learning his style of swing, which was more of an authentic, ‘40s style.”

Parker also competed in the mid-1980s in International ballroom, which includes the same dances as American-style ballroom, but makes more demands of its practitioners.

“It’s very technically challenging,” he said. “You’re judged on how your feet are pointing, what your arms are doing; your hands and your head have to be in the right place. I managed to make it to the finals now and then.”

During this time, Parker made his living as an independent teacher, holding classes at various studios and recreation centers until opening his Costa Mesa studio in 1989.

Business at Danscene, which draws students from Glendale to San Clemente, has been good, he said, boosted by his recent re-entry into the competitive arena (he may compete with his wife, Lisa, at this fall’s U.S. Open swing championship in Anaheim) and his judging stints at local contests. His advanced classes are nearly twice the size this year as they were last year, for instance.

“I’m starting to get out more, to get in the public eye so people can identify a person with the name,” he said. “When I competed regularly, I was getting more business than I could handle.”

Reflecting on his career ascent, Parker said when he started out, “there were so many good dancers,” he didn’t think he had a chance. He even considered becoming a forest ranger at one point.

“I can remember once in high school my parents saying that I was dancing too much. Though they wanted me to do whatever I wanted to do, they didn’t think I was going to be able to make a living out of it.”

But, he added, “I’m actually living my dream. I like being my own boss, and I love what I’m doing.”