Lyle Zerkin

Teaches at Chicago Dance

Lyle Sande Zerkin enjoys sharing his love of moving to music through the techniques of dancing… for he believes that while it is natural to be carried by rhythm, the same study and aid must be made to dance as we once did to learn walking. 

Lyle did not always dance, but he did throw his body strongly into music. Eventually he discovered a ballet class at Columbia College to begin focusing and disciplining his force. This led him into the lineage of Bronislava Nijinska through ballet master Ed Parrish and on a path away from his acceptance of undergraduate study at the University of Chicago. He then studied with Anna Baker and Barry VanCura, Larry Long, Joel Hall and Homer Bryant. After pursuing a career performing as a singer, songwriter, musician and band leader in New York, he found a new calling in teaching dance to energetic youth who also yearned for the discipline required to move one’s self in a rewarding expression. 

He returned to Chicago in 2004 and began his formal ballroom training at Chicago Dance. He continued his study with many of the area’s top instructors and has taught at several area dance studios. He focuses his personal dancing on the International Standard and Latin Styles, and also enjoys the freedom of American Smooth, Mambo and the social dances. As an original teacher in the CPS’s ‘Having A Ball’ program, he was trained to teach youth by Pierre Dulaine, founder of ‘Dancing Classrooms’ and hero of the movie ‘Take The Lead’. He continues to volunteer as the Youth and College Network Committee Chairman for the Chicagoland Chapter of USA Dance. He also has studied Flamenco with Edo Sie, Azucena Vega and Dame Libby Komaiko, performed with Soul and Duende Spanish Dance Theater and has studied Taiji and other internal Chinese martial arts for many years.