About Richard Tymko
A little about the driving forces of RU Dancing.
________________
Richard is recognized as a top professional teacher in North America. He has won several top teacher awards within Canada and the United States dance events including Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Orlando, Portland, Las Vegas, San Jose, New Mexico, Dallas, New York and Nashville. Several of their amateur students are World Grand Champions at Newcomer, Novice, Intermediate, Advanced and Showcase levels. Over the past 30 years, Richard and Cindy have also coached couples ranging from juniors to adults who have also attained World Championship status. Check out the Champions Corner to see familiar faces in the dance community both amateur and professional who have trained with Richard and Cindy.
Richard and his former partner began their dance partnership in the swing world dancing in the Classic Swing Division. They have trained with several of the top Canadian and US coaches in country, swing and ballroom. In the late 90's, they danced at swing dance events including the Portland Dance Festival, Sacramento's Capital Swing Dancers, The North West Pacific Swing Dance Championships and the US Open. They added country dances to their routines and competed in Showcase Division I placing 5th at the 1997 UCWDC World Championships in Disneyland.
Richard and his former partner have also choreographed and coached local country dance teams in Calgary to World Championships.
- In 1997 they formed their own Rhythms Dance Team and competed in the World Championships in Nashville placing 3rd. They competed again in 1999 and the result was an astonishing 1st place win at the UCWDC World Championships in San Antonio Texas - out of a total of 22 competitive teams. This dedicated hard working team attained Canada's still only 1st Place Grand Championship in the Team Division.
Richard's credits also include working as choreographers, coaches, and dancers in:
- Nora Roberts "Montana Skies" movie directed by Mike Robe and starring Laura Mennell, John Corbett and Diane Ladd.
- Janette Oke's "When Calls the Heart" movie directed by Michael Landon Jr. and starring Maggie Grace and Stephen Amell.
- They also appeared in AMC's popular "Hell On Wheels" Television Series, Season 1 Finale starring Colm Meaney, Anson Mount and Dominique McElligott.
Richard has mainly focused his talents on coaching and teaching and take pride in his students' successes with social dance skills and competitive dance. His social group classes focus on having a good time while students of all ages learn timing, rhythm, footwork, posture and, of course, patterns of all kinds of dances.
About Richard
Richard Tymko was born in Edmonton Alberta and began his dance career as a break dancing teenager. Later, while living in Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories, he became interested in the completely opposite dance style of Ballroom and Latin. On his return to Edmonton, Richard taught country and western styles of couples dance at local bars and community centres and workshops across Canada and the US.
Embracing his Ukrainian heritage, Richard also loved traditional folk dance and was a member of the professional Edmonton based folk dance group "Vinok". The troupe travels across Canada and the World performing over 40 World Dances. Richard has since returned to Vinok as a choreographer and expert in country dance as part of their World Dance show.
Richard moved to Calgary to further his dance career and has become known as an innovative, technically founded choreographer. Since moving to Calgary, he found his soul mate and dance partner and is a Master Level Certified Judge on the United Country and Western Dance Council circuit.
About Isabelle
In August of 2007 Richard and Cindy were blessed with the birth of their baby girl Isabelle who already shows signs of a love and talent for dance. Izzie has attended dance competitions since she was two months old in a stroller. Currently, she has learned to patiently wait her turn to dance with her Dad in the Pro-Am divisions at the dance competitions. Isabelle danced at her first World Championships at the age of five dancing against competitors of eight and nine years of age where she brought home a 3rd Place World Championship - pretty darn good for a first time 5 year old!
For more information please Richard or call: (403) 619-5765