Ok, everybody line up. Left foot forward. Good! Now right. And, slow…slow; quick-quick. That’s the foxtrot!”

Margene Anderson is the queen of Utah ballroom dancing. She has taught thousands of Utah couples how to waltz, hustle and quickstep through their lives.

“Nobody wants to look like a fool,especially not in front of a bunch of other people.” Margene understands how to change that. “I teach success,” Margene Anderson understands what keeps people–especially guys–off the dance floor: “Fear,” she says. “And ego.”

Ballroom dancing is “all about connection,” says Margene. “For girls it’s about trust. For guys it’s about planning.” He has to know not only the steps and music, but also how to signal his partner. “Connection happens,” she says, when both partners “give to the middle.” So that’s where Margene begins—with communication and connection. It’s an approach that she’s used to build success for 28 years.

Margene was 30 years old before she ventured out on the ballroom floor for the first time—without lessons. “I was terrified,” she said. “I sat outside in the car for an hour before I went in.” But once inside, she met people, had fun, and discovered a hitherto unknown talent that quickly blossomed into a passion as well as a new career. In 1996 she quit her day job, launched The Dance Scene, and began teaching full-time.

You have to be able to connect. “It’s the interaction that keeps me coming back,” she says. That, and figuring out how to meet her students’ cha-cha-changing needs.