Photo by Jeremy Chang
Nick Enge is a full-time social dance instructor at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), where he teaches and researches a wide variety of social dances from the 19th century to present and around the world. In 2023, he received the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education's Undergraduate Teaching Award.
A dancer since the age of three, Melissa Enge has experience in many different dance forms including ballet, jazz, tap, Indian fusion, and social dancing. She co-teaches the social dances classes at UT with Nick.
On October 23, 2015, Nick and Melissa got engaged. A year later, on October 23, 2016, they got married, with their mentor, Richard Powers, officiating.
Nick and Melissa are the co-authors (with Richard) of The Book of Mixers: 100 Easy-Teach Dances for Getting Acquainted (2022), Cross-Step Waltz: A Dancer's Guide (2019), and Nick is the co-author (with Richard) of Waltzing: A Manual for Dancing and Living (2013).
Outside of, but adjacent to, their work in the social dance space, they are also co-founders of Project Quartz, a curated collection of 200+ life-changing tools from 400+ sources, chosen to help you craft a life you love.
Photo by Jeremy Chang
We, Nick and Melissa, are using our knowledge to create a library of social dance variations. Even better, we're making this library available to everyone in the world, for free!
With videos of more than 1,800 variations posted to date, and hundreds more waiting to be filmed, the Library of Dance is always growing.
To see our latest videos, simply click on the playlist below. You can also see our entire collection of demo videos organized by dance at: libraryofdance.org/dances
In addition to the Library of Dance, they also maintain the University of Dance, a site where you can find full-length teaching videos for many of the dances demonstrated here.
For more dance descriptions, see our three books on dancing:
The Book of Mixers: 100 Easy-Teach Dances for Getting Acquainted (2022) by Richard Powers and Nick & Melissa Enge,
Cross-Step Waltz: A Dancer's Guide (2019) by Richard Powers and Nick & Melissa Enge, and
Waltzing: A Manual for Dancing and Living (2013) by Richard Powers and Nick Enge.
For full-length teaching videos, visit: University of Dance.
For help crafting a life you love, visit: Project Quartz.
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