Gil has been dancing since he was 10 years old and his mother taught him how to salsa dance." She was a salsa dancer and would have friends over for parties at the house every week, we'd clear away the furniture and dance salsa, merengue and all the Latin dances." Ever since Gil has loved to dance. Originally from New York, he lived for a time in Houston but came with his family to Kansas City when he was about 14. In high school he played a lot of sports -- basketball, football, track and field -- but never forgot about dancing. "As I got older my mom would take me out with her to go dancing at the salsa clubs." When he was about 20, in order to get better, he started taking dance lessons from a family friend, who was herself a dance competitor. Gil has now been teaching ballroom dance at TC, ever since he saw an ad in the newspaper and found a way to do what he loves as a career. "I didn't care what kind of dancing it was, I just liked to dance."
Gil says his favorite dance was salsa when he was young, but now his favorite is "all of them --- whatever my partner wants to do." What he especially likes about ballroom dancing is what you can do in partner dancing, "how two bodies can bend together, and you can dance to music you never thought you could." What Gil hopes to teach his ballroom students is that dance is something they can do, regardless of how uncoordinated they" think" they are, and he hopes to give his dance students a feeling of confidence and self worth.
Gil's favorite colors are earthtones and if he could have dinner with a famous person living or dead, it would be Tom Chapman, founder of TC Dance. " I would like to get into his business head and become as savvy as he is about business." Gil's favorite vacation spot would be anywhere it's warm, with white sandy beaches and clear blue water. His idea of a perfect way to spend a weekend would be doing "something I've never done before but always wanted to, like crewing a sailing boat . And doing it someplace I've never been, like off the coast of Italy or in the Greek Islands." His favorite food is Northern Italian and pasta with white sauces. His pet peeve is negativity and excuses, and his favorite pastime is dancing -- or rock climbing, skydiving and extreme sports. His favorite types of music are Latin, rock, country and R & B, favorite artists are Creed and Lenny Kravitz.
Besides dancing, Gil describes his "other talents" as "people skills" and being a good salesman. If he had to choose another occupation is would probably be "in business, as an entrepreneur," He says the three words that best describe his personality are "charismatic, energetic and flirty." Gil has a son named Mason and a daughter Carmen, his mother lives in Florida, his stepdad in Missouri, and he is the oldest in his family with three younger brothers John, Stephen who live in California, and Alex, who lives in Kansas City, and a 1/2 sister Jessica.He has a pet dog, a Red Husky.
GIL MALDONODO
