Ren presented this slide of himself and Enza Burgio performing their championship-winning routine, “Jealousy,” to the tune of “Roxanne” from Moulin Rouge. PATTAYA, Thailand – What brings you JOY? This was the question that Dr Ren Lexander, PhD, asked the audience at the Pattaya City Expats Club on 11th June. They were the questions that he asked himself in 1994 at the age of 36. He asked what brings me JOY and how can I have more JOY in my life? His answer was… DANCE. He realized he had always gotten joy from mucking around on the dance floor with a woman doing whatever he could make up. So he went on a search for partner dancing. This search took him to Latin classes in Latin restaurants. This was before Latin got huge in the west in 1999 through the influence of Shakira, Ricky Martin and others. So the classes were small… but it was a start. A flyer in his letter box led him to a dance studio and studying both Ballroom and Latin dances. At a friend’s party, he was on the dance floor with a just-met woman doing some dance moves. She said: “You should do Ceroc”. “What’s Ceroc?” “It’s like what you’re doing now.” So Ren tried out a Ceroc class. This was to become the defining moment in his journey of joy through dance. At first he was perplexed by this very free-form dance: “Where’s the footwork?” But then he had an epiphany: the lack of footwork meant that he was freed up to spontaneously interpret the music. Ren introduces dance teacher, Viky Melsky, who teaches Tango and Bachata and other dances in Pattaya (follow her on Facebook to learn more- https://www.facebook.com/vikavinni/)” For Ren, it led to endless hours of joy. Two people on the dance floor… great music… countless hours of spontaneous joy for both people. Unexpectedly, it also led to him choreographing and winning national and international Ceroc dance championships. These routines often pushed the boundaries of what was “Ceroc”. The PCEC audience was treated to videos of three of his championship-winning routines: Sacred and Profane (music from Led Zeppelin featuring Arabic street music) Smooth (which won the 2001 Australasian Championship) Jealousy (to a song from Moulin Rouge) Ren also mentioned that he had choreographed a number of group routines, which he said might be the subject of a future talk one day. At the end of the talk, Ren called up some volunteers from the audience. This included Mick Desmond, a friend he had made through Ceroc in Australia. To the tune of Doris Day singing “Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps”, both men danced with women they had never danced with before. All four were able to dance and experience joy. For members of the audience who want to experience the Joy of Dance, Ren pointed them in the direction of Tango and Bachata. To see Ren’s championship-winning routines… and to share his journey of JOY… go to the video of his presentation at https://youtu.be/CqMl__74brc. Ren’s presentation was followed with the Open Forum portion of the meeting where questions are asked or comments made about Expat living in Thailand. For more information about the PCEC and their meeting location, visit their website at https://pcec.club.