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| Biography | |||||
| Bill
Bader taught line dancing around the world for more than 30 years. He started
line dancing in the early 1970's to disco line dances. Country western
line dancing lessons started in Vancouver in 1980 and Bill was in the very
first class. This was great because it saved traveling to Seattle regularly to enjoy the dancing at the wonderful dance bar, Timberline. As a professional instructor and choreographer, line dancing has taken him from coast to coast in North America, all over Australia, four extensive tours of Britain, five trips to Singapore, plus special events in Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia and South Africa. All organizations sponsoring top-level championships have invited him to teach and judge at their events. Bill has been Head Judge at many competitions, including helping organize the first Malaysian Championships, and South Africa's Battle Of The Boots 2002; plus Bill has taught and judged at such varied events as UCWDC's World Championships, the Australian National Championships, and CWDI's International Championship Events. One special event in Singapore set a Guinness world-record with 12,000 dancers performing Bill's dance "Singapore Swing". (See World Records page.) Bill became one of the best known line dance choreographers starting with his hugely popular "Boot Scootin' Boogie" (which has over 6 million views totalling the various videos on YouTube). That was followed by hits like "Cowgirls Twist" (also over 1 million views on YouTube), "Ophelia", "Whirl-Y-Reel", and "All My Heart". In 1998 Bill received a Special Gold Medal at the Australian National Championships for contributions to Australian line dancing, and he was inducted into the Championship's "Bootscooters Hall of Fame". Before the Singapore world record, Australian line dancers set 6 consecutively-larger Guinness line dance world records using Bill's dance "Boot Scootin' Boogie" from 1996 through 2001. . Bill has been nominated twice for International Choreographer of the Year and for International Instructor of the Year.
Bill's choreography credits include music video and movie work. In Sting's "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Cryin'" (1997) Bill and his students are the dancers and extras in the video; Bill created the line dance "Close Encounters" for the video. In the movie "Kevin of the North", Bill's dance "Boot Scootin' Boogie" is performed and Bill dances in the film. Bill has accepted invitations to choreograph line dances for singers Scooter Lee, Rick Tippe, Ronnie Beard, The Dean Brothers and Jeanette O'Keeffe. Other singers who have worked with Bill to include music for his dances on their albums include Dave Sheriff and Sean Kenny. As a dance coach, Bill helped his student Grant Gadbois win the Men's Overall Championship in the Advanced Division, sweeping first place in all four competition dances at the first CWDI International Championship Event in 1996, the largest line dance competition at that time. Bill has produced line dance instruction videos, teaching his own choreography, and these have proven to be very popular products. Bill founded the Professional Association of Linedancers at the request of the Singapore government to provide a program of accreditation and upgrading skills for instructors and those wanted to become professional instructors. The hundreds of participants were from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Bill hosted the very successful "Jamboree BC" line dance event in Vancouver for eight years, attracting over 350 dancers annually. Bill received the prestigious "Humanitarian Award" at the huge Vegas Dance Explosion in November, 2005 with voting by dancers from 16 different countries and mail-in ballots from even more. The award honors "the instructor who has had the most impact on the dance community through their talents, patience and overall compassion for their students." Now fully retired, Bill is enjoying traveling with Grant as much as possible. This web site is kept active except for Line-Links, but that is still a useful resource with lots of linedance information. Bill was born in Pennsylvania but has lived in Vancouver, B.C. on the Pacific Coast of Canada since 1976. He has a master's degree in geography from the University of Michigan. He taught geography at UM (Ann Arbor), then the University of Louisville (Kentucky), and in the University of Hawaii system before moving to Canada.
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CONTACT: billbader@hotmail.com |
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