DANCER TAPS HIS WAY THROUGH LIFE.

Byline: JIM SKEEN Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Seventy-six years after he started tap lessons, George Stergious still just wants to dance.

Stergious, 83, teaches ballroom dancing and, occasionally, tap dancing to senior citizens. For fun, he likes to take his wife of nearly 40 years, Gloria, out two or three nights a week to dance.

``Some people like golf,'' Stergious explained. ``I like to dance.''

Stergious' desire to teach dance was a big factor in the couple's selection of a place to live. They needed someplace near a bus stop so he could get to his Friday night class at the Palmdale senior center and weekly to Culver City and Reseda.

``He leaves at 4 a.m. to go down (to Culver City and Reseda) to teach,'' Gloria Stergious said. ``He gets back at 8 p.m., and he goes by bus. He enjoys it. He doesn't stop. He's like that little (Energizer) bunny.''

Gloria Stergious said her husband is constantly on the go.

``If he's home, he's too tense,'' Gloria Stergious said. ``He can't stand still.''

Stergious grew up in Staten Island, N.Y. He took up dancing at age 7 as the result of early childhood illness, including three bouts of pneumonia.

``I was a sickly child,'' Stergious said. ``My father asked the doctor, `If he takes up tap lessons, would that strengthen him?' The doctor said it might.''

By 15, Stergious was starting to give lessons. He was also performing for a New York radio station.

``We would do tap. People would just hear it on the radio. There was no television in those days,'' Stergious said.

Stergious said he learned some steps from some of the famous dancers of the time, including the Condos brothers, dancers featured in movies of the 1930s and 1940s, including Betty Grable's ``Pin Up Girl.''

For several years, Stergious had his own dance studio. About the time he started teaching dance, Stergious also started to get interested in photography - an interest he would eventually turn into another career.

Always wanting to live in California, Stergious came to the Los Angeles area and established a business in the early 1960s. For 28 years, Stergious owned a photo studio in Los Angeles. It was there he met Gloria, who had come in to have her portrait taken. The couple married in 1967.

``He kept calling to me to come see the proofs. All he wanted was to see me,'' Gloria Stergious said.

The studio business ended as a result of the 1992 riots spurred by the verdicts in the trial of LAPD officers for beating motorist Rodney King, George Stergious said.

``They (rioters) took all my equipment,'' Stergious said. ``(I thought,) what am I going to do? I'll start teaching dance again.'' Rather than spend money to rent his own studio, Stergious decided to offer lessons at senior centers. The couple moved to Palmdale, where they had family, in 2000.

Among the moments Stergious recalls when trying to explain his joy of teaching include a time when he gave a lesson to a woman who used crutches. She cried tears of joy, he said, as he balanced her while she made her first tentative dance steps. In another instance, a man who walked with a cane started taking lessons. As he grew stronger, he relied less and less on the cane.

``It's the will to do something you've always wanted to do,'' Stergious said of those moments. ``It's good therapy.''

Stergious said he has no plans to retire.

``They can put my tap shoes in my coffin with me,'' he said.

james.skeen(at)dailynews

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) George Stergious, 83, his love of dancing undiminished after 76 years, goes cheek to cheek with wife Gloria.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer

(2) At age 15, George Stergious began to teach dance.