Rosendo Fumero

Rosendo Fumero began dancing during the disco days, when Saturday Night Fever was the rage. He learned how to disco and then from there, wanted to learn more. He made his way into the Ballroom field and become addicted to it.
He began taking lessons at the Lansing Community College in Michigan. At that time, a Fred Astaire Studio in the area was also looking for teachers. Rosendo figured, the studio has training for free and he’d learn for free. That was when he got hooked on Ballroom and met his partner, Terry Worral.

Rosendo and Terry danced from 1984 to 1990, competing in the Professional Division right away. They started in 1984 and were Rising Star American Smooth Champions by 1985. Then, they became 3-time United States American Smooth Champions from 1988 to 1990.

Rosendo shares the most interesting thing about competing Professionally was:

“Winning! Everything was geared towards winning. You couldn’t take second. Second was not good. The one thing I regret was not having fun or enjoying the journey there. To me everything was so geared to, “you gotta be the best”, “you gotta win”.”
Rosendo

The couple had coaching all the time, but Rosendo says that it was never enough.

“Whenever we’d have coaching, it was like, let’s take advantage of it. When we had a coach at the school, they couldn’t walk across the floor without me stopping them and asking them questions. I had to learn everything about everything.”
Rosendo

Rosendo’s coaches included Vernon Brock, Linda Dean, and Rufus Dustin. These were his choreographer-type coaches. He also trained with Kerry Wilson, Jo and Jan, and Alan Cleary. Then he went to England and worked with Jenny & Marion Welsh as well as Karen and Marcus Hilton. This was back when it was kind of unheard of for an American couple to go to England to get coaching, but that is where the couple got a lot of their influence, working with those Standard and Latin instructors. They also worked with Bobby Medeiros, Shirley Ballas, and Enrique Ramon.

Rosendo was also coaching all the way throughout his competitive dance career.

“When you’re the champion, you go to schools and coach others. But, I didn’t really want to leave the studio I was at yet because I was working for Vernon Brock, who was basically the god of dance. Even as two years running champions, I wanted to learn more from him. The last year when he was sick, that’s when I started to venture out more and started traveling and doing more coaching. And back then, I was only coaching, not [judging yet, because I was still dancing Professionally, so I couldn’t judge. You could judge small showcases competitions that weren’t sanctioned.
Rosendo

Career after Dance
Rosendo also holds his Fellowship Degree in American Smooth, American Rhythm, International Style Standard, International Style Latin as well as in Theater Arts. He travels extensively throughout the United States lecturing, coaching and adjudicating.
Rosendo Fumero is also the organizer of the Virginia State DanceSport Championships held annually in Reston, Virginia in July.