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Background
Henry is a native Californian, born in Saratoga, CA. in February of 1966. He has spent most of life in Fremont, CA., having graduated from Mission San Jose High School in 1984. In 1997 Henry Graduated from Ohlone College with a degree of Associate In Arts Natural Science with Honors. Presently, Henry is a student at California State University Hayward majoring in Kinesiology. He works as a Physical Therapy Aide at Kaiser Permanente located in Hayward,CA. Henry's career objective is Physical Rehabilitation and he plans to specialize in Pediatric Rehabilitation.
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Beginning of Line Dance
Henry has always been interested in Country and Western dancing. He says both his parents and grandparents danced Country and Western, which may have given him his influence. Henry began taking lessons when his best friend Christine, thought he was studying too hard. She felt that he deserved to have some fun, so she showed him an ad for Swiss Park in the Fremont Argus newspaper. On August 6, 1997 Henry attended his first line dance class at Swiss Park learning "Traveling Four Corners" and "Diamonds Are Forever" and has been hooked ever since. Henry said,"I believe that Neil Hale and Charlotte Skeeters are positive role models to me and I was very fortunate to have them as my instructors". In May of 1999, He premiered his official web site Hopping Mad! Henry Costa's Line Dance Page. Henry also has created the Written/Visual Step Description, which was first seen at the premiere of Hopping Mad! on May 5, 1999 at Swiss Park. The purpose of creating this was to make step descriptions easier to read and to learn from, for the beginner dancer, as well as all level dancers. Henry's dance Velvet Virgin was used at the CWDI'S Mataatua Whipcrackers 1999 in Kawerau, New Zealand as a competition dance.
Henry's Best Year Yet!
Henry's best year was in the year 2000 because of all the wonderful dancers all over the world. Henry has had his line dances taught not only here in the United States but also in England, Netherlands, Canada, Austria, Finland, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand. Henry started the year by attending the 7th Annual Mother Lode Line Dance Festival in Sonora,CA. Henry premiered his newest dance Love Struck Kid which the dancers loved. Also weeks after the event Henry went on a 6 city/5 day dance tour of Southern California between the dates of March 19-24th. Henry taught four of his popular dances: "Hopping Mad!", Inferno, Freedom, and "Love Struck Kid". The tour consisted of the following cities, Tujunga, San Dimas, Costa Mesa, Torrance, Monrovia, and Burbank. Henry stated, "The tour was lots of fun and the dancers of Southern California where wonderful to me, giving warm welcomes in every city I attended".
J.W. Houston's CD Sidewinder & Crystal Boot Awards
After Henry returned from his very successful Southern California Tour he was asked by Stephen Young, J.W Houston's manager to choreograph some dances for J.W.'s upcoming album "Sidewinder" to be released sometime in the summer of 2000. Henry put together two new official dances Cowgirl Mansion and I'm Onto You for the upcoming project. On June 3,2000 Henry premiered the two new dances from J.W. Houston's new album "Sidewinder" at the 4th Annual Boots "N" Buckles Workshop & Dance. This would be the first time that dancers here the Western United States would hear J.W.'s music. The dancers loved J.W. Houston's music and the two new dances Henry choreographed for the album. In July, Dance4U Magazine in the U.K. published Henry's hit dance "Cowgirl Mansion". Also in July, Henry became the line dance instructor at Two Left Feet located in Danville, CA. On August 19&20, Dance Teacher Magazine presented "Teach Healthy Dance Smart" Summer Conference at the Long Beach Hilton in Long Beach, CA. which Henry attended. In November Linedancer Magazine announced nominations for it's Annual Crystal Boot Awards. Henry was nominated for 4 awards including Dance Personality of the Year, International Instructor of the Year, International Choreographer of the Year, and Dance of the Year for "Cowgirl Mansion". Henry was very honored that it was the members of the dancing community, which made the nominations. In May 2001, Dance Teacher Magazine's Dance Wire featured Henry in the article Line Dancer's Boom Year.
Henry's Home Page
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