Herb and Rosalie Rosen have been known throughout the West Coast Swing dance community as “The Dynamic Duo” and “Mom and Dad” of Swing dancing for many years. Their passion for dance and generosity to everyone is an inspiring story filled with love, kindness, consideration, and dedication.
Let’s start with Rosalie, for she started teaching Tap and Swing at various studios back in 1941. She met Herb in March of 1948, at the Bill Williams Dance Studio and the “Dynamic Duo” was born. They married on June 30, 1949 and honeymooned on Catalina Island where they entered a Jitterbug contest and won first place. This was the beginning of a forty-year success record in local and national Swing competitions – last competing in 1989.
Over the years, they attended many clubs like the “Casino Gardens” and the famous “Palladium”. They can remember going out almost every night and then getting up early for work. Eventually, they bought a home and converted it into a party house with a beautiful thirty-foot ballroom they named the “Rosenland Ballroom.” They threw fabulous dance parties that people will long remember and opened their ballroom to many dance teachers, free of charge.
They have been continually involved in the promotion of Swing since the day they met. Rosalie continued to teach Swing, Tap, Ballroom, and drama at the Shenandoah St. School for the L.A. Board of Education, and at the Hollywood Professional School, and she organized Swing dancing shows for several Hospitals.
They danced professionally at the “Casa Manna”, “Meadowbrook Gardens”, “Zuccas Opera House”, and the “Paris Inn”, and have judged many Swing contests over the years. They danced on several T.V. shows: “Eye on L.A.”, “Two on the Town”, and “Channel 28.” When the July, 1988 issue of the Seniors Life Newspaper ran their picture with the headline, “Back to Swing” they ended up introducing over 100 people to Swing. Dance Action Magazine presented an article about them that inspired young dancers to start the “Next Generation” dance club.
Most outstanding about Herb and Rosalie Rosen is their efforts to promote Swing have always been non-profit. Everything they’ve done, including spending their own money, is purely out of love for the dance and the dancers. They help raise money for dance events; they welcome out-of-town dancers to stay at their home; they help dancers with car troubles; they treat everyone like family – the list seems endless.
On February, 1990 UCCA sponsored a Swing Dance Ball at the “Alpine Village” and presented their annual “Build a Better America” award to Senator Quentin Kopp for authoring Senate Bill 2460, making West Coast Swing our State Dance. Rosalie played an important part in this achievement, for when Senator Roberti refused to pass it out of his committee, Walter Harman asked her to see what she could do. She succeeded in knowing the right people.