October 27, 2008
Our People
Profile: Erdem Topsakal
About six years ago, Erdem Topsakal attended a ballroom dance club meeting at the University of Michigan. It changed not only his life, but a little bit of MSU forever.
"I was sitting there just watching, admiring people dance, and all of a sudden they started playing rumba," remembers Topsakal. "I looked at people dancing. It was great. I felt something in my heart—I have to do this."
And do it, he did. He not only learned to rumba, but to salsa, hustle and swing, as well.
Now as an assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering, Erdem has continued to indulge his passion while seeking to introduce the graceful art to the MSU student body. In the spring of 2005, Topsakal and secondary education major Lauren Blumkin, now a graduate student, helped start the university's first Ballroom Dancing Club.
"That thing about ballroom dance not being for young people is just a myth," he says with passion. "There is a lot in ballroom dancing besides waltz. Especially for the younger generation, there is salsa, there's cha-cha, there is hustle. Those are great dances. Every club that you go to, you can dance."
Next week . . . Shaz Akram !
