Sherry Lawson Martin has been dancing for over forty years and has been teaching West Coast Swing for over twenty years. In the summer of 1983 she met Dave and Betty Miller at “Stingers Lounge” who encouraged her to join the Southside Dance Club. She danced in her first competition with Bobby Hawkins that fall at Northside Missouri State. In 1984, her real inspiration came when she saw Barry Jones and Judy Ford dance to “It’s Raining Men” at her first Midwest Challenge event.

Sherry has competed, taught, and judged all over the country. Dancing is a major part of her life, which she loves to share with others. She has been blessed with some wonderful awards, including the National Swing Dance Hall of Fame; Dallas Dance Hall of Fame; Midwest Swing Dance Hall of Fame; the U. S. Open Humanitarian Award; and Member of the Year at her local club. She says, “The best feeling in the world is being recognized by your peers!” And, she has learned over the years that every dancer in the audience is on the performer’s side – “Everyone wants you to do your best.”

Sherry has won so many competitions, the list below does not include them all. When asked why she has competed so much, she says she loves to perform and is a real ham. She compares performing on the dance floor to the rush one gets riding the Screaming Eagle. She also loves the friends, fun, exercise, knowledge, and travel that dancing has brought into her life. She teaches because she has taken so many dance classes that she feels she has a lot to share, and she we ars her U.S. Open and Dallas Dance Hall of Fame rings always, “They’re my diamonds!”

A little know fact about Sherry is that she’s a fairly good artist and is a real “house mouse” because she loves to cook, sew, and garden. She hopes the dance community will continue to grow and try new things, with dancers incorporating the best of every form of Swing into their dance. As Sherry puts it, “Life is a process of change and growth, and dancing should be the same.”