Thursday, November 29, 2007

Dancer shimmies his way across Golden Gate Bridge

A foghorn sounded on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, followed by the sounds of the big band tune "Hey Big Spender!"

A red and white Capezio tap shoe emerged from the fog, and out popped 75-year-old Michael Grbich of Oakland, Calif., who tap-danced his way across the landmark bridge - just because he could.

Followed by an entourage of confetti-tossing grandchildren, neighbors and a friend with an iPod boom box, Grbich spent 20 minutes dancing the 1.7-mile span, grinning, blowing kisses and striking poses for curious tourists.

He threw in some Rockette kicks, whirled a jump rope over his head like a helicopter, and grabbed the rails to "shimmy shimmy coco pop" toward the traffic like a man too sexy for his shirt, which read: "Celebrating 75 trips around the sun."

Friends who ran ahead to photograph Grbich said this was in perfect sync with his personality. Grbich is a mixed media artist, weightlifter and tightrope walker whose motto is "I risk, therefore I am."

"Whether you are 75 or 25, life is all about taking risks," Grbich said. "That's when you're truly alive - like playing tennis or making love or dancing - you forget everything and lose your self consciousness."

For the full text of the article, click on http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/19/BAJRTF0EN.DTL.

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