Marcus and Bärbl are dancing together now for six years. Marcus started with ballroom dancing at the age of 18. He was successful in some competitions before he discovered his heart for Boogie Woogie about ten years ago. He saw the movies "Hellzapoppin'" with Frankie Manning and "Don't knock the rock" with Gil Bradey. From this time on he was really obsessed. That was it he would like to learn. There was no more time left for ballroom dancing. He started competing and later also teaching Boogie Woogie.

At this time the Boogie Woogie scene was growing up in Munich. A lot of the good dancers promised him that he never will become a good dancer because of his stiffness in his body from ballroom dancing. They thought he won't get this grooving feeling you really need for Boogie Woogie. But he always had a lot of fun with this dance. As time went by and with much training and a lot of dancing he succeeded to lay aside the stiffness. And the people started to change their minds.

Marcus was also one man of the first hour who started building up the Boogie Woogie in The German Rock'n'Roll- and Boogie-Woogie-Federation in his function as a sports manager. From the beginning he traveled together with his partner throughout Germany to bring the Boogie in every corner of the country. Until now there are no big changes but today he travels together with Bärbl all over the world.

Remark: The term Boogie Woogie is used for various styles of swing which have their roots in the 50ies style of Rock 'n' Roll. In Competitions Boogie Woogie is danced to original music of the late 40ies and 50ies with emphasis on an improvised interpretation of the music without a fixed choreography.

Bärbl is now his fourth partner. Her Boogie life began 9 years ago when she came to the Boogie-Baren club. Before she attended social dance classes at a dance school. She always had a lot of fun with dancing. In 1989 Marcus began to built up the first Boogie Woogie formation. She was a part of it. In the show there was a figure in which Marcus had to be turned upside down. At this time she was the only Lady that was capable to do so. Soon after Marcus was looking for a new partner again and wanted to go to Sweden in 1991 to learn the Lindy Hop. She joined him and they started dancing together as a couple.

They have a lot of experience in competing and teaching. They won five times in a row the German Championship, have been World Champion 1993, World Vice Champion 1995 and 1997, and won tons of other National Titles. They received the Feather Award 1996 (Dancers' Choice) for "The Most Outstanding Global Swing Dancer" and again 1997 for "The best swing dancers outside the USA".

They are teaching now all around the world. They have been in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Norway, France, on Djerba, at the Swing Master Jam in London, several times in Herrang/Sweden, in the USA (L. A., Washington D.C. , Virginia, New York, Minneapolis, Seattle, Catalina Island, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Pasadena etc.). They are teaching Boogie Woogie, Lindy Hop, 30ies Jazz, Charleston and music interpretation. Many times they are educating other dance teachers. For 10 years now, Marcus and Bärbl are also part of the organization committee of the famous international Boogie Baren Witsun-Tide camp which set a fantastic record in being sold out after 3 days with 500 students.

"We are very proud that we got the chance to learn a lot from the "old" dancers from the West Coast and East Coast. So we worked on the 40's and 50's style from the West Coast together with Gil Bradey (our idol from the movie "Don't knock the rock"), Lee Laitz and Bob Hefner (they worked a lot with Dean Collins), Jean Veloz, Freda Angela (our female idols from several movies), John Hudson and a lot more we met there."

"But we also love dancing the Lindy Hop from the East Coast. Our big idol from the 30's and 40's Frankie Manning (Hellzapoppin') and people like Ryan Francois, Steven Mitchell, The Rhythm Hot Shots, Rob van Haaren, Jann Olsen, Erin Stevens and Craig Hutchinson have been a great help in our dance-life."

"It's still a lot fun for us to dance, show and teach it to other people."

With an excellent synthesis of Boogie Woogie, Lindy Hop and West Coast they formed their own style with their own outstanding character. This unique character made them so popular and let them win many competitions.