Joe Corrigan, middle, talks with Mike, left, and Sheryl Miller, right, both of Sharon, as Sharon and Paul Rigali, back left, practice their steps during a West Coast Swing night at the BALE Commons in South Royalton, Vt., Friday, November 4, 2016. Corrigan has been trying to organize swing events in South Royalton and elsewhere in the White River Valley since moving to the area to study at Vermont Law School in May, 2015. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
Joe Corrigan, middle, talks with Mike, left, and Sheryl Miller, right, both of Sharon, as Sharon and Paul Rigali, back left, practice their steps during a West Coast Swing night at the BALE Commons in South Royalton, Vt., Friday, November 4, 2016. Corrigan has been trying to organize swing events in South Royalton and elsewhere in the White River Valley since moving to the area to study at Vermont Law School in May, 2015. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. Credit: Valley News — James M. Patterson

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAMES M. PATTERSON — STORY BY LIZ SAUCHELLI

South Royalton — Joe Corrigan says he isn’t good with words, that it can be difficult for him to communicate with others. But when he dances, that changes.

“It’s so special,” said Corrigan, 55, a student at Vermont Law School. “I am much better communicating with dance than with my tongue. I don’t have the genes to be a great speaker. … Dancing is just natural to me.”

Since arriving at VLS by way of the University of Pittsburgh in May 2015, Corrigan has been introducing swing dancing to the community and gives free lessons nearly every Friday night lessons at The Commons @ BALE (Building A Local Economy).

Mike and Sheryl Miller, of Sharon, attended one of those lessons earlier this month. “It was wonderful,” Sheryl Miller said. “It was low key, low pressure. It was fun.”

Mike Miller has a traumatic brain injury and often uses a cane while out in public. At the dance lesson, however, he didn’t need it. “He enjoyed it,” Sheryl Miller said. “It gave him a sense of accomplishment because he always said he wasn’t a dancer, but he did really well that night and I was very proud of him.”

Sheryl Miller said Corrigan kept encouraging her and her husband to try different steps. “He never lost patience and was very reinforcing,” Sheryl Miller said.

That’s exactly the kind of environment Corrigan said he hopes to create with his lessons.

He started swing dancing in September 1998 at nightclub in Long Branch, N.J. Before he knew it, he was traveling from his Staten Island home to Manhattan to take lessons. His favorite style quickly became West Coast swing.

“I never turned back,” he said. “I went all the time.”

Throughout his 18 years of dancing, Corrigan has danced with hundreds of people and never fails to connect with each one. He recalled encountering a woman at dance gathering who looked sad, so he made it his mission — through dancing — to make her smile.

“It is my challenge to brighten up her day. Ninety-nine percent of the time I can make them start laughing.” Corrigan said. “I can get people out of their gloomiest moods within two minutes of dancing with them.”

Dancing provides a reprieve from the pressures of law school as well.

“When I dance, I never think of my problems,” Corrigan said. “I don’t think about the tests next week. I don’t think about my presentation two weeks from now. … It’s pure exhilaration.”

It’s a feeling he hopes to share with others through his free lessons, which are held Friday nights, from 5-7 p.m., at BALE, located at 35 S. Windsor St. For more information, email Corrigan at rstpitt@gmail.com.

Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.