It was my family who first introduced me to Strictly Come Dancing. In 2004,
while I was in graduate school in London, bouts of homesickness often sent
me to the Middlesex home of my mom’s cousin, Nergish (Nergish Auntie
to me), for weekends filled with comfort food and companionship. Nergish
Auntie’s high-school aged daughter, Renisa, kept me up to date on all things
pop culture. “What do you mean you haven’t seen Strictly Come Dancing?
You have to watch it with me,” she insisted one evening. With judges Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli trading witty remarks, I was instantly hooked. We eagerly voted for our favorite dancers—me on my trusty Nokia 3310, Renisa using not one but two cell phones. When the show crossed the Atlantic in 2005 as Dancing With the Stars, complete with Goodman and Tonioli, I remained a devoted fan. I was delighted when I learned that pro dancer Alan Bersten has ties to Edina.
His brother, Gene Bersten, and sister-in-law, Elena Bersten, own Dance
With Us America, a studio tucked inside Sout
