Dancing With the Geneva Stars: Meet Laura Rush and Derek Swanson

• Editor's note: The official, online voting for Dancing with the Geneva Stars begins Jan. 3. Be sure to vote often, because your votes raise funds and help determine the winning dance team! In the meantime, you can get familiar with the couples by reading this series of profiles and warm up by voting in our unofficial Geneva Patch poll.

While Derek and Laura are both married, they're the only unmarried couple dancing this year.

Both dancing team members are 1986 graduates of Geneva High School and known each other for 30 years. Laura’s husband, Rick, grew up across the street from Derek. They are best friends, and Derek was one of the groomsmen in Laura’s wedding party.

Derek’s wife apparently breaks out in hives if she has to speak, dance or even act in front of a live audience, so being a gentleman, Derek caved to Laura’s enthusiasm about the event and search for a dance partner, which she was not able to find in her husband.

“I felt it was my duty to step up to the plate and help out a great friend. Our spouses were all cool with it, and I like the attention (as much as Laura does),” Derek said.

Laura is the communications manager at the and spends much of her time doing PR for Geneva tourism and festivals. In the past, she has served a board member of the Geneva Academic Foundation, she was a PTO president at and , she is a current co-vice president of the Geneva High School PTO, and she has volunteered in multiple ways with Geneva schools over the past 10 years. Laura says she is “all about supporting Geneva and especially anything to do with our schools.”

Derek independently owns and operates his remodeling business in Geneva, D. Swanson Sales and Installations, Inc. He has owned the business for more than 15 years, and though it has been challenging for him, he says it has been rewarding, as well. Similar to Laura, Derek has been heavily involved in the community. He is a past member of GAF, he has helped as an assistant varsity football coach at , he currently coaches youth sports for the Tri-City Chargers Football Association, and he assists with the track program at .

Laura has been a life-long resident of Geneva and is a fifth-generation graduate of Geneva High School. Laura has two children with her husband, Rick. Megan is a 15-year-old sophomore at Geneva High School, who is a Lady Vikings golfer and Derik is a 13-year-old in eighth grade at Geneva Middle School South who plays travel soccer. Their other “children” include two golden retrievers named Killian and Rooney. Laura loves to relax by walking the dogs, working out and spending time with her children.

Derek has lived in Geneva all of his life. He would rather not admit to his age, but he will admit that he weighs 198 pounds, is a Virgo, wears silk boxers and likes “long walks on the beach under the moonlight with a fruity drink with an umbrella in it.”

Derek has two children, Quincy and Luke. Quincy is a freshman at Geneva High School and Luke is in seventh grade at Geneva Middle School South. Both children are involved in sports year round and keep him and his wife very busy. Derek also is a proud father of a Boston Terrier named Bruno, whom he claims is an aspiring dancer as well. When he is able to spend time with his family, he loves to travel and play golf so long as no one knows the score.

Derek said that he decided to remain in Geneva because he has such fond memories growing up here. Besides that, he doesn’t “need a GPS to find his way around.” His favorite part about living in the community is the amount of participation the community commits to its well-being.

“People take pride in living here,” Derek said. “You can see it in parent involvement in schools, downtown festivals, booster clubs, growth in businesses and the cleanliness of the environment everywhere you go.”

He loves hanging out anywhere in Geneva because it has always been his home. “When I hit the city limits, I know this was where I was born, grew up … where I started my own family, and where my friends are," he said. "It’s just an awesome town!”

Derek has attended all of the previous events and has loved each one. “I get a chance to see people I haven’t seen in years, re-acquaint with old friends, and get a well-choreographed show that is amazing to witness,” he said.

So long as Kevin Burns remains the MC, Derek believes the show will always be interesting. When Derek found out that he would be dancing with Laura, he was a little shocked, but now feels honored to be involved. He feels the event will allow him to give something back to the community and help him to show off his “Dance-Dance Revolution” skills from his X-Box practice sessions with his kids.

Derek has been involved in community stage performances in acting roles, he has done stand-up comedy and insists that “there has always been this tiny dancer inside of me waiting to just shed his skin and spread his wings and yell out to the world, ‘Now I gotta cut loose … Footloose!’ I really hope I don’t blow this thing!”

He prefers music with lyrics he can actually understand, and songs that are not entirely redundant. Thus, he is not very intrigued by today’s pop music, but he is inspired by a lesser known musician named, Zamfir, Master of the Pan Flute.

So, can Derek really dance? Rumor has it that he can, and was once enrolled in a class at the Geneva Park District with his wife. However, he prefers dancing at weddings when alcohol and food are involved or dancing in front of the mirror in Tom Cruise fashion with just his dress shirt, socks and underwear on holding a candlestick as a microphone.

Laura attended the first and third years of Dancing with the Geneva Stars and she is looking forward to being the first “non-couple” in Dancing with the Geneva Stars. She loves to listen to '80s music, and she loves to dance. She took lessons as a girl, then again as a senior in high school, where she was also a on the pom pon team. She admits that she can still perform the pom routine to the Geneva Fight Song.

Laura has been waiting to be a performer in Dancing with the Geneva Stars for a few years, but when asked last year, her husband firmly said, “No.” So Laura was happy to have found a partner in Derek. In her own words, “I know my husband is breathing a sigh of relief that Derek said yes to me when I asked him to dance. We may not be the best dancers, but I bet we have the most Geneva spirit!”

This profile is courtesy of the Dancing With the Geneva Stars committee. The benefit helps the  and the . The 2012 competition will be held Feb. 4 at .