John R. Edwards

John Rick Edwards took up hip hop dancing in 2000 at a gym as a way to keep fit as his age advanced: He was 55. His teacher, DHQ, was a former back up dancer with MC Hammer so he got good and funky with old school hip hop and R&B. On a lark he auditioned for ABC-TV's Dance Machine in 2008 and to his surprise got on the show and won it -- the prize: $100,000. In 2009 Tricia Gomez, owner of Hype Dance Studio in Torrance asked him to teach a hip hop class for seniors. In 2010 he retired from his job as Deputy Director of Engineering for the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. The same year he and his son, Darwin, won $10,000 on CMT's Your Chance to Dance competition. He appeared in M.C. Hammer's AETV viral YouTube video "Hammer Pants Dance" and more recently in a Flash Mob on Modern Family. He studied Michael Jackson's dance with Phillip Dang, and took classes from Rino Nakasone and Anthony Thomas. JRick appeared with Jackson's choreographer, Travis Payne in a Flashmob to raise m