Gary Coyne

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Inactive
Hungarian
Hungarian, international

Gary Coyne

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Gary S. Coyne, lives in the Los Angeles, California, area, where danced for many years. He taught several well-received Hungarian cycle dances at camps and workshops in California.

Professionally, Gary has been a scientific glassblower at California State University (CSU) in Los Angeles for more than twenty years. Gary is secretary of the Southern California region of the American Scientific Glassblowers Society and coordinates the Society's web site and member's listserve. Gary writes reviews for AppleLinks.com.

As a kid Gary wanted to be a doctor, by high school he was considering a career in prosthetics, and by college he decided to be an oceanographer. However, while in college, he got into folk dancing for extracurricular activity and directed a Hungarian dance troupe. One of the dances he wanted the women to perform was a bottle dance where the women balance a bottle on their heads. The shape of an ethnic style of bottle is very similar to a one liter Erlenmeyer flask, but Erlenmeyer flasks have flat bottom's which don't lie on heads very well. Gary needed the flask's bottom "sucked in" a bit to better fit on the dancer's heads. Gary went to a chemistry professor, who had a small one-unit glass blowing class, and asked him whether it was possible to do what was needed. The two successfully sucked in the bottom of one Erlenmeyer flask, but, to use the equipment himself to make more, he had to formally take the one-unit class.

After several months of watching Gary work with glass, the professor suggested Gary go into professional glassblowing. After exploring what potential jobs were available to someone with a BS in Oceanography, Gary finished his degree and went straight into scientific glassblowing. That was over 30 years ago and he's been a professional scientific glassblower ever since.

Outside of glassblowing, Gary is married to Mara, an attorney, and has a son, Andy, a high school student. Aside from family activities, Gary is usually on his Mac or in the garage building things out of wood or on his Mac designing websites. Gary is also an author; he wrote "The Laboratory Companion," which provides broad information on the materials, equipment, and techniques used in the laboratory. The folk dancing is now all in the past.

Gary has produced several fine recordings of the Hungarian music to which he taught. They are not only great for doing the dances he taught, but wonderful for listening, too. Contact Gary for a list of recordings and prices.

Gary's articles and publications include

Dances Gary has taught include Pusztafalusi Csárdás, Pusztafalusi Körtánc és Sétáló, and Széki Táncrend.