Polka Pirate Jimi keeps Minnesota dancing alive

What kind of person can coax shy, different Minnesotans to boogie down on the dance floor? He's a pirate and he calls himself Jimi Jimi Jimi, the Polka Dancing Pirate.

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If there's an Oktoberfest event at the Germanic-American Institute in St. Paul, a polka mass at St. Boniface Catholic Church in northeast Minneapolis or a taping of a public access television polka dance show, Jimi Jimi Jimi will likely be there, dressed as a pirate, ready to polka and ready to teach you how to do it too. “I want to keep the polka music alive the best I can,” said Jimi Jimi Jimi, the Twin Cities’ unofficial polka ambassador.

Jimi Jimi Jimi started life as James Parker, a self-described blue-collar guy from northeast Minneapolis who made cabinets and only danced at weddings.

He used to make his living with his hands, but now he earns money with his feet as a freelance dance instructor. He became a pirate dance instructor after he attended the Minnesota Renaissance Festival dressed like a pirate. He later went in the same outfit to an Oktoberfest event at Gasthof zur Gemutlichkeit in Minneapolis.

He was dancing at the historic German restaurant when someone said, “Hey, there’s a polka dancing pirate!” And a shtick was born.

Parker’s journey to becoming a dance instructor started in 2005, when outsourcing to China killed his main source of income building fixtures for stores and trade shows. He closed his shop and began looking around for something to keep himself active.

He said some of his former employees were from Mexico and he was interested in Latin American culture, especially cumbia dance music.

“I just really loved that music,” he said. So he started taking classes to learn how to dance cumbia, bachata, salsa and other Latin dances.