Growing up on the Gulf Coast of Florida in the mid-century, Richard Dance led a pretty normal middle-class life. But there were some astonishing turning points early on that propelled him into unexpected adventures. Read about it all in his short, entertaining autobiography, Stumbling to Enlightenment, available in paperback, kindle, and audiobook. (BOOKS). 

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Richard holds multiple degrees in economics, business, philosophy, and religion. His first careers after college were in international construction and commercial real estate valuation. He lived abroad for many years, working in multi-cultural environments and traveling to over twenty nations on six continents. Richard cultivated a parallel career path as a journeyman guitar player for fifty years, performing around the globe...USA, Europe, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Mexico, and Australia.

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At midlife, Richard returned to the academy to study philosophy, mythology, depth psychology, and religion, earning a masters degree. He then taught and advised at several colleges for about ten years, also counseling privately and conducting retreats. His main influences were the Axial Period philosophers of the classical East & West and their important interpreters.  He wrote four books over his teaching career, which became required reading for his various classes. Some of his philosophical counseling work is also published in the HarperCollins bestseller, Plato Not Prozac by Lou Marinoff, now translated into twenty-seven languages.

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After a decade in the academy, Richard returned to real estate as a cultural creative, using his market knowledge from prior careers in construction, valuation, and finance to began urban pioneering, adapting old structures to creative new uses.

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He also returned to the field of music, transitioning from live performing to songwriting and composing for the film/TV industry, with hundreds of songs signed to music publishers from Los Angeles to New York.