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Bill Nye the Science Guy thinks he’s a dork on the dance floor

Sep 16, 2013, 4:38 PM | Updated: Sep 17, 2013, 12:10 pm

Bill Nye the Science guy, who started his career in Seattle as a Boeing engineer, and his partner Tyne Stecklein on "Dancing with the Stars." (Photo courtesy ABC)

(Photo courtesy ABC)

Seattle’s Bill Nye understands molecules, not moves.

Instead of demonstrating his quick wit about science, he’s learning the quick step.

The lab coat is gone and dance shoes are on as he competes in “Dancing with the Stars.”

“There’s nervous, and then there’s this other level, which, I think we would go with terrified,” says Bill Nye in an interview before the premiere Monday night.

The ballroom is a stretch from Boeing, where the 57-year-old began his career.

Nye starred in training films and developed a hydraulic pressure resonance suppressor still used in the Boeing 747. Later, he worked as a consultant in the aeronautics industry.

Many people in the Northwest know him for his role that started on the sketch comedy show “Almost Live!”

He attempted to correct the show host’s pronunciation of “gigawatt” as “jigowatt.” The host responded, “Who do you think you are, Bill Nye the Science Guy?”

He went on to explain science to a generation of kids through Disney programing as Bill Nye the Science Guy.

More recently, he warned that creationist views threaten science education and innovation in the United States.

Now, he’s doing the foxtrot, waltz, tango and Pasadoble with other stars to win a coveted, though cheesy looking mirrorball trophy.

“I watch myself on video, I’m so bad. It’s extraordinary,” he says in an interview with CBS. “The guy has such horrible posture, he’s so pigeon-toed. How can he even move around on the Earth? He’s so uncoordinated.”

Though clumsy, Nye says he loves to swing dance and do the jive.

Monday night, he performed the cha-cha-cha. British judge Len Goodman says the performance was like being waxed because “it was painful while it happened and lovely when it’s over.”

Out of a possible 30 points from the judges, Nye and his partner received 14. Even so, he’s not discouraged.

“I’m in it to win it, people,” he says.
As seen on the competition dance show last night, Nye’s dance wardrobe includes plenty of his signature bow ties.

By LINDA THOMAS

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Bill Nye the Science Guy thinks he’s a dork on the dance floor