Paul Collins began dancing with his parents at the age of eight and has been an ethnic folk dance leader and square/contra dance caller since high school. While dancing with his parents' adult group, he had the opportunity to call his first square dance at the age of 12.

Paul has been a guest teacher and caller at dances from the North Country to the Deep South and has even called squares and taught folk dancing for the hearing impaired at Gallaudet University in Washington. DC.

Paul led the University of Chicago Folk Dance Club for many years and introduced squares and contras into the group's repertoire. After directing the U of C Folk Dancers' Annual Fall "International Folk Festival" for twelve years, Paul joined Gerhard Bernhard in producing the Door County Folk Festival (www.dcff.net) and two years later became a festival co-director.
 
Paul and Bill Sasso started the Mid-North Folk Dance Club that has evolved into Ethnic Dance Chicago (www.ethnicdance.net) and Ethnic Dance Connection (www.ethnicdance.org).

Through Ethnic Dance Connection, Paul presents ethnic dance programs for students in elementary, middle and high schools, in colleges in universities, and in tutoring programs and scouting and community organizations.

Paul offers residency programs to select schools, where he helps students prepare ethnic dance presentations for their school's International Festivals, Multi-Cultural Fairs, Diversity Days, etc.

Beyond the the world of dance, Paul is a strategic consultant who helps organizations implement innovation by integrating collaborative technologies with collective decision-making strategies. He is an interpersonal communications strategies coach and is a founder and director of the Midwest Facilitators' Network and the Chicago Chapter of the International Association of Facilitators.

With the start of the pandemic in 2020, Paul moved to virtual dancing and founded the Virtual Dance Room (www.virtualdanceroom.net). Since then he has recruited highly capable teams of dance leaders and musicians to deliver high quality and high fun virtual dance events on Fridays and 3rd Saturdays. From 2020 to 2022, Paul and company produced three virtual editions of the Door County Folk Festival. Since 2023,DCFF has evolved into a hybrid event (in-person and Zoom). In 2025, Paul and Janelle Peotter organized a fundraising campaign that raised over $10K to purchase a SnapLock portable dance floor for festival use. In 2026, Paul negotiated the “deal” that transferred custody of the portable dance floor to Sturgeon Bay High School – the new host for the festival.