What it takes to be a tech exec in 2008: You gotta dance. And we're not talking about any competitive dealmaking fancy footwork. This is the real kind, full of sweat and jiggles—a real boogie. A hoedown.

The latest to join in the cha-cha-cha is Jerry Yang, who, as C.E.O. of Yahoo, has some time on his hands these days to really get down, now that Microsoft has backed off, Carl Icahn has grown bored, and the shareholder meeting (and vote and recount) are behind him.

Recently, he threw his hands in the air, twisted and shouted, and finished off his two-step with a triumphant victory pose in a dancing session with Matt Harding (of the Where the Hell is Matt? website, where he can be seen traversing the globe in search of dancing fools).



But for all Yang's smiley vigor and style, he's not the first tech exec to express his enthusiasm in such a manner.

He is preceded by Microsoft C.E.O. Steve Ballmer, whose improvised routine on the stage of a Microsoft conference in 2001 was inspirational for its resemblance to monkey dances, for its Howard Dean-like verbal accompaniment, and, most of all, for its duration.



Of course, Ballmer and Yang are mere hopefuls compared with the ambitious and practiced HDNet founder and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Before a broadcast audience last fall, Cuban chomped down hard on his white-man's overbite, mouthed the words to rapper Nelly’s "Ride Wit Me," clicked his heels in the air, and expressed general "exuberance" (though not skill), according to the judges of Dancing with the Stars.



As dancing is clearly an area tech execs are drawn to, we expect more will follow. In the meantime, let us know which of these three is the best dancer by taking our poll (above on the right).