Partner dancing is growing in popularity as a fun activity that encourages healthy moving and it’s also a great relationship builder
by Jeffrey B. Roth, photography by Bill Ryan
Christine and Paul Heiss practice during a ballroom dance class at Dancing Made Easy in Westminster.
To surprise his wife, Christine, on their 25th wedding anniversary, last May, Paul Heiss enrolled them in dancing lessons.
Paul, 48, and Christine, 50, and fellow students, Andrew, 47, and Sarah Halford, 43, take dance lessons at Dancing Made Easy, located at Fairground Village, in Westminster. The Halfords decided to take lessons in preparation of their wedding.
Both couples fell in love with learning to dance and continue to take lessons with Dave and Lynne Hansel, who have owned the studio since 1997.
Founded by Glenna Lambert, the studio has been part of the local cultural scene since 1986. Lambert continues to teach dance at the studio and attends the public, weekly Friday Night Dance Parties, Dave said.
Like the Heiss’ and the Halfords, many students enroll to prepare for special events, such as weddings, father-daughter and mother son dances, charity balls, company events, before taking a cruise and as holiday gifts, Dave, formerly a senior mechanical designer for Martin Marietta, said in an interview in a backroom, while students danced to contemporary swing music in the spacious studio. Dave and Lynne, a former addictions counselor for the state of Maryland, have been teaching dance for more than two decades.
“Lynne and I both got into dancing as a hobby,” said Dave, who quit his designer job to teach dancing full-time in 1991. (Lynne quit her job in 1995 to teach dancing full-time) “I was doing it just for fun and Lynne was an amateur dancer who did competitions, (U.S. Ballroom Championships, in Florida; the Ohio Star Ball and others), just like you see on Dancing with the Stars. She was quite accomplished at that, so we have a box full of trophies in the basement. I turned professional right a way, where she stayed an amateur for a long time. We met at a dance (fell in love and married in 1996) and the rest is history.”
Dave and Lynne Hansel teach dance class at their studio in Westminster, Dancing Made Easy.
While the majority of their students are social dancers, Lynne said, some students compete in amateur competitions. A few students train with Dave for pro-am competitions. The studio offers lessons in ballroom, Latin and swing dancing, including cha-cha, foxtrot, waltz, tango, salsa, mambo and merengue forms.
On May 1, 1984, post the American Hustle Decade of the 1970s-80s, Dave decided he wanted to be able to dance well enough to go clubbing and ask girls to dance to the music of Michael Jackson and Paula Abdul, so he enrolled in lessons. Eventually, Dave learned that the studio needed instructors and was offering dance instructor training. By 1985, he was teaching dance.
“My grandmother, (Doris Adams), was a dancer in her day,” Lynne said. “She used to do a lot of charity balls and we used to be back in the coatroom, hanging up coats, and we would peek in and see everyone dancing. I always thought it would be fun to dance. I took a class with a friend of mine and absolutely fell in love with it. It was the right fit.”
Glenn Ireland and Lori Cullison, during a ballroom dance class at Dancing Made Easy.
Like the Halfords, typical adult students begin dance lessons with little to no formal dance experience. Andrew, a native of England, said he worked as a DJ in clubs since he was 14. When not spinning records, he’d take to the dance floor for some free-style disco.
“I used to love to dance, but I wasn’t particularly good, but because I knew everybody, I ended up on the podium strutting my stuff,” said Andrew, a development engineer for Honeywell, who married Sarah in August. “Back at the end of last year, when we decided to get married, I told Sarah that I’d really like to learn to dance properly so when we do our first dance, we can do something other than…what my dad used to call the knicker grubber. We came down; did a trial lesson with Alice (Hajjar) and…blow me down if I didn’t fall in love with it.”
Andrew gave Sarah the first lessons as a Christmas gift. The couple, who live in Manchester and have been together for five years, started with swing and the cha-cha. Sarah said the British term for swing is jive. During World War II, American troops stationed in the United Kingdom introduced the jitterbug, a form of swing, to British popular culture.
“Every week, we get to turn off our cell phones, come here and do something together,” Sarah, who runs a high voltage electrical maintenance and testing company, said. “I don’t think a lot of couples do that anymore. They barely eat together…it’s running to soccer practice…for one hour, you don’t have to answer to anybody. And for one hour, he gets to be in charge. I grew up being told that I dance like Elaine on Seinfeld. I was pushed into a corner and told ‘no you can’t do it, you have no rhythm.’”
Sarah, like many others who arrive for their first lesson, felt very intimidated by the prospect of dancing in public. After learning the first basic step, Sarah was told she had rhythm by their instructor. Sophie, Sarah’s 11-year-old daughter, who comes with her mom and new step-dad, said she has picked up a few dance moves. Sophie said she may take lessons when she is older.
Christy, who works for the Nielsen television ratings company as a data scientist, said in middle school she took ballet and jazz. Paul and Christy, of Westminster, have been taking lessons since June. The parents of three “almost grown up” sons, the couple spent many hours taking them to basketball, baseball, football and lacrosse practice—performing the errands and duties of modern parenthood.
“There really wasn’t any time we (Paul and her) spent together,” Christy said. “We saw each other in passing, taking kids to where they needed to be. We were really last on the list.”
For their 25th wedding anniversary, Paul recognized the opportunity to change their relationship dynamics by giving her dancing lessons as a surprise gift. Paul, who also lacked any formal dance training, found the dance studio by chance. After being injured in a car accident, Paul was referred to a chiropractor located in the same strip mall as the studio.
“In early May, I walked in and talked to Dave, who went over the schedule and told me about the upcoming dances and it sounded like a fun idea, so I signed up,” Paul, an engineer with Johns Hopkins, said. “It’s been fantastic. We have a much closer, more intimate relationship. It has become a whole social experience. It’s our best activity all week. We look forward to coming to our classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and we’re disappointed when we can’t come to the dances on Fridays.”
For more information on Dancing Made Easy, visit www.dancingmadeasy.com.
