Dancing the night away

Beat thumping, feet gliding, bodies locked in the frame. Ballroom dancing has swept back into mainstream as exercise, social activity, even television programming.

There are hundreds of ballroom dance societies and St. Louis is home to the Casa Loma Ballroom, one of the original big band ballroom venues of the 1930s and '40s. Southeast Missouri State University and area fitness centers offer ballroom dance classes that fill up as soon as they open.

Ballroom dancing can burn calories, strengthen bones, increase cardiovascular stamina and help people socialize. Though the waltz typically comes to mind when "ballroom dance" enters conversation, the term encompasses several dances and variations upon those steps.

The waltz, yes, but also the rumba, samba, swing, tango, mambo, the cha-cha and the fox trot are all considered ballroom dances.

"Most people are familiar now with these dances because of 'Dancing with the Stars,'" said Pam Gershuny, referring to ABC's hit show that pairs celebrities with professional dancers. She teaches an eight-week ballroom dance class at Fitness Plus.

"It's a super way to meet really nice people," she said. "Everyone gets to relax and concentrate on dancing for an hour."

Gershuny moved to Cape Girardeau from Cincinnati to take a position as a business law professor at Southeast Missouri State University. She started teaching the class as a way to meet new people.

Dancing strengthens the core muscles because dancers have to keep form while they move about the floor. Gershuny said it's also good for improving posture in a world where "in everyday life we hunch over computers and desks."

Dancing can burn as many calories as walking, swimming or riding a bicycle, according to the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education & Research.

Her class starts in September, and the waiting list already has several names on it.

"A lot of people are wanting to take it just to learn the dances and get a different form of exercise," said Toni Craft, fitness class coordinator for Fitness Plus. She said the classes are a great time for couples.

"We try to keep it on Friday nights, so it's kind of like a date for people," she said.

Gershuny said single people also attend the class and sometimes one part of a couple does not come, so people usually have partners. At times, she fills in as either partner. You learn the steps, dance a song and change partners at the end, she said.

People "from all walks of life" attend the class and, unlike more vigorous forms of exercise, dancing can be done by anyone. One student, Harry Blanton, is in his early 70s and has completed two of the ballroom dancing courses.

"I like to dance, and I'm a little bit rusty, I guess," Blanton said. He hadn't been dancing lately and wanted to "refresh" his steps.

Blanton went "also to meet some new people and just get out and do some socializing," he said.

He knew almost all the dances -- except the rumba -- and said he like the swing dancing portion of the class.

"We used to call it jitterbug when I was a kid."

Swing stepped back out onto the dance floor in the mid-1990s when younger bands began covering big band music. The Brian Setzer Orchestra cover of Louis Prima's hit "Jump, Jive an' Wail" and the explosion of the Big Bad Voodoo Daddies brought swing and big band music to the new generation.

"The swing dance that people know today is really the jitterbug from the Roaring '20s," said Jerry Ford of the Jerry Ford Orchestra. "It's essentially the same dance steps with a fast tempo and high energy, but now it's swing."

The term jitterbug, he said, is dated.

The Jerry Ford Orchestra plays big band music mainly at special private events like high school class reunions, weddings or anniversaries.

"We've seen an emergence of ballroom dancing and activities and events where people do some ballroom dancing," Ford said.

He said shows like "Dancing with the Stars" have also made ballroom dancing more glamorous and fun, but that in true Hollywood-fashion, it's slightly unrealistic.

The orchestra travels to play many of its shows because most communities would not be able to support a ballroom dance venue, Ford said. The events are typically reserved for special occasions.

"It's still alive, and it's still viable, but it's not kind of in the mass that it was in one time," he said.

As a theme for a nightclub, ballroom dancing may not be a viable option, but as a class curriculum it is wildly popular at Southeast.

Katrina Wallace has taken over the class this semester and was told the classes were "always packed."

"I think it's a common ground," she said. Last semester's class catered to people ages 18 to 72.

"It's something that you can do socially. It gives you contact with the outside world, and it's fun, and it's exercise," she said.

The side-to-side motion of many dances can strengthen bones and researchers have attached pedometers to square dancers and found each person covered nearly five miles in a single evening, according to the Mayo Clinic.

charris@semissouiran.com

335-6611, extension 246