How I Got Started with Ballroom - Doris Halleman

When I was in high school in the early 1970’s, two movies came out which I loved. One was The Great Gatsby and the other was American Graffiti. Both had dancing. In The Great Gatsby they danced The Charleston and the Tango and in American Graffiti they danced Swing. I asked my mother if I could take dance lessons to learn these dances. She said okay. Unfortunately, we lived in a small town in Idaho and ballroom dancing was out of fashion at the time. We called the few studios in town but no one could teach these dances.

One studio suggested I take Jazz dancing classes. I was not sure what Jazz dancing was but it sounded like something from the Roaring 20’s so I agreed. A friend and I enrolled in the class. What a mistake! It was nothing like the dancing I wanted to do and I was in a class with people who had been dancing since they were very young! I stayed a few weeks before dropping out. I still wanted to learn to dance but didn’t do anything about it.

Over the years I gained a lot of weight. Occasionally we would get invited to weddings or parties where there was dancing. I would always think “I am going to lose weight and take dance lessons”. Finally I did join Weight Watchers and lost about 80 pounds. About this time I saw that our local Recreation Center was offering beginning Ballroom Dance lessons. My husband and I signed up.

It was a lot more work than I imagined it would be. We didn’t have anywhere to practice since our house was all carpeted except the kitchen and bathrooms and they were too small. So we practiced on the deck to the neighbors’ amusement. After the class at the Recreation Center ended, we signed up for private lessons at a local studio and have been dancing ever since (approximately 3 ½ years total now). We are now Silver level in most dances. About a year after starting dancing, we ripped up the carpet in our living room, refinished the hardwood floor, got rid of all the furniture, and turned it into a practice area.

I continued to lose weight and have lost and kept off 130 pounds for over 2 ½ years. My husband lost and has kept off 65 pounds. I believe this is partly due to ballroom dancing. My husband and I take private lessons twice a week and go out dancing several nights each week. He started a blog about our ballroom dancing. This is the link:

Doris Halleman
Woodbridge, VA

Doris's Link

http://rhumbadervish.blogspot.com/