Dancing without the stars
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like they do in ballroom,” says Kim Beachy, who teaches West Coast Swing on Tuesday nights in the basement of Jerome United Methodist Church. Beachy likens West Coast to “dancing on a railroad track, with the female dancing between the tracks and the male dancing on the rails. He has to get out of her way as she moves forward and backward in the slot.”
Beachy, whose day job is with the State Board of Education, has studied dance since childhood and began teaching professionally about eight years ago. She says West Coast Swing is her passion. So much so that she sometimes travels to distant cities for weekends of training with top professional dancers. She competes on the professional level in places like Chicago and St. Louis where its not unusual for 1,000 people to show up for workshops and competitions.
Why the West Coast Swing fever? Beachy thinks its the dance’s versatility.
“People realize they can dance it to B.B.
King’s music or The Black Eyed Peas. Whatever you like to hear, it works with West Coast and changes the way you dance it. I love ballroom, but done correctly you never really look at your partner. In West Coast it’s more casual — you’re face to face.”
Unlike Lyttaker, Beachy requires everyone in her classes to change partners continuously, regardless of their relationship.
“I think you’re a better dancer if you concentrate only on what you’re doing. Couples who dance just with each other tend to focus on what the other person is doing, and not as much on their own dancing. This way it cuts down on arguments, and people’s skills improve more quickly.”
Gene Weiser, a retired musician and restaurant owner, says he used to watch other people dance but didn’t take an interest in learning himself until about 12 years ago. What started as merely something to do turned into a major hobby that motivates him to take water aerobics classes five days a week so he can keep his legs and ankles strong for dancing.
Weiser met his wife, Sharon, both age 60, taking Lyttaker’s classes. It’s one of four weddings and 14 engagements that Lyttaker credits to her classes.
Both Sharon and Gene are helpers for Lyttaker’s and Beachy’s classes and Beachy and Gene recently competed as a couple in a pro/am at the Chicago Dance Camp. The pair finished third in a large field of dancers.
“People ask me if I mind Gene dancing with other women,” says Sharon. “I tell them I was single for 27 years so I know what it’s like to sit on the sidelines with ‘happy feet’ and no one to dance with. You meet good people dancing. I sure did.”
For more information about ballroom dance classes and dance events in central Illinois go to www.dancingdates.com.
Julie Cellini writes freelance articles on arts and culture. And she takes dance lessons.
