Steve Holdener
What my wife Rita and I love about living in SaddleBrooke are the many varied opportunities for dancing. When we first came to SaddleBrooke near our retirement we knew we wanted to build on our dancing skills which were mostly polkas, waltzes and landlers. What we found in this great community was almost unbelievable to us as dancers, i.e. ballroom, western, Latin and much more!
The SaddleBrooke Ballroom Dance Club provides a number of forums for learning and retaining the many wonderful forms of both International and American ballroom dances such as the Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz, Cha Cha, Rumba, East Coast Swing, Bolero and Mambo as well as West Coast Swing, Samba, Merengue, Salsa, Night Club Two Step, Quickstep, Bachata and others.
We love all these dances and provide different venues for dancing via our monthly dinner/dances at HOA 1 in the Vistas Dining Room with the adjacent Vermilion Room dance floor on the first Tuesday of the month as well as weekly open dances/practices on Sunday afternoons (4:00 to 5:30 p.m. at MountainView Ballroom) and Wednesday afternoons (4:00 to 5:30 p.m. at the Vermilion Room). We have wonderful music and great DJs who provide tunes that just make you want to get up and dance. Besides the traditional ballroom dances, we will even throw in the occasional Polka, Texas Two Step and a Western Pattern Dance or Line Dance for your dancing pleasure!
I’m a DJ myself and will spend hours researching music and trying to find the right song for our ballroom dances. My fellow DJs and I love this music and want to provide our dancers with the right mix and balance of old and new favorites. It’s hard to beat the Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Nat King Cole foxtrots. Our ballroom music is much different than the ‘50s and ‘60s sock hops we remember that featured swings and buckle rubbers; more on this in future columns.
Dancing is great for the brain as learning new moves stimulates brain activity and thinking—imagine that! I think it’s also a great activity for physical exercise and stress relief. I’ve even heard lately that dancing improved one man’s golf game! More on that, too, next month and hope to have more personal stories about dancing and its impact on various individuals.
The Ballroom Dance Club is planning five separate dinner/dances for 2014/2015, starting with November 14 and December 27, 2014; then on to January 16, March 20 and April 11, 2015. Be sure to mark these dates on your calendars.
Even though we are now going into the summer months there are still dancing opportunities available with our first Tuesday gatherings at the SaddleBrooke Clubhouse as well as the weekly open dances/practices. Come join us and meet new and old friends and share in the joy of dancing! Information is available on our website: sbballroomdance.com.