Steve Holdener
Last month I wrote about the wonderful opportunities for dancing in SaddleBrooke. This month I’d like to share some personal stories about dancing and music.
My own personal story on how I met my wife Rita (and maybe how I kept her). We were at a Swiss marriage reception for a friend of the family, at the old Swiss Hall in Tacoma, Washington. Rita wasn’t with her usual boyfriend, so I asked her to dance a polka. I almost blew it when I started twirling her and brought her feet off the ground and her eyes got as big as two North Stars in the sky looking to land somewhere. Needless to say I liked to dance large. My next shrewd move was to go to a more sedate waltz. Forty years later we are still together and dancing, which is a great way to stay in touch with the opposite gender.
One of my favorite foxtrot numbers is a Frank Sinatra tune titled River Stay ‘Way From My Door written in 1931 by Harry M. Woods and Mort Dixon, recorded on April 13, 1960 with Nelson Riddle and released by Capitol Records as a single. It was included in the 1961 compilation album All the Way and in The Complete Capitol Singles Collection CD box set. I’ll often play this song at dances. From the 1930’s right up to our present, it is still a great song. It is wonderful that a music standard is still danceable.
Our dance club provides a forum 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 at 5:30 p.m. 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 provided by great DJs who play excellent dance music.
Remember the golfer from last month’s article? He became so focused on his dancing and learning the new dance moves that he began relaxing and his swing became more natural. He is positive that dancing helped relieve his stress and improved his focus on the game. Imagine shaving a few strokes from your nine or 18 hole game merely as a benefit from dancing!
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 for the end of this year and the winter/spring months of 2015.
There will be a lot of dancing activity this summer 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! Please feel free to share your own favorite dance story or ballroom tune; you can write me at [email protected].