Casey Lule has been following ballroom dancing for some time, and with the popularity of reality television shows like “Dancing with the Stars,” the Slingerlands Elementary fifth-grader’s interest has grown in learning how to do it.
“My grandmother use to ballroom dance with me all the time, and she had been trying to teach me,” said Lule.
Slingerlands Elementary students are now being given the opportunity to learn how to ballroom dance through a new program being offered after school. Dance Crazy Kids, a nonprofit organization that offers lessons by local ballroom dancers to groups of children, is doing a pilot program at Slingerlands before possibly expanding to other schools in the district.
Students at Pieter B. Coeymans Elementary in the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central School District have participated in the program for several years. At the beginning of the school year, Slingerlands physical education teacher Robin Young asked the organization to come give a presentation for students in her own school.
“It was just a program that I thought would appeal to any kid, with any skill level,” said Young. “And it was something different than a competitive, team-oriented sport.”
Young said the program may appeal to kids who opt not to play sports but still want an after-school program that involves interaction with their peers. Like sports, partnered dancing also helps students develop communication and social skills, sportsmanship and the importance of setting goals.
About 20 students, both girls and boys, have signed up for the first session. Students learn dances like the fox trot, tango and jitterbug. The 16-week session ends in February with a grand finale showcase involving all of the program’s participating schools.
“The kids participating have been awesome,” said Young. “These aren’t necessarily kids who do soccer and swimming; it’s kids from all different backgrounds, which is nice.”
At Slingerlands, the classes are mostly taught by Dance Crazy Kids instructor, Phyllis Dantonio, with some school staff on hand to help. Dantonio said she got involved after taking dance lessons herself for more than a dozen years.
“Being a retired school teacher myself, I thought it would be fun to teach children something that I love, but I never got the opportunity to teach while I was in the classroom,” said Dantonio.
The instructor said some students started out with “two left feet,” but the other students who have had dance training have become helpers.
Many of the students participating in the program said they joined because they had friends who were interested.
“At first my mom thought it was just party dancing, but then my friend, Sophia, told me it was ballroom dancing,” said Isabel Landers, 9, who also takes jazz and tap. “I thought it was cool to try new things and meet new people and trying out new steps.”
More girls are participating in the program then boys, but Zachary Isenberg, 11, and Ethan Gavin, 10, said they weren’t too worried about the class being uneven or what other people thought.
“I thought it was going to be really boring, but then it was really fun,” said Gavin, who admitted the program “sounds like it was for girls,” but he has other guy friends taking the class too.
Dantonio said ballroom dancing is “hot nowadays” because of the surge of dance shows on TV. She also thinks the program is unique, because not many schools offer ballroom dancing.
There are also practical uses for learning how to ballroom dance.
“It’s a life skill,” said Dantonio. “There are many places you go out where there’s dancing involved, whether it’s a record-hop or a wedding, and I think it’s good for children to have this opportunity.”
The cost for the entire 16-week course is $1,000 per group to pay the instructors. The more children who sign-up in a group, the more the price goes down per person.
Young said she would like to see more schools in the district offer the program. She plans to see if Dance Crazy Kids will hold a presentation at each of the other elementary schools in the Bethlehem school district to see what kind of interest there is.
For more information, visit www.dancecrazykids.org.