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Ballroom catching on
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Len Rome and Mary Ann Ebert of Youngstown show off their moves during a ballroom-dancing event Saturday at Eastwood Mall.
By Karl Henkel
NILES
When four members of the Youngstown State University Dance Club hit the dance floor at Eastwood Mall, they were some of the youngest dancers.
And though ballroom dancing isn’t the most popular dance choice for college students, it seems to be catching on.
“Everybody wants to learn because of ‘Dancing With The Stars,’” Mario Sracic, 20, a senior in the dance club, said Saturday, referring to the hit ABC show that matches celebrities with professional dancers in an “American Idol”-style elimination show.
Sracic started dancing about a year ago, as did fellow member Dan Catello, 20, a sophomore. The two paired up with Randi Yazvac, 22, and Bree Szmara, 21, both seniors, and performed an East Coast swing to the song “Swing Sweet Pussycat” by The Atomic Fireballs.
Sracic said the group practiced the routine more than an hour each night for the past week in preparation for the Eastwood Mall event, part of National Ballroom Dance Week.
The event was sponsored by USA Dance, a national, nonprofit organization that promotes ballroom and Latin dancing as both a social activity and a competitive sport. The Youngstown-Warren Chapter has monthly dances open to the public, with a lesson before each dance.
So what attracted four college students to start ballroom dancing?
“It’s just the excitement of getting out there, having fun and enjoying the atmosphere,” Catello said.
He admitted that before he joined the YSU Dance Club, he had always wanted to try dancing but had no idea where to start.
He wasn’t alone.
Yazvac said many people have joined the club in recent years. The club now boasts about 30 members and is looking to add even more this semester.
The fall dance season starts with a group meeting from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Beeghly Center.
There was much more Saturday than the YSU Dance Club.
The event also gave other dancers, such as Ron and Mary Wagner of Salem, a chance to show off their dance moves. They, too, performed an East Coast swing to the Marvin Gaye classic “I Heard It Through The Grapevine.”
The couple, in their 60s, started ballroom dancing three years ago, when they began taking lessons from Brian and Vicki Gallagher at Dance Connections in North Lima.
The Wagners attend lessons each Thursday, go dancing each Friday and now plan to dance at public events more often.
“It’s fun,” Mary said. “And we’ve met so many nice people while dancing.”