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Austintown library grooves with ballroom dancing lessons
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.USA Dance Youngstown Warren Chapter president Susan Ryan spoke to the attendees before the start of the ballroom dancing lessons at the Austintown library.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.USA Dance instructor Cindy Hlas demonstrated the steps of the ChaCha during the ballroom dancing lessons at the Austintown library.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.USA Dance instructor Cindy Hlas and music director Steve Barva demonstrated the ChaCha during the ballroom dancing lessons.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Mark Generalovich and his wife Suzi of Liberty Township danced the ChaCha as part of the ballroom dancing lessons at the Austintown library.
By TIM CLEVELAND
Area residents got the chance to learn some new moves on Sept. 24 when the Austintown library hosted the staff of USA Dance Youngstown Warren Chapter for an evening of ballroom dancing lessons.
“We’re a non-profit organization and our only purpose is to promote the healthful benefits of ballroom dancing,” USA Dance Youngstown Warren Chapter president Susan Ryan said.
In addition to Ryan, USA Dance members on hand included music director Steve Barva, who helped demonstrate the dances along with instructor Cindy Hlas.
The event was initiated by the Austintown library staff.
“This came from the library,” Ryan said. “It was all [librarian] Kathy [Richter]. Kathy wanted me to do it. It’s National Ballroom Week and I couldn’t say no.”
“We were trying to think of unusual programs to draw people to the library,” Richter said.
Ryan said she would play how the two-hour event would go by ear.
“I don’t know. We’ll see what the crowd wants to do,” she said. “I’m going to see what they want to accomplish. We’re not expecting a large crowd. Do they just want to go out dancing? Do they have a wedding coming up? Is there any specific dances they want to learn?”
When asked, attendees said they’d like to learn the ChaCha, Tango and Swing.
Hlas began by having the men and women line up on opposite sides of the library’s meeting room. She then demonstrated the ChaCha on her own, then again with Barva. After that, the couples were brought together to do the dance. This was repeated with the other dances.
Mark Generalovich of Liberty Township attended along with his wife Suzi. He said they were in the beginning to intermediate stage of their dancing ability but hoped to be intermediate by the end of the night.
“We saw his post on Facebook this morning about the event and we’ve recently gotten into ballroom dancing within the last year,” he said when asked how he learned of the event. “We actually got into [dancing] because our daughter got married a year ago and decided she wanted to have a swing-dance themed wedding. We started taking swing dance lessons so that we could dance at our daughter’s wedding, and we just kind of continued once a week with lessons since then.”
Ryan said she got a late start in dancing but has learned fast.
“I didn’t start dancing until I was nearly 50,” she said. “[Barva and I] do quite well. We compete in 15 different genres. American Smooth is probably our best. American Rhythm and then Standard International, which is our most challenging. The only thing we don’t do is Latin.”
She said that dancing is something that people just need to do if they want and not worry about their lack of grace.
“They just need to want to do it,” she said. “It’s like Nike – just do it. It’s all a matter of perspective. As far as how good you are, it’s really about fun and it’s healthy for you.”
Despite the popularity of many TV shows that feature dancing, such as “Do You Think You Can Dance?,” Ryan said a lot of people mainly want to be spectators.
“People like to watch the shows and they say they want to do it, but then they just don’t get up,” she said. “Get up and do it and dance like nobody’s watching. They just need to do what they’re craving.”