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More than 100 show off dancing skills at Eastwood Mall
By Jordan Cohen
NILES
Of the more than 100 mostly amateur dancers who, in glittering and colorful costumes performed in front of hundreds of Eastwood Mall shoppers, Dena Wargo may have been the most nervous.
Saturday marked her first public performance, but her nerves disappeared the moment she stepped onto the mall concourse.
Wargo, dressed in a black dress with long black and white feathers, flawlessly danced a samba with her instructor, Gary Jones of Ravenna. Jones performed a dip with Wargo that brought out boisterous cheers and applause from the audience. “It felt wonderful,” said Wargo, of Austintown, who has been taking instruction for a year. “Now, I’d like to learn the hustle.”
“We dance for the fun of it and for health,” said Susan Ryan of Newton Falls, president of the Youngstown-Warren chapter off USADance, a national organization. “It’s more fun than a treadmill.” The show has become a fall tradition at the mall for 15 years.
Ryan said only nine of the performers are professional dancers, while many of the amateurs participate in multiple dance groups. “They just live to dance,” she said. Their dances included rumba, bolero and swing.
One of the more “mature” dancers is Joe Altinger, 79, of Boardman. “I only started when I was 70,” said Altinger shortly after dancing a waltz with Lynda McPhail, a Boardman dance instructor. “I’m going to learn the jive when I turn 80 next year.”
McPhail said shows such as “Dancing with the Stars” have had a positive impact in generating more interest in dance. “It used to be an older person’s game, but whole families watch it, and more [younger] people are joining in.”
Sara Hendel-McCormick, 33, of Youngstown, who describes herself as a “stay-at-home mom,” danced the mambo while her two young daughters looked on. “I talked my husband into joining, and now he’s actually into it,” she said, “but he’s not into the sequins.”
Although quite a few men performed Saturday, Ryan said. USADance is trying to encourage more male participation. One of the handouts at the show, “Why Men Don’t Dance — and Why They Should,” offered this justification: “[You] can do something that most women love to do and wish they could find a man to do it with.”
The handout suggested another mildly provocative benefit. “You’re going to be able to communicate with somebody on another level besides pick-up lines.”
Brenda Williams of Warren agreed. Nine years ago, a man who was also learning to dance where she had begun taking lessons asked her to dance with him. “We’ve been together ever since,” she said.
She and her husband, AJ, showed their chemistry dancing a tango for the appreciative audience.