Dance: The promise of tomorrow

The boy and girl stand close together, sweaty palms touching, eyes averted and waiting for their cue, and then the music starts. Is it another episode of the OC? No, it’s ballroom dancing. A new phenomenon is touching the nation’s youth, and I could not be more thrilled. Through ballroom dancing, young people are touching each other, in a positive way. Self-expression and self-esteem are being reinforced in a new way through one of the oldest forms of movement - dance. The fact that someone is attempting to make ladies and gentlemen out of kids on the brink of awkward adolescence, is nothing short of a miracle. Letting young people know that some adults view them in a positive light, genius!

In a world where negative stereotypes abound and music videos often show scantily clad young women gyrating across the screen, while stars of TV, music, and sports let it be known that they view women as objects of sexual fantasy or sexual aggression, positive role models are sorely lacking. What young people learn from ballroom dance is how to touch each other in a positive, respectful, and honorable way. They also learn the important lessons of teamwork and how to win or lose graciously in the setting of organized competition. Above all, we all learn that the social graces of manners, charm and gentility, are not out of date.

Pierre Dulaine, ballroom dance champion and the subject of the 2006 film Mad Hot Ballroom, is the man with the mission and the inspiration behind teaching kids (some of whom hail from the poorest neighborhoods in New York) that they matter by giving them dance instruction. Through his non-profit program American Ballroom Theatre’s Dancing Classrooms (www.americanballroomtheater.com), he brings dance instruction to youth who might not otherwise be exposed to it. Some might argue that we have seen these same turning frogs into princes-type stories many times before. But I say a good lesson bears repeating. Anything that makes young people feel good about themselves, and causes adults to look at the youth of tomorrow with renewed promise, is a story worth telling again and again.

I have fond memories of my own experiences in dance classes. From age five to twelve years old, I tap danced, jazz danced, and tried (unsuccessfully) to stay en pointe. But the most valuable lesson I learned was that a shy girl from the south side of Chicago could become graceful and beautiful through dancing. In the eyes of our dance instructor we were ladies and gentlemen and we were required to act the part inside the studio as well as outside of it. Through dance I learned how to keep my feet on the ground and hold my head high.