Quick $tep - Westfair Communications

Linda and Chester Freeman of the Hudson Valley”™s Got2Lindy Dance Studios.

Call it a perfect whirl rather than a perfect storm.

The popularity of TV”™s “Dancing With the Stars” ”“ teamed with an influx of talented Eastern European dancers and the shifting rhythms of American cultural history ”“ has spurred renewed interest in partner dancing.

“The ballroom-dancing industry has been around many years,” says Steven Dougherty, co-owner (with John DePalma) of the Metropolitan Dance Center in Stamford, Conn., where enrollment has been increasing. “But I think ”˜Dancing With the Stars”™ has given (ballroom dancing) a light.”

For those who don”™t know a paso doble (Latin ballroom dance) from a pas de deux (ballet duet), ABC”™s “Dancing With the Stars” is an “American Idol”-style show that pairs such professional dancers as Anna Trebunskaya (trained by dad Oleg Trebunski of the Westchester Ballroom Dance Studio in Pleasantville) and Tony Dovolani of Stamford with such affectionately disparate celebrities as loose-limbed Olympic gold medalist Evan Lysacek and less-than-loose-limbed professional mom Kate Gosselin.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Trebunskaya/Lysacek team is on top while the Gosselin/Dovolani team survived April 13”™s elimination. At 8 p.m. April 19, viewers can tune in to another round of the competition, in which the couples must demonstrate their skill in dances from the International Standard, International Latin, American Smooth and American Rhythm categories. These include the waltz, the quickstep, the paso doble, the jive and the fox-trot. (See accompanying box on the categories.)
Area dance instructors credit “DWTS” ”“ whose 10th season premiere on March 22 delivered the show”™s largest audience to date, 24 million ”“ with broadening their student base.

“Pre-”˜Dancing With the Stars,”™ our clientele was 60-percent couples, 30-percent women and five-to-10 percent men,” says Armando J. Martin, national dance director for the Fred Astaire Dance Studios Inc., whose 150 locations nationwide includes 11 in Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess and Fairfield (Conn.) counties. “Now it”™s almost as many men as women coming in.”

Martin and Dougherty both say the show”™s inclusion of football stars Emmitt Smith (season 3 winner with Cheryl Burke), Jerry Rice (season 2 runner-up with Trebunskaya) and, currently, Chad Ochocinco (with Burke again) has helped generate male interest in social dancing.

“Guys see it”™s OK for a guy,” says Dougherty, whose center offers group classes ($15 per person) and private lessons ($90 for a 45-minute session). “”˜If he can do it, I can do it,”™ they say.”

“DWTS” is also inspiring the younger crowd, instructors say. At the New York Dance Center in Ardsley, students range in age from 5 to 83, says Svetlana Ostashkin, who owns the studio with husband Dmitri.

“There”™s something for everybody in dancing, including the mentally and physically challenged,” says registered nurse Barbara Antes, owner of the Westchester Ballroom Dance Studio, who trained the first American woman to go to the world championship of wheelchair-ballroom dancing.

Antes, who studied with “DWTS”™” Dovolani, says that while “DWTS” has contributed to the current popularity of partner dancing, it”™s not the only recent factor.

Svetlana and Dmitri Ostashkin of the New York Dance Center in Ardsley.

“The first wave of popularity was the Eastern European champions, who came to the U.S. when (Soviet) communism fell (in the early 1990s),” she says. “Oleg (Trebunski) and his wife were one of the first couples brought to the U.S. by the Fred Astaire Dance Studios.”

“I started that myself,” Martin says of importing Eastern European ballroom-dance champs. “I was the first one to look at it as a viable way of getting high-quality teachers.”

Teachers like Elena and Yuri Tsarev, who were for seven years champions of International Standard, International Latin and Ten Dance (a mix of both) in their native Belarus before coming to the United States and ultimately opening the Fred Astaire Dance Studio of Bedford Hills. Other fleet-footed immigrants include Svetlana and Dmitri Ostashkin, who were Moscow and Eastern European champions in International Latin dance and now have more than 100 students at their 7-year-old center in Ardsley.

Ballroom has its roots in the early-20th century, when couples-dancing dovetailed with jazz and popular dance teams like Vernon and Irene Castle.

“We always have friends,” Armando Martin says. “In the ”™30s, ”™40s and ”™50s, social dancing was a way of life. When the ”™60s came around, people moved away from dancing with each other. It was still viable. But touch dancing was not popular.”

Then came disco, the Hustle and “Saturday Night Fever” in the ”™70s.

“They brought thousands and thousands of people into the studios,” Martin says.

More recently, Broadway”™s “Tango Argentino” and the “Shall We Dance?” films have added other sensuous layers to social dancing”™s allure.

Says Martin: “There”™s always something that happens that brings the romance back into people”™s lives.”

In our own depressed, digital age, the need for romance is great, says Linda Freeman, whose Got2Lindy Dance Studios offers group classes and private lessons in various Hudson Valley locales, including Kingston, Highland, Stone Ridge and Poughkeepsie.

“It”™s interesting that even when everyone was nervous with the economy, there were not a lot of cancellations,” says Freeman, who runs Got2Lindy with husband Chester. “There”™s much more awareness with ”˜Dancing With the Stars.”™ But those (fans) are sitting home watching TV. A large percentage of our students just want to get out. We”™ve seen such a transformation. People say they have new skills and new confidence. It”™s such a joyous process.”

Certainly, Reba Laks and Susan Simon ”“ two of the Freemans”™ students ”“ have a new spring in their steps.

Laks, an educator with the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation, was coming to terms with a shattered marriage when she decided to give swing dancing ”“ something she remembered from her childhood ”“ a try.

“I went by myself, which was not easy to do,” she says. “But the people were friendly. Ultimately, I met Chester and Linda in a workshop. It”™s led to a whole new group of friends.”

Laks, who studied classical East Indian dance in college, has been taking swing classes with the Freemans for 5 Â½ years and has a new beau, as well.

“Going through my divorce was a tough time,” she says. “Dancing was the one thing I did purely for me.”

Simon, too, has learned the delights of me-time on the dance floor. A financial planner from Red Hook, she received dance lessons as a gift from her partner, Beth Jones. The incentive was the 2009 wedding of Simon”™s daughter.

“Now,” she says, “I”™m doing it for me.

“People are always influenced by what they see,” she adds. “But ”˜Dancing With the Stars”™ is a fantasy.”

The reality is far better.

“When you”™re out there on the dance floor,” Simon says, “you”™re having a great time. And that”™s all there is.”

Student Carol Steiner and teacher Andrey Savenko at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio of Bedford Hills.

SHALL WE DANCE?

Eager to dip a toe into ballroom? The following events might provide you with an introduction:

April 23 ”“ Westchester Ballroom Dance Studio hosts a “Big Band and Swing Dinner Dance” at Riverview in Hastings-on-Hudson to benefit the new animal shelter in Yonkers; westchesterballroom.com.
April 23 ”“ The Metropolitan Dance Center presents “The Anything Goes Showcase” at the Stamford Plaza Hotel; metropolitandancecenter.com.
May 10 ”“ New York Dance Center is taking part in the Dancesport Extravaganza X “We Are The Champions” at Westchester Broadway Theatre;Â HYPERLINK “http://dancewestchester.com” dancewestchester.com, broadwaytheatre.com.
May 16 ”“ New York Dance Theater hosts its Spring Ball at the Polish Center in Yonkers; dancewestchester.com.