Shades of Fred and Ginger: UB dancers are whirling around to swing music

By BRENT CUNNINGHAM
Reporter Staff

For some, a hot craze from the first half of the century is back. For others, it never really left.

If recent movies like "Strictly Ballroom," "Shall We Dance" and "Swingers" are any indication, ballroom and swing dancing have been making a cultural comeback in America. And there are signs that Buffalo has kept pace with the national trend.

"Just a few years ago, there used to be a lack of places to go swing dancing," said Cori Grimm, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Linguistics, "but that isn't true anymore. Bars like the King Snake Lounge (in downtown Buffalo) have swing dancing once a week."

Already passionate about dance when they moved here four years ago, Grimm and her husband, John Ourant, an engineer at Calspan, are the founders of the UB Ballroom Dance Club. "We started the club for purely selfish reasons," said Grimm. "We just wanted more people to dance with."

"When we came to Buffalo," she pointed out, "most of the people dancing were much older. We wanted to get more young people involved, and a club seemed like a good way to do that."

For the past four years, the couple has taught a ballroom class from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursdays in the Student Union Social Hall. In response to the growing popularity of swing, they added a 6-7:30 p.m. Monday class concentrating specifically on those dances. Both of these classes are free, open to the public and require no experience.

On any given Thursday or Monday, it is easy to see why Grimm's classes have attracted anywhere from 15-40 dancers. An array of UB students, faculty and staff extend their arms, straighten their backs and begin whirling around the room in an atmosphere that is more relaxed than elegant. The dress is casual and the instructors forgiving: it seems a perfect place for beginners to make their first missteps or for advanced dancers to try out new moves.

Many students do view her classes as practice for clubs like the King Snake, said Grimm. But, she noted, "you can learn steps here better than you can in the clubs. A lot of people in the clubs are doing these fancy moves with their arms, but they don't always get the footwork down."

"The clubs are a lot of fun, though," added Amy Penasack, an assistant instructor. "You can get dressed up and make more of an event out of it."

For those interested in dancing in a more formal setting than a club, Grimm recommended the monthly dance put on by the United States Amateur Ballroom Dance Association, where Ourant is in charge of music selection.

"There's a much younger crowd at those events than when we first came," said Grimm. "Part of our goal has been to show young people that ballroom isn't just something your grandmother does."

Swing, Grimm explained, is generally considered a subcategory of "ballroom," but dance terminology is so varied and can fluctuate so widely from region to region that codifying it always has been difficult. In the 1930s and 1940s, for example, ballroom dance studios were slow to accept swing dances like the Jitterbug and the Lindy Hop. As a result, some people use the term "ballroom" to refer only to the dances the studios were teaching at the time: older European dances like waltzes or polkas, slightly older American dances like the fox-trot or Latin dances like the Argentine Tango, the Brazilian Samba, the Puerto Rican Merengue or the Cuban Mambo.

By the 1950s, the dance studios were teaching swing dances like the Jitterbug and the Lindy Hop. East Coast swing, derived in part from those two dances, has been one of the most popular styles in the recent swing revival. Grimm said she also teaches West Coast swing, the Hustle, the two-step, and a multitude of other dances.

For more information on the UB Ballroom Dance Club and its activities, contact Grimm at 689-4658 or by e-mail at grimm@acsu.buffalo.edu