Swing, Salsa and Cha Cha: M.C. Callaghan Teaches All the Hot Moves

Neither rain nor earthquake can keep M.C. Callaghan from teaching dance.

She remembers the night of Jan. 18, 1994 very well.

“The [Northridge] earthquake had just hit the night before, so there was still no electricity. It was the first class of the session, and I was so determined to do it, so I went and held the class and we did it by flashlight,” she recalled.

For 20 years, Callaghan has taught Calabasans to dance with “kindness and encouragement.”

“I’m a patient teacher. That’s the way I like to be taught when I learn something so that’s how I teach,” she said.

Her elder sisters taught her to jitterbug when she was a three-year-old on Canada’s Prince Edward Island, and she fell in love with dance. She took Irish step-dancing and tap-dancing as a child, then became enraptured by the disco craze.

“I watched Saturday Night Fever so much that I had every dance step memorized,” she said. She and a partner opened a dance studio expressly to teach the memorable routines.

Callaghan moved to Montreal in 1978 for formal dance training, and taught ballroom, swing, salsa and country western dance at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio there.

She also toured for a year as the only Anglophone on a French-Canadian professional dance troupe, performing European and American folk dances.

The warm, temperate weather brought her to California in 1985 and she settled in Culver City where started teaching as an independent contractor.

While visiting friends in Calabasas, the animal lover marvelled at the sheep grazing on the hills by Las Virgenes and Malibu Canyon. She moved to the area in 1991.

“The thing that brought me to Calabasas was the sheep on the hills. I just thought that was amazing. Seeing the sheep gave me such peace and comfort,” she said.

Callaghan approached the newly incorporated city of Calabasas 20 years ago and asked local parks and recreation management if they were interested in offering ballroom, swing and salsa classes.

She began teaching for the city at , and then moved to the when it was acquired by the city, and eventually settled at the when it opened about 12 years ago.

Her students have followed her wherever she’s gone.

Annick Harrison-Krantz is one such long-time student.

“She’s fun and dynamic,” said Harrison-Krantz, a native of France. “I think she’s the best.”

When she met husband Steve Krantz, he was taking lessons from a rival company.

“I started taking lessons with him over there and I said, ‘You’re losing your time and money. Let me introduce you to my teacher,’” Harrison-Krantz recalled.

He made quick progress. That was three years ago.

“M.C. gives more personal attention—and her classes are much more reasonably priced,” he said.

Callaghan does not teach to set standards, as most people want to learn to dance socially, not competitively.

“Dancing is a fun way to keep fit,” she said. “It’s good for the body, mind and soul.”

Though not strenuous, swing and salsa provide good cardio exercise that doesn’t feel like work.

“I get more out of a workout in this class than in the gym on the treadmill,” said Woodland Hills resident Jarrette Henderson, who attends classes with wife Barbara Margolies.

Callaghan does, however, believe in teaching solid basics.

“I teach repetition so my students have a solid foundation, then I move on to different patterns,” she said.

Her beginner classes focus on swing, salsa and foxtrot, “the mother of all the ballroom dances”; she adds rumba, tango and cha cha—her favorite—to intermediate/advanced level classes. She also teaches country and western dancing as well as disco.

“She doesn’t teach you too much in one class, so you learn instead of being overwhelmed with too many steps you can’t remember,” Margolies said.

Henderson, 71, and Margolies, 65, have been Callaghan devotees for eight years.

“For our anniversary I thought, ‘why don’t I present her with dance lessons?’ So I had M.C. come to our home and give us dance lessons on Saturdays,” Henderson explained.

“And from then on we started coming to her class,” Margolies added. “It’s something fun that we can do together.”

Callaghan teaches her students how to adapt the moves to dance to everything from Glenn Miller and Brian Setzer to Michael Jackson and George Clinton to Led Zeppelin and The Eagles in a single class.

“Cha cha is one of the hottest dances. You can do it to any kind of music. It’s got great footwork. It’s a very upbeat and happy dance,” she said. “Foxtrot is a very practical dance. You can do it to everything from Frank Sinatra to Steely Dan. Most people don’t really think that, but you can.”

With her taste in music, it’s no wonder that Callaghan goes by M.C.—short for Mary Catherine not Mistress of Ceremonies—and wears pink streaks in her black hair.

“I’m a rocker at heart,” she said.

But she might as well be a Mistress of Ceremonies, hosting regular “Rock the Dock” dances at the Malibu Pier that are open to the public. She also provides entertainment at fundraising events to benefit animal rescue

“The passion of my feet is dancing and the passion of my heart is animals,” said Callaghan, who volunteers at animal shelters in her spare time.

Now living in La Quinta with her rescued Labrador-pitbull mix Caine, she still makes the trek to teach in Calabasas every Tuesday night.

“As much as I love this area, I just wanted a change of pace, and I love hot, hot weather,” she said. “But Calabasas is still a part of me.”

Callaghan teaches Mondays at Malibu Bluff’s Park for the City of Malibu and Tuesdays at the Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center. Classes cost $15 on a drop-in basis or $84 for a six-week session; private lessons cost $75 per hour. The next “Rock the Dock” is on April 2 from 7:30 to 11 p.m.; cover is $15 per person. For more information call 818-694-7283 or email mc4dance@sbcglobal.net.