Some Enchanted Evening

Elita and Jerry Clayman have been dancing since November 2, 1977. This November marks their 39th edanniversary of that important moment in their lives. She has been writing articles of encouragement to the ballroom dance community since September 1990 when her first dance article appeared in Amateur Dancers magazine and her stories remained there until 2007, when the magazine changed styles from only amateur stories and events to professional ones too.

She has been writing for the Rene website since 2005 which is based in Alabama. Since July 2011, she has been writing her articles on life as a teen in the late 1940’s and also being a senior now for many years. She ties her articles on dance in with life as a wife, mother, mother-in-law daughter, and Grammie. Her so far one hundred and thirty-eight articles appeared daily in Cockeysville. Patch. Com whose editor was the competent Nayana Davis.

Competitive dancing is a special division of ballroom dancing. It is not a bit like Dancing With The Stars which is a hyped of show with stars of all different degrees of expertise; acting, football, tennis, stage etc. They take lessons for about seven weeks and learn for about seven hours a day for seven days a week. No regular or normal person could afford that time away from their regular job or could they pay the money seven hours a day would cost. Their bodies would not be able to stand the practice time without suffering problems. Many of the stars of this past session had medical problems and they continued on to dance and take lessons. A regular person would have stopped to be healed and would have listened to their doctor. These stars get paid per each week they remain on.

Competitive dancing with us regular people/dancers is not done that way. We may take two lessons a week or three if we can afford it; then we go to a weekly dance at a studio to practice with our spouse or partner or with people at the dance who come as singles. They mingle, dance and have fun and get experience. When and if they decide to compete with their teacher, they may take a lesson or two or three extra that month; but never seven hours a day, seven days a week. Their bodies would be under too much strain of that sort.

Ballroom dancers are a special group of people who start out eager to learn to dance and as I always talk about in my articles, it is because they have had this dance yearning brewing in their minds and hearts and they finally decide to do it. When they start, they might be very hesitant about continuing on. However, after about ten lessons, they are either hooked or they stop. Ninety-nine percent of new dancers usually stay on and even if they stop the learning process after a set of lessons; they continue to come to a social dance somewhere and they practice what they have learned and one day, the dancing creature I call Mr. Dance approaches their mind and soul and bingo, there is a new dancer ready for more. I would not call it a dance bite; I would name it a dance hug. The dance hugs envelops the person’s heart and soul and never lets go.

In the movie with Richard Gere, Shall We Dance, that emotion comes over him when he enters the dance world of that studio which was not as pretty as the dance studios we have in Baltimore County, Maryland. I as a twelve year old took ballroom dancing at a studio atop a movie theatre on the second floor. My mom paid two dollars a half an hour for a total of ten lessons, twenty dollars was a lot of money in those days. We were supposed to learn the basics of dancing a Waltz, Foxtrot and I believe a Jitterbug. The studio then in 1946 was named Ella L.Banks Dance Studio. It was fun for a twelve year old and I revived this desire again when I was about twenty. Then it stopped and when I was in Paris in about 1977, we saw some elderly people get up to dance and they were delightful. I said to my husband we are going to dance like them or even be better and we will start when we come home. We did and that was in November 1977. I have won in my competitive days with my teachers, fifty-eight trophies, medals and certificates. They are proudly displayed on shelves I had built in my kitchen and they are named trophy shelves. They get dusted off every week so the trophies and medals will still shine and keep those memories forever in my heart and soul. I am sure people who play golf or tennis feel the same way about their sport; though they do not have a beautiful studio like my dance space, one to call their second home.

There was a popular song out many years ago called I Could Have Danced All Night. It was a pretty song and I will try to portray it in my articles on this event.

A new world will open up to you if you have never seen a real dance competition. I have danced, I have competed in dance competitions throughout this country, I have written encouraging articles inspiring everyone to dance regardless of their now age and now I move to another stage of my ballroom ‘career.’ I will be in a reviewing mode which will be all cheering, saluting and most of all applauding everyone who goes out and dances, competes and is just plain happy doing this. Bravo to them and to me too for discovering my love of dance that has lasted since I was twelve years old, a little girl learning a few steps with a bunch of other twelve year old kids. Dancing is forever and forever will I DANCE.

The challenge is yours. Go and become enchanted with dancing and the enchantment will last forever. In the Broadway play and movie called South Pacific, there was a song and it was called Some Enchanted Evening. My son had the lead in that play in Pikesville High School and that is what you feel when you dance.