My Ballroom Dance Shoes

While TV shows tend to depict the competitive side of ballroom dancing, the activity is often enjoyed socially. Few pastimes are more conducive to romance than the combination of music and close physical proximity; ballroom dancing quite literally brings people together every single day. Beginner classes are perfect for those with two left feet, and no one is entirely impervious to the fun, therapeutic charms of letting loose on the dance floor.

Dancers require very little in the way of equipment, so beginners can take up the hobby with relative ease. There are no barriers to entry aside from one’s own tentativeness and inhibitions. Just select some ballroom dance shoes, and find classes that cater to the appropriate skill level; before long, you’ll be mixing and mingling with new people in a fun, pressure-free environment.

A few months ago, I discovered that my unhealthy eating habits were beginning to catch up with me. I noticed the tell-tale signs of packing on extra pounds: the outlines of love handles and a bit of extra paunch in the belly area. It was time to make a bold lifestyle decision. In addition to cleaning up my act in the dietary department, I took up ballroom dancing.

It was easy enough to find dance shoes online, but I wasn’t sure where to go from there. I began looking through local newspapers in search of ballroom dance lessons. After a week or so without success, I finally located some lessons for beginners. Several sessions later, my steps had improved immensely and I was feeling athletic and nimble. Who says exercise can’t be fun?

Kathleen Wander is a prodigy, but not in the usual sense. In fact, she flips the typical concept on its proverbial ear. Then she twirls it, dips it and waltzes off with it.
Embodying grace in motion, Wander has won first place in her bracket at all but five of 44 separate ballroom dance contests and placed second in a regional tournament earlier this month.
But the town resident had been dancing only two years. And she’s 89.
In the embrace of a waltz, she glides across the polished wood floor at the studio where she takes lessons, her eyes shining, her head held high, her feet twinkling in silver ballroom dance shoes.