The mood is just right. The dance floor gleams below brass chandeliers and candles flicker like fireflies around the ballroom. A dozen musicians raise their instruments and the music begins, as sumptuous and elegant as moonlight and roses. One couple starts a slow whirl across the dance floor, then another and another. Soon there are dozens out there swaying, strolling, and whirling, their efforts punctuated by the steady spish-spish-spish of dance slippers over smooth wood.
It's this way most Friday nights at the Kennedy-Warren Ballroom in Washington D.C., where Friday night dances have been a mainstay of Washington's nightlife for almost four years.
"May I have this dance?" is the key phrase of the evening. These gentlefolk are part of a growing population across the country who have rediscovered the charms of romantic partner dancing. It's the kind Mom used to do--where men lead and women dip to the big band serenade. This type of dancing can be found in such far-flung, vintage ballrooms as Roseland in Manhattan, Myron's Ballroom in Los Angeles, the Spanish Ballroom in Glen Echo, Maryland, and Willowbrook in Willlowsprings, Illinois.
It has also become an elegant theme for many major hotels. Afternoon tea dances, big band brunches, and Saturday evening dinner dances are much in demand, as are dance cruises aboard luxury ocean liners. Ballroom dancing has even gone to the stage with the American Ballroom Theatre, a dance company based in New York City.
Dancing Cheek To Cheek
Cheek to cheek has made a comeback, for a variety of reasons. Some dance experts feel that movies such as Dirty Dancing, Salsa! and the Broadway show Tango Argentina have inspired people to try partner dancing. Others cite an interest in ballroom dancing as exercise.
Most telling, however, is the public's change of attitude. "I think we're just looking for something more romantic," said one regular at the Kennedy-Warren Ballroom. "Ballroom dance is a sincere, non-threatening, low-pressure way to get to know someone. None of that "What do you do, how much money do you make?' stuff. It's polite. And I find that very refreshing."
"Ballroom dancing offers a lovely chance for boy-meets-girl," says Nancy Diers Johnson, associate professor of dance at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. "It's satisfying to move gracefully with music, in step with someone who pleases you. Ballroom represents a very interesting give-and-take situation for a couple. They must learn to be complementary partners while dancing. It's really almost a courtship ritual."
Modern converts must also accept an old-fashioned concept in the primary social dances--waltz, foxtrot, tango, swing, rumba, samba, and cha-cha: On the ballroom floor, the men always lead. "In ballroom dance, the man takes over. He is in control," says Johnson. "That is one thing that immediately gets sorted out. The woman thinks, 'I put myself in your arms, I surrender my independence.' Then she must decide whether she's comfortable, whether they make a good couple. That's the subliminal implication of ballroom. In ages past, women often based their decision to marry a man on
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