Rod and Ann Hart started Centre Ballroom to revive the tradition of community ballroom dances in Centre County.
In December 2022, the Harts had retired and moved to State College from Juniata County to spend more time with their grandchild. They were eager to join the ballroom dances they remembered from years ago, when their daughters were attending Penn State. But they discovered the dances had ended during the pandemic. Adding the extra hour of driving time from their new location made it difficult to go to events in Harrisburg, Lancaster, and York that they’d frequented before the move. The devoted dancers found themselves dance-less.
“In the summer of 2023, I just finally said, ‘We’ve got to do something,’” Rod Hart says. “We went around and checked all kinds of facilities and found out the cost, which was rather amazingly huge in many cases. Then we found Lambert Hall in Bellefonte. As much as I wanted it in State College, I could not pass on Lambert Hall.”
He says Lambert Hall has an amazing dance floor, good acoustics, a kitchen for dinner dances, and plenty of free parking. “It’s a great place to have a dance. … It’s been very affordable. … They’ve got a great facility.”
The Harts named their dance club Centre Ballroom. It usually meets on the second Sunday of the month from 2 to 5 p.m.
The dance on Jan. 12 was as social as it was aerobic. While some people were dancing out on the floor, others were relaxing and chatting at tables along one side of the hall, greeting newcomers and enjoying the vast array of donated snacks and drinks.
The afternoon began with a lively half-hour lesson on the cha-cha, taught by instructors Gary and Bonnie Glidewell of Muncy.
For the dance program, Rod Hart, as DJ, played a surprisingly diverse set of 41 tunes, ranging from traditional ballroom orchestra music to rock, disco, ballads, and more. He provided copies of his playlist to attendees and announced the style of each dance before playing it, so they would know how to dance to it.
Couples danced the East Coast swing to Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll,” the hustle to the Village People’s “YMCA,” the cha-cha to Santana’s “Smooth,” and a rumba to the Bee Gees’ “How Deep Is Your Love.”
“If you ever watch ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ we do all the dances that they mentioned on that and more,” Hart says.
“We’ve been getting some really nice crowds. The first dance we had in July of ’23, I think we were up around 80-some to 90. Now it’s kind of settled off in the middle 60s.” He says the Centre Ballroom email list has over 200 names.
People wear casual clothing for most dances and dress up for the Christmas dinner dances. Hart recommends shoes with leather soles, which allow dancers to move and spin easily.
Beginners, people without partners, and families are all welcome. Most people stay with the same partner all afternoon, but others dance with whoever is available. “If you come as a single person, you’re likely to dance many of the dances with a partner,” he says. “We’ll get three or four men who will dance with different women the whole time the dance is going on.”
Centre Ballroom has live bands three to four times a year and recorded music for the other dances. Hart says bands are more expensive and play limited styles compared to recorded music. He doesn’t schedule a lesson when there’s a band because bands want to start playing when the dancers arrive.
Zupe, an award-winning one-man band from Windber, has played for some dances. “I love Zupe,” Hart says. “He’s a fantastic entertainer and he does better than most bands at playing different styles. But even the absolute best band is never going to cover all the various different styles of dancing that people want to dance to.”
How did the Harts become interested in ballroom dance? Hart says, “Back about the turn of the century [2000], my wife, Ann, found an advertisement for Arthur Murray Studio in Lemoyne. I think she tossed it out to me as a dare because … we were both interested in dance but we never really knew what we were doing. … She said, ‘Hey, how about we do this?’ Like, are you man enough to do it? So we started there, and then immediately found out where other dances were, and just kept on going.”
They attended dances that each included a lesson on a particular style. “We would go to a lesson on rumba and come home and move the living room furniture around and practice what we were taught. … And we actually learned most of our dancing doing it in that particular way.”
Hart says one of the biggest benefits is exercise, but there are other rewards. “I think dancing teaches people how to be courteous and thanking people for dancing with them and treating other people well. It’s also a good way to get to know people.”
He’s trying to find an instructor who can teach ballroom dance outside of the monthly dances so people can learn more quickly.
Gary & Bonnie Glidewell
The instructors of the cha-cha lesson, Gary and Bonnie Glidewell, have been ballroom dancing for 18 years and are registered instructors with USA Dance. They currently teach dance at St. John’s School of the Arts in Williamsport.
They became interested in ballroom dance when they saw older couples dancing at their company’s Christmas party. Gary told his wife, “I want to dance like that. It’s so elegant, so smooth.”
They took lessons and became instructors themselves, traveling around the country to meet people and continue learning.
“I was 268 pounds when we started. I’m 204 now,” Gary says. “Dancing’s about having fun. … It’s good for balance, too, at our age.”
Cheryl Ann Romano & Kevin Aucker
Cheryl Ann Romano started ballroom dancing 20 years ago when her bosses at Geisinger gave her lessons for Christmas, at her request. Kevin Aucker has been her dance partner for 14 years, and they both teach dance in Danville. They were scheduled to teach the salsa lesson at the Feb. 9 dance in Bellefonte.
“It’s a good group of people,” Aucker says. “They’re friendly. They’re easygoing.”
“And they’re not afraid to come ask us questions, which is great,” Romano says. “Because we’ll stop and help them do whatever.”
“Dancing, besides being a lot of fun, is great exercise,” Aucker says. “Great aerobic exercise without being excessively strenuous. It’s extremely critical for people in their mid-50s and up for coordinating or improving their balance. One of the biggest problems when you get older is loss of balance and falling. If you learn proper technique in dancing, it can make all the difference in giving you another five or 10 years of active life.
“And the other thing about that is simply stress release. Dancing, you have to leave all your baggage at the door so that you can concentrate on the lessons or on the dancing. So, for a little while you can forget the world.”
“It keeps your mind active,” says Romano.
Aucker says, “Another big thing in dance is as you progress, you develop more self-esteem and self-confidence.”
Vicki Wedler & Joe Herrle
Dancers Vicki Wedler and Joe Herrle are State College real estate agents and spouses who helped lead the previous local ballroom dance club.
Herrle says, “There’s some surprising distances that people come to this event — DuBois, Montoursville, Williamsport, Lewistown, Lewisburg. … What makes this club a success is varied degrees of talent and varied ages. I think that’s why people drive such a distance.”
Wedler says her husband only does two or three types of dances. When she wants to dance more, she finds a woman to dance with.
She says her first experience with ballroom dance was 19 years ago, when she accepted a job offer through Centre Region Parks and Recreation to be a partner for a ballroom dancing instructor.
Later, she and Herrle became officers for the ballroom dances that were held at what was then the Elks Country Club before moving to the Friends School, then Centre Hills Country Club. “Once COVID hit, we couldn’t dance there. … COVID did us in. It kind of fell apart,” Wedler says.
“We’re so appreciative of everything that Rod and his wife do because we know how much work it is and how much risk you take.
“Nobody needs to be intimidated because somebody is better than them,” she says. “There’s wonderful dancers that have been dancing for many years. There’s people who are just starting out. And that’s so wonderful to see them progress.”
Wedler says, “When I’m dancing, I feel the music, and I can forget everything. It’s such a nice escape from anything that would be troubling you. … It’s just so nice to have that partner who anticipates your moves. You feel so connected that way.
“I’d just like to encourage as many people to come out and try it and learn to enjoy it as much as we do. … This is a great way for anybody that’s anticipating a wedding in the family to come and learn how to dance.” T&G
Karen Dabney is a freelance writer in State College who now plans to give ballroom dancing a try.
