Ballroom Dance Club celebrates 20 years

John Harguindeguy

It was a special night for the Ballroom Dance Club at our annual Mistletoe Ball held on November 10 as our club uses this occasion to start off the numerous functions celebrating the holidays here in PebbleCreek. To add to our night we hosted and acknowledged three couples who were on the original board and have continued being active with our group for 20 wonderful years of dancing.

Vic Gassi was the first president and was accompanied by his wife Paula; also in attendance were Richard and Jean Cortes and Kieth and Rita Longley. In 1997 this group decided PebbleCreek should have ballroom dancing, so what did they do? They arranged to use the Eagle’s Nest Ballroom, bring a little tape machine with recorded sequences of appropriate music; when the tape ran out they put in a new one. And then there was the issue of set-up; they’d physically set up the tables and chairs and then put them back after the dances. In talking with these early members they talked of starting the Art Walk/Dances held for many years supported by the Art Club and Dance Club, also were in involved in the original by-laws which formed the club. Kudos to these individuals and the others who had the foresight to bring this club to fruition.

From their modest beginnings the club has flourished to well over 200 members and we are scheduled for three dinner dances and five dances each year. Because we are a ballroom dance club we select bands and DJs that play the appropriate dance music for fox trot, waltz, rhumba, cha cha, tango, etc. As a dancer myself, it’s not how well you dance but how much you enjoy it. As the November 10 dance was the last of the year we’ll start our 2018 membership drive in January (look for article in the PebbleCreek Post). Our $15 membership fee gets you in the January dance free and then $10 off of dinner/dance tickets and $5 off of regular dances. As a note, we limit our tickets to 200 which allows for movement on the dance floor.

In the words of Arthur Murray, “Keep on dancing..