All the dancing stopped when Julia Blomgren announced “High-five for Carol!”
Her husband, Glen obligingly slid over to his blushing student – she’d just mastered a tricky combination of steps — for a high hand slap, and then he slid right back into the dance steps.
And that is how the Blomgrens, the new dance teachers at the Mount Si Senior Center on Tuesday mornings, run a class. While Glen directs the large group, Julia can work with one or two students independently, until they all know the moves.
“We’ve always made up our minds to never go forward until everybody’s got it,” Julia explained.
It’s a principle that they’ve learned from 21 years of teaching together, and one that gives everyone a chance to celebrate their progress, whether Julia spots it or not.
“They’re supposed to get rowdy when they do it right,” Glen said, and this morning’s class of nine, including some seasoned line dancers, a couple of belly dancers, and a brand-new couple, knew how to do that, with hollers, hugs, and more high-fives.
The class focuses on country line dancing, a little different from the class that Lupe Filson had been teaching, but with the same health and mental benefits of any type of dancing. Glen pointed to research that indicates dancing may prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease, and said “If it doesn’t reverse aging, it certainly holds it at bay.”
Many of his students agree, including 82 year-old Gerry Guenther who also belly dances. “What better way to get exercise,” she asked.
Guenther was part of a close group of Filson’s students that, Filson wanted to help keep dancing after she moved to California this month.
“She was so attached to her class, she wanted to have something to continue for them,” Glen said, explaining how Filson recruited him to take over the class.
He wondered how a country class would go over with her students, and she assured him that people had been asking specifically for country dancing, so he agreed to co-teach a couple of classes with Filson before today’s first “solo” class.
“All of her students, every one of ‘em has stayed,” he said happily.
The country aspect is still pretty new, though, which was clear as students changed out of their dancing shoes after class.
“We haven’t really talked about shoes,” Glen said. “We’re more into boots.”
Country line-dancing is taught at 11 a.m. Tuesdays at the senior center. The Blomgrens hope to soon add an evening couple’s class, and eventually hold monthly dances at the center.
