Steppin’ out

PALMER — With Latin rhythms filling the borough gym from an amplifier attached to her iPod, Tammie Press broke up her students along gender lines — males one side, females on the other.

Grabbing one of her students for demonstration purposes on Wednesday, she showed off a few twirling Salsa moves and explained the steps. Unlike past demonstrations, after she went for a spin herself, her male partner made his own turn, spinning under her raised arm.

“We’re just adding a man’s turn. So he can see how hard we’re always working,” Press said.

With that, guys were reunited with girls and they all gave the move a whirl. After a handful of tries, most of them had it down. As Press flitted from couple to couple, some of her students took on a teaching role, offering pointers to their less-experienced classmates.

Press has been dancing, sometimes competitively, since 1989. She’s been teaching in the Valley since she left Anchorage, sometimes at the gym, sometimes at a local dance studio.

“I’m going on five years now,” in the Valley, she said.

In that time, she’s built up something of a loyal cadre of students, many of whom stick with the Wednesday night classes even as the style of dance Press teaches changes from one month to the next.

But it wasn’t just the regulars in the gym that night.

“I get young people, teenagers. I just get a variety of all kinds,” she said. “This class has a large number of beginners.”

Which, she said, might be daunting, except that her advanced students are more than willing and able to lend a hand.

Robert Bailey is one of those. He and his wife Diana have been taking dance classes for four years. Which wasn’t hard to believe watching him Wednesday; his moves were fluid and he clearly enjoyed himself as he dished out friendly advice and gamely changed partners throughout the night.

Bailey said he loves taking Press’ classes.

“It gives you an opportunity to get out with your wife or your girlfriend and do something with other people and not be in a smoky room or listening to bad music,” he said.

Not only that, he said, but the class is a great way to socialize.

“You make a lot of friends,” he said. “We know people by name. We do things outside of class.”

Oftentimes with dance classes, Bailey said, the information is hard to retain. But when a group of dancing students get together for a night out, everyone brings with them whatever bit of the dance they remember and, as a group, they can piece it all together and look like pros.

But isn’t it maybe a little repetitive to learn the same dances more than once? Bailey doesn’t think so. Press, he said, tailors her lessons to students’ skill levels. With the more advanced in the group, he said, she’ll focus on technique, while managing not to neglect the beginners who need more basic instruction.

“She works with wherever you’re at,” he said.

Press said the biggest change she’s noticed since she started teaching has been in the attitudes of her students.

“People, especially men, are getting more open, not so afraid to come out,” she said. “They discover that, ‘Wow, this is almost like a sport.’ Once I get them in here I get them pretty committed.”

Nan Potts spent a healthy portion of Wednesday’s class practicing solo, though she didn’t hesitate to grab the male half of nearby couple and took a number of twirls with Bailey. She said that she used to teach aerobic dance but is learning ballroom styles from Press.

“She’s my mentor,” Potts said, as she gave Press a friendly hug.

Potts said she and her husband are relatively new to the Valley and the dance classes are a great way to meet people. But she also really enjoys the activity.

“I enjoy movement. I enjoy keeping fit,” Potts said of what brings her out every week. “And this is a way to do it.

She said she’s usually not dancing solo. Her husband is a cargo pilot and is out of town a lot.

“When he’s here he comes. When he’s not here he doesn’t and he gets a reprieve,” she said with a laugh.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.

If you go

Dance classes are at 7 p.m. every Wednesday in the borough gym next to the borough headquarters building in Palmer. The next dance class is Nightclub Two-Step. For more information, call the borough’s recreational services department at 745-9578.