A waltz through the years

As the humid summer swelter morphs into crisp autumn, hundreds of sixth-grade students pull on their white gloves, strap on their dancing shoes and swing the night away at Steeple Arts Academy of Dance. 

Generations of residents of Mountain Brook and surrounding areas have taken part in this local tradition that has endured for more than 50 years.

While countless things have changed in the past half century, manners have not. 

Neither has the class itself, said Deanny Coates Hardy, third-generation owner and director of Steeple Arts.

“I think my first pair of shoes were ballet shoes, so all I’ve ever known was dance,” she said. 

Hardy’s grandmother, Lola Mae Jones, started the Lola Mae Jones School of Dance in 1935. It became the Steeple Arts Academy of Dance in 1958 when Jones and her daughter, Lola Mae Coates, moved their school of dance into the iconic red church building on Church Street. 

Hardy carries on the legacy of her mother and grandmother by focusing on classic techniques and timeless social graces in sixth-grade ballroom classes.

“Everything I do I’ve learned from [my mother],” she said. 

Students learn the fox-trot, waltz and swing as well as proper etiquette and good manners in their 10 weekly lessons.

“A lot of times, this is boys’ and girls’ first interaction with each other in a formal setting,” said Hardy, who believes that the class helps students make new friends and become more comfortable with each other before making the transition to junior high.

If the students do well in their first lessons, ballroom instructors teach the students how to adapt the dances they have learned to popular music.

The typical class starts out with roll call. Timeliness is important. Next, the first half of the class is spent on instruction. Afterward, the students practice separately, then partner up, spread around the room and practice. 

“Towards the end of the course, we’ll teach the boys how to properly ask the girls to dance,” said Hardy. 

At the end of each lesson, the boys escort the girls down the steps to the crowd of waiting parents.

More than just a dance class, sixth-grade ballroom dancing stresses proper etiquette and social skills, including how to make proper introductions and hold a conversation. 

Instructors maintain a strict dress code of coats and ties for the boys and “Sunday best” for the girls, meaning dresses and skirts below the knee as well as white gloves and specific dance shoes.

Any of the second- or third-generation families in which grandparents, parents and now children have taken the same class will affirm how it has not changed.

Mary Ann Jones took the class when she was in sixth grade. Both her daughter and her granddaughter have taken the class as well. 

She remembers the lessons in etiquette taught in the class and hopes that today’s children are getting those same lessons from their parents.

“You always walk with your shoulders back, and you always hold your head up,” she said. 

Hardy said that people sometimes ask her why she feels it is important for students to learn classic dance styles and manners.

“It’s fun to watch the boys and girls become more comfortable with each other and gain self-confidence,” she said. “Through the program we’ve seen our students grow into charming, self-confident teenagers. The lasting training of our ballroom students is reflected in and always remembered by our students and their parents and grandparents.”

In order to have an even number of boys and girls, classes are by invitation only. To learn more about Steeple Arts or their sixth-grade ballroom dancing classes, visit steepleartsdance.com.