Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 30, 1990 TAG: 9006300056
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHIE DICKENSON
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
"Dancing to me is an expression of life and love," Weiss said, "and the more adept a person becomes at it, the more joy they experience."
That is not to discount the importance of knowing the correct steps.
Weiss teaches ballroom dancing to adults, privately at The Dance Place in Christiansburg and through the Blacksburg YMCA's Open University.
The classes vary in size and skill and meet weekly for about seven weeks. Once a year Weiss also teaches a 10-week cotillion to middle-school students at the University Club in Blacksburg.
In her classes, Weiss routinely lines students up, males on one side of the room, females facing them on the other, and goes over a dance step until everyone feels comfortable with it. Then she teaches the correct lead for the step, taking on the role of the male and demonstrating with one of her female students.
This ability to go grom one role to another - made possible by her background in ballet - is of great advantage in teaching without a partner. But then role-playing is part of dancing anyway, according to Weiss.
"Every single dance is an art form," she explained. "The person has to become an actor and take on a different role. In the waltz, the gentleman takes the role of a noble, charming man in love with his partner. The lady is graceful, flirtatious, swept off her feet by her gentleman."
Weiss has written a short poem to describe the waltz:
"The material is air
"The movement is breath
"The source is love"
In the tango, she said, "the gentleman is compelling, romantic, but at the same time a little naughty. The lady is fiery, sensual and coquettish."
The key, Weiss believes, is to get the concepts of motion, technique and feeling in mind before learning the steps.
"People are very responsive to that," she has found. "The more their skills grow, the more excited they become." Men, in particular, take to it. "They don't want something dry. They want the principles behind it."
Weiss has been dancing since she was a child in '40s, the daughter of "one of these stage mothers" who put her in dance school when she was quite young in New York. "Child entertainment was a big thing then," so she performed frequently in clubs.
As an adult she had her own ballet company on Long Island during the '60s and '70s, did choreography, and worked for Fred Astaire Studios. For 15 years she ran her own studio, where she taught ballet, tap and ballroom dancing - until illness forced her to give up ballet and tap.
In 1969, the dance studio became a music and dance studio when she married her husband, Charlie, who was doing musical direction for a theater group in New York when she met him.
Charlie became not only her partner but one of her greatest fans. He has been learning ballroom dancing in Weiss's classes - as a musician he has always played in dance bands but never had the opportunity to learn to dance. Often at the end of a class session, Weiss' students applaud her, he noted. "My objective opinion is that she's a very special dance teacher."
What brought these two to Southwestern Virginia?
They insist they are grateful for the training and experience they received in New York. But the city became so crowded and the cost of living so high that it was difficult to avoid a very materialistic lifestyle there. It was easy "to forget the essence of things." So they moved to this area 12 years ago, where they can live more simply.
They have a home in Floyd County's Indian Valley and a mobile home in Christiansburg where they stay during the week while they're working.
Charlie Weiss, who has a master's degree in musical composition, gives piano lessons, plays with the Ken Epperly Band, accompanies the Radford High chorus, tunes pianos and writes music.
Anita Weiss, in addition to bringing back a feeling of graceful "olden days" through her ballroom classes, enjoys painting. The walls of her home are decorated with oils of shy ballet dancers, cocky Brooklyn youths and other figures from her past.
The two are organizing a ballroom dance club for anyone who is interested in a regular opportunity to glide across the floor to live music in a smoke-free setting.
For information about the club or classes, call 381-0840.
by CNB