This invitation is for anyone who could never quite get into the dance scene under the disco ball but may have dreamed of glistening chandeliers, a full orchestra, and a glide around the floor with a handsome partner.
Every Wednesday at Baltimore?s grand dame of Beaux Arts elegance, the Belvedere Hotel, the twin 12th-floor ballrooms come alive with dancing, dining, music, and … lessons. No longer a sissy sport for guys, or an embarrassing torture for wallflowers, ballroom dancing (in part due to the TV show “Dancing with the Stars”) is hot.
Dance instructor Helmut Licht will say that it never went out of vogue. He has been turning the two left feet of his students into “Fred and Gingers” since 1956. And for the last 10 years, he has taken up residence in the Belvedere.
“I want people to get into dancing,” Licht said, “to show them how easy it is and how much fun they can have.”
The German native studied dance in Munich and music here at Peabody. In the 1950?s, he was an Arthur Murray dance instructor. While he maintains that swing dancing, also called jitterbug or Lindy, is the “most popular rhythm in the Unites States,” his instructional repertoire includes such dance floor classics as the tango, waltz, cha-cha, rhumba, samba and polka.
A typical Wednesday evening at the Belvedere begins at 6:30 p.m. in the ballrooms, where a buffet dinner is set up. There is eating and dancing to taped music in the front room until 7:30 p.m. That is the magic hour when Helmut takes over as instructor for a one-hour lesson. He encourages his students to change partners frequently, so there are no strangers by the time general dancing begins. At 8:30 p.m., the orchestra tunes up and the dancing begins in earnest.
Jacqueline Marhefka is a regular Wednesday night dancer and also teaches ballroom dancing at Towson University.
“A major part of our social life is dancing,” she says, adding that, in her opinion, Helmut Licht is one of the greatest dancers in Baltimore.
IF YOU GO
Ballroom Dancing at the Belvedere Hotel, 1 East Chase St., Baltimore; 410-332-1000
» Times: 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Wednesdays
» Admission: $17 at the door includes full buffet, dance lessons, live ballroom music
