Let's Dance uses ballroom dancing to teach discipline and teamwork to Avondale students

It was dance that first connected Greg Norman and Kathye Lewis two and a half years ago, and dance has been their passion ever since. As the two began dating, they talked about ways they could share and pass on their passion.
 
Norman previously taught ballroom dance classes in Los Angeles, where they’d grown to include the children of his adult students. The couple was captivated by the idea of dance classes for young people in Cincinnati’s inner city, similar to those held in New York City and many other places and featured in the documentary film Mad Hot Ballroom.
 
So, at the recommendation of Lewis’ friend, the two applied for a People’s Liberty project grant and were awarded $10,000 to start “Let’s Dance,” a 10-week ballroom dance class for fifth and sixth graders at South Avondale Elementary School.
 
“We wanted to be able to have an impact in the community,” Lewis says.
 
The first 10-week class had its graduation ceremony on Feb. 10, when students got to perform two ballroom dances they’d learned — the Waltz and the Cha-Cha-Cha — for their parents and families.
Kathye Lewis and Greg Norman 
“They loved everything that they learned, and they showed off at graduation,” Lewis says. “It was just wonderful.”
 
Lewis and Norman say they’ve already been able to see dancing’s impact on the students. Because learning ballroom dance requires discipline and teamwork, the teachers say they’ve even been able to see improvement in the children’s behavior. The experience speaks to the importance of arts education, they believe.
 
“I think that this program should be in all the schools because the arts have been taken out,” Norman says. “What we have learned is that the arts really do help children. It shows how you can take students that might not feel like they can contribute and expose them to the arts and they discover they may have other unique talents.”
 
Norman and Lewis started with that mindset of “life lessons through ballroom dance” as well as with the goal of exposing students to different kinds of music and artistic expression as they dance to artists like Nat King Cole and Cuban Pete. They also see themselves as passing on a legacy of black ballroom dance in Cincinnati, particularly in Avondale, recalling how important that artistic exposure has been in both their lives.
 
“This is an experience they will carry with them for the rest of their lives,” Norman says.
 
The students from the first class certainly won’t be leaving the experience behind soon — many will return for the second 10-week session to act as mentors for new students. Norman and Lewis are also dedicated to making the program available in more ways and on a long-term basis across the city.
 
“That’s the good thing about People’s Liberty,” Lewis says. “It gives people the opportunity to try out concepts and build things around them.”