Published March 30, 2006
Get out your dancing shoes
Thursday nights are swinging at the art center

Before Rentha Davis started taking dance lessons, she always thought Fred Astaire was the best dancer. Now she realizes it was his partner, Ginger Rogers, who should hold the title of most accomplished dancer.
"I always thought Fred Astaire was great, but now I think about Ginger Rogers in heels going backwards--now that's an accomplishment," Davis said.
Davis and her husband are among a growing number of couples and singles who take dance lessons Thursday evenings at the Sharptop Arts Center from instructor Rebecca Hampton.
Hampton, a 25-year-veteran dance teacher, offers classes in ballroom dancing including the waltz, foxtrot, jitterbug and east coast swing.
Hampton said enrollment in her classes has jumped since the debut of the television show Dancing With the Stars.
"It has revived everyone's interest in dancing--which is great," Hampton said. "For five or six years, I had two to six people coming to the classes and, all of a sudden, I've got nearly 20 people here dancing. It's all because of that show. It's got people jazzed up about it. It even gets me excited about it, and I feel like I need to take some classes and get some refresher courses."
Hampton has been an instructor and choreographer for decades and said she "usually teaches whatever's happening at the time." From country-western swing dance to ballroom, Hampton's classes change with the trends.
"Country dance was hot for about 10 years, and then it died out. Swing dancing got popular for a while, and now it's ballroom dance," she said.
Hampton has choreographed shows with Charlie Daniels for the Atlanta Superbowl, danced in a Travis Tritt video and worked with Perry Ellis for a runway show when country-western dance was popular.
Hampton said people sign up for her classes for a host of different reasons, but all tend to fall in love with dancing.
"I saw the information in the newspaper and thought it would be fun," Ms. Davis said. "I had taken just enough dance classes at Atlanta Dance in Roswell to want to learn more. It's been a lot of fun, and I've gotten to meet a lot of people. My husband and I spend half our time at class arguing and the other half laughing--it's been great." Davis said she watched ballroom dance competitions on television for years--even before Dancing With the Stars became popular--and loved the costumes and how graceful the dancers looked.
"I knew I would never be that graceful, but I thought it would be great fun," she said.
The youngest dancers in the class, Jason Segers and Caity Carver, started dancing together to get ready for their prom.
Segers, who has fallen in love with dancing, began taking lessons seven months ago after seeing Hampton and her dancing partner at a downtown dance in Jasper. Carver joined in a month ago after Segers asked her to the prom.
The husband and wife dancing team of Jeff and Cindy Fix began taking lessons last year to prepare for their daughter's wedding.
"She and her husband are good dancers, so we wanted to learn, and we found out we really loved it, and here we are," Ms. Fix said.
The duo's favorite dance is the swing, one of the two ballroom dances done to faster, rhythmic music. Hampton said the swing is probably the most valuable dance to learn, because you can do it to most any music including disco, beach and country-western music.
"It's probably the most fun, and people tend to enjoy it the most, because it can be danced to any high energy music," she said.
The foxtrot and waltz are smooth dances, usually danced to slower music and are easier to learn than the jitterbug and swing.
"Rebecca is a great teacher," Mrs. Fix said. "More people ought to come, because they are really missing out."
The Fixs agree it takes time and practice before everything clicks together on the dance floor.
"The first three months are the worst, because you're constantly looking at your feet and counting," she said. "But after that, you get into the flow of things. There's definitely a learning curve. I think a lot of people get discouraged, but if you hang in there, it's really great, and you have a lot of fun."
Hampton said she encourages young people to learn dance for an active lifestyle.
"It's great exercise. You can't do aerobics all night, but you can dance all night long," she said. "It's great to watch people progress. Couples come in and learn and then, over time, continue to perfect the steps and the overall dance. You can learn the steps up front, and then you learn grace and flare down the road--it doesn't come in the beginning."
Hampton said you don't have to be part of a couple to join the class. Singles interested in dancing can join and find a partner in class. For more information, call Rebecca Hampton at 706-337-4774.