Legacy

Dance is the language of love, but just like a first date, it can be one of the most awkward experiences a person can have. The first day of Intro to Ballroom Dance is just that — awkward. Reminiscent of a middle school dance, students stand along the walls with their arms crossed behind their backs, fidgeting and looking around as if they want to escape.

However, these students aren’t pubescent teenagers; they are fully grown men and women.

Awkward or not, Kinesiology Associate Professor Melanie Seeling lines her students up against the back wall and begins to show them the basic steps of a Foxtrot, counting aloud as she performs the steps with them.

“One, two, one, two, one, two … Congratulations you’ve all just done quick steps,” she says, “And it didn’t hurt you any, did it?”

The students force out nervous laughter, but from the looks on their faces it seems as if they may, indeed, be in a bit of pain. This feeling is often shared among beginners.

While many students enroll in this class with a partner, some, like mechanical engineering graduate student Ranran Liu, enroll by themselves and are assigned partners on the first day of class. Liu thinks this aspect of the class is actually in the best interest of students.

“I want to know more people. This makes it easier,” Liu said after the first day of class.

Kinesiology senior Jonathan Finney remembers his first day learning the Foxtrot.

“Miss Melanie would rotate partners, and all of a sudden you’re standing next to a person you don t know,” Finney said. “I attribute my ability to dance on the way she teaches. I’ve become more confident and decisive, and it’s spilled over into other areas of my life.”

Seeling takes pride in watching dance bring people together. She feels dance has the potential to create many ties and build social skills.

“Like any other sport, [ballroom dance] forms a bond that can’t be anything other than positive,” she said. “It shows how you should treat your partner. The man should take care of lady, and the lady should respect and love the man.”

When students swap partners in class, Seeling points to a man and then points to a woman and says, “Ask her to dance, please.”

University alumnus Dillion Couvillon remembers learning more than just dance steps from taking Seeling’s ballroom dance class.

“Ballroom gave me more respect for women,” he said. “These classes are good for people our age because it shows us how to treat each other.”

But Seeling wasn’t always the teacher. Eighteen years ago Melanie Watts walked into Ric Seeling’s Dance Studio to take a jitterbug class. Ric Seeling had extra men in his class and needed a partner.

“I used her as a person to demonstrate, and I saw her abilities, fell in love with her, and the rest is history,” he said.

Melanie Seeling remembers being nervous for her first day of class.

“I heard music start, went to peek in the doorway, and [Ric] walked up to me, looked at me kinda grimly and asked if I was in his class,” she said. “I said I was just watching because it was my first day. He said, ‘Nobody watches the first day,’ and pulled me into class. I was interested in dancing, and I was interested in him, and I never left either one.”

Soon after that first class, Melanie Seeling began to attend regularly, first taking private lessons with her soon-to-be husband who taught her the way the man leads and makes sure the woman is always supportive and perfectly in tune. Shorty thereafter, she began teaching her own classes.

Three years later she and Ric Seeling were married.

Seeling hopes dance will gain popularity among younger ages so they can reap its benefits earlier in life. She’s enthusiastic about the awareness that television shows like “So You Think You Can Dance?” and “Dancing with the Stars” have brought to audiences who aren’t normally exposed to this art.

“’Dancing with the Stars’ has made dance relatable to people. Men look at Emmitt Smith and say, ‘If he can do this, I can,’” she said.

Because TV is increasing its popularity, Seeling is excited about the future of dance and working with new students. One of those students she’s currently working with is Kinesiology freshman Amanda Cockerham. Though she’s a former dancer herself, Cockerham still appreciates Seeling’s teaching style.

“She doesn’t just say, ‘Watch me do this.’ She does the same thing at the same time we do,” Cockerham said. “This is important because no one knows what they’re doing. She shows us that we’re all the same. I used to dance before [this class], but I’m still excited because I don’t know what to expect!”

Photographs by Maggie Bowles