Girls were allowed to practice ballroom dancing for half an hour twice a day to music projected by the huge wooden speaker from an original Victrola record player that remains intact.
IT was another Friday night at Rising Stars Dance Academy here, and Jhanna Volynets had taken her usual seat along the wall, there to watch her daughter, Nicole, 14, and son, Ted, 12, practice ballroom dancing along with a roomful of other young couples.
Even on a recent overcast afternoon, the area around the pool was busy with people playing volleyball, handball and dominoes, and practicing ballroom dancing.
A little farther on, old friends were practicing ballroom dancing — holding each other awkwardly and slightly apart, like embarrassed teenagers — while a melancholy, old-time song played on a tinny cassette player.
The first hint of the looming rebellion came from the lips of Hao Yang, 17, as he practiced ballroom dancing outside Stuyvesant High School on Wednesday morning, the first licks of sunlight casting a long shadow that made a perfect dance partner on the wall behind him.
Begin learning and practicing ballroom dancing.
He was practicing his ballroom dancing skills for his role on the ABC television show "Dancing With the Stars".
(The tango of Northern Hemisphere ballroom practice has always been a species apart from the Argentine tango, sometimes enjoyable in its own right but really a mannerist parody of the real thing).
The basic floor pattern outlined by the dancers was at first a figure 8 and, later, the letter Z. Musically, the minuet is in moderate triple time (as 3/4 or 3/8) with two sections: minuet and trio (actually a second minuet, originally for three instruments; it derives from the ballroom practice of alternating two minuets).
The Giants' whirlwind weekend featured a layover at the Kansas City airport, a singing competition among rookies, a practice in a hotel ballroom and a detour to Detroit.
Where to Stay For a taste of 1930's elegance -- but a taste seasoned with a heavy dose of state-owned clumsiness -- the Peace Hotel, 20 Nanjing Dong Road, 86-211) 6321-6888, fax 86-211) 6329-0300, offers easy access to Shanghai's old commercial district and a chance to watch energetic Shanghainese practice tai chi or ballroom dancing along the Bund at dawn.
