Dance Lessons

WHEN FRED Talentino was in the eighth grade, his mother signed him up for dance lessons. At first, he hated it. But as he learned the steps, his confidence grew, and he started to look forward to the classes - not that he would acknowledge it, of course. These days, Talentino tells that story to the eighth-graders at Patapsco Middle School at the start of the ballroom dancing unit he teaches. Talentino, a physical education teacher at the school in Ellicott City, started the program about 12 years ago because he wanted pupils to have a good time at the school dance held every spring.

WHEN THE CLOSING bell rings at Crofton Middle School, more than 100 children ignore the school buses and the sidewalks leading home. They stay after school for hours to practice dance steps, learn their lines and prepare for next week's production of 42nd Street. This is the fifth year that Crofton Middle School parents and children have produced a spring musical. The process began in the fall when the youngsters auditioned for parts on the stage and in the ensembles. Valerie Gerheiser, one of the show's mother-producers, reports that this year's group of pupils is the largest yet. She is impressed by the enthusiasm, hard work and talent the youngsters have brought to the project.

MOST OF the dances are done with women lined up on one side and men on the other. Ten to 20 couples follow the instructions of a caller. Often, two or more pairs dance figures together. Couples on one end are sent to the other end of the line as the dances progress. If it sounds a little like contra or square dancing, it is. Colonial-era English country dance is just slower in tempo, more fluid and more elegant - and classes are forming in Edgewater, where students will learn the smooth, simple movements of the dance.

* Editor's note: Barnyard animals go hog wild over dance lessons given by an independent-minded pig. Dumpy La Rue wanted to dance, "You're a pig," said his father. "Pigs don't dance. They grunt, they grovel, they snuffle for truffles." "Pigs don't dance," said his mother. "They bellow, they swallow, they learn how to wallow." "I want to dance," said Dumpy. "Fat chance," said his sister. "Boys don't dance. They fight, they march, they sport, and they snort. And they're never ever supposed to cavort."

When Melissa Reilly began taking dance lessons from Judy Daniel, she never imagined she'd grow up to be a dance instructor herself -- and married to her teacher's son. Melissa, who started dance lessons at age 3, began taking classes from Judy in 1986. That was when Judy was teaching in a rented church hall and her son Dave spent many evenings trying to distract the dancers with comic antics. "I remember him getting yelled at a lot because he would try to play basketball in the middle of class," Melissa says.

The music is throbbing, and Eva Anderson is hard at work. While a group of dancers glides to Latin rhythms across a rehearsal room floor at the Howard County Center for the Arts, Anderson watches intently for any missed beat or flubbed step. "One-two-three-four, five-six-seven-eight," Anderson murmurs to herself as she taps one tennis shoe-clad foot. "Yes, yes, that's it." For more than 25 years, Anderson has commanded the Eva Anderson Dancers Ltd., a company that has become almost synonymous with African American dance in the region.

"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is an excellence, and if there is anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things." -- Philippians 4:8 In a word, Herbert Ellis was skeptical. He'd heard ideas like this from his daughter before. Sure, her brainstorms always sounded good -- for an hour or two, maybe for a day -- but in the end, they seemed to give way. To boredom.

RECENTLY THE Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the Roost of the Association of Old Crows held its annual holiday party and awards ceremony. The group takes its name from the World War II organization that worked on sensitive, classified projects that developed countermeasures to defeat German radar. That World War II program was known as Project Raven.John McCarty, a longtime Linthicum resident, was named the chapter's Crow of the Year. He is retired and is an exhibit coordinator at the Historical Electronics Museum at West Nursery and Elkridge Landing roads in Linthicum.

The sweet-natured Japanese drama "Shall We Dance?" opens in a gilded dance hall with a voice-over primer in Japanese social repression. "The idea that a husband and wife should embrace and dance in front of each other is beyond embarrassment," says Shohei Sugiyama, a Tokyo businessman who discovers joy through ballroom dancing.For an American audience, the explanation provides a national context that transforms "Shall We Dance?" into more than a film about hoofing it in the Far East, a mere Japanese version of "Strictly Ballroom."