Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012

She’s still dancing after all these years

Locksley Gardner is a fixture at A Step to Gold International Ballroom in North Raleigh. That in itself isn’t that surprising. But her age is: 94. And she’s defied expectations her whole life.

“My excuse is that it’s good exercise, but I really like it,” she said. “And there’s so much to learn about ballroom. It never ends.”

She started dancing in high school, though it wasn’t anything fancy, just moving to the rhythm. But back in 1952 or ’53, she started taking formal lessons and she’s been dancing off and on ever since.

A Step to Gold International Ballroom has been in its current location for about 12 years, but before that, it was in Wendell. That’s where owner Melanie Dale got to know Gardner.

Gardner had started an amateur dance once a month that Dale attended. When the two hit it off, Gardner started going to Dale’s Wendell studio for additional dancing.

Perhaps the two hit it off because of their like-minded sensibilities. Neither was willing to back off the things they loved just because others disapproved.

“All the churches there were against dancing.” Dale said of Wendell. “In fact, I was told that what I did for a living led to immoral behavior after I offered to have some dances to fund some children to come here from Belarus to get medical treatment.”

Gardner, similarly, faced derision from someone who didn’t think she should be dancing. Back when she was in her late 40s, she went to her first dance competition in New Jersey, but her husband wasn’t happy.

“My husband went to bed because he was so depressed that I would be doing that,” she said. “He didn’t like for me to be dancing. He was jealous of the teachers. I had a picture of my dance teacher… I had it in the bedroom. Well, he destroyed it.”

But she defied his disdain for dance. He’s been gone for 40 years now, which perhaps helps explain why she’s been so active in dance during her senior years.

But for some people, dancing is still a young woman’s sport.

“You don’t get too old to dance,” Gardner said. “I mean, if you like it, why not?”

In fact, that’s the way she feels about many things in life. Just because she’s 94 doesn’t mean she can’t drive, dance or take up something entirely new, like piano. Gardner has done just that, though she said being fleet of finger doesn’t compare to being fleet of foot.

“My piano teacher asked me why I was taking more dance lessons than piano,” she said. “I can’t take that many piano lessons. It’s not that much fun.”

Gardner’s dance instructor at the ballroom in Raleigh is 32-year-old Jason Muller. She’s been dancing longer than he’s been alive, but he seems unfazed.

“I think she’s awe-inspiring,” he said. “In a way, she’s a testament to the benefits of partnership dancing. Staying mobile… being able to move.”

Gardner gets more than exercise and activity out of dancing; she also gets a social network of like-minded people. And that’s a benefit Muller says extends to anyone who takes lessons. It can even help couples.

“They learn how to communicate, work together and figure out how to dance together,” he said. “It can aid and help with their relationships outside the ballroom as well.”

That superb physical communication will be on display at the ballroom on Valentine’s Day as it holds a dance party. One of the featured dancers will be Gardner herself, doing a quickstep to big band music.

Now that’s something worth watching.