PRINTLords and ladies of the dance
Columbia Cotillion is the rhythmic remedy for 492 left feet
Zach Honig
Cara Ross demonstrates a dance technique with DJ Devin Dorosh as ninth-grade students look on during their first cotillion dance lesson in the Oakland Junior High gymnasium. The first dance will take place Saturday.
November 16, 2006 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Three times a year, junior high students from across Columbia gather to take dance lessons from Columbia Cotillion. Forty dollars buys participants three dance lessons, admission to three dances, a cotillion scrapbook that includes professional photos and, hopefully, a little confidence. The students will learn to execute Western, ballroom and decade-specific dances, be assured a partner and meet new people with whom they might attend high school next year.
Jorie Neech, 14, dances during a Columbia Cotillion practice dance at Oakland Junior High School ...
The ninth graders’ first lesson occurred last Saturday night in the Oakland Junior High gym. The first time they run through the steps, there is giggling from some, contemplative lip biting from others and a few disinterested shuffles. The sound of hundreds of gym shoes runs together as the lesson begins. But fairly quickly the steps align and fall into the rhythm of the music. At this point, a few students are comfortable enough to add some personal flair to the dance, while others continue to bump into adjacent couples every time the direction of the steps changes.
When they start to get the hang of it, the dancers are instructed to introduce themselves to their partners and strike up a conversation.
Planning self-esteem
Traditionally, a cotillion is a formal dance used to present debutantes to society, but the Columbia Cotillion is all-embracing. Every ninth grader in town is invited, and this year the first 123 of each gender who responded will learn to dance alongside a couple of hundred future classmates.
Organizing 246 teenagers isn’t easy. A board of ninth graders’ parents plans the dances and corresponding dance lessons. They also send out invitations, decorate the gym and ensure there will be an equal number of males and females attending. (Not surprisingly, they usually have to encourage a few dancers of the male persuasion to attend.) But why all the trouble for a simple dance?
Cara Ross, who teaches physical education at Smithton Middle School, has been the cotillion dance instructor for 21 years. She teaches ballroom, the cha-cha, the tango, the Texas two-step, a 10-step circle dance and line dances, among others. Ross isn’t strict about technique. For her, it’s about more than the moves. The important thing is working with a partner and socializing appropriately, which strays significantly from the typical boys huddled in one corner, girls in the other middle school dance.
Galynn France, one of the co-chairs of this year’s committee, hopes the kids “learn some new dance steps and how to have fun dancing comfortably with a large group.”
Taking the lead
The ninth graders say they have high hopes for the first dance, which will be Western-themed. The lessons and dances are at Oakland Junior High, and the students anticipate meeting lots of kids with whom they’ll be attending high school.
For the girls, the chance to dress up for the dances will be a welcome change from typical junior high chic, i.e. jeans and a T-shirt. Alexa Anderson and Jorie Neech, ninth graders at Oakland, already know what they’ll be wearing for the first dance — surprise: cowgirl boots and hats.
Interacting with the opposite sex is a big incentive. Although they won’t be able to choose their dance partners, they will get to socialize with a lot of other kids.
Looking back
It’s easy for the ninth graders to imagine things will go smoothly at the dance, but once there, the steps get a little foggy, people get nervous and things get complicated. Amber Classens, a cheerleader at Hickman High
School, attended the dances last year.
At her Western dance people were on stage demonstrating, but the dancers still made mistakes. “We stopped and laughed and waited until we could dance again.”
As far as speaking with partners, Classens says that at first, “it was kind of awkward, but you get more comfortable with it. After a while you start talking to them and making conversation.”
All in all, Classens remembers the cotillion dances fondly. “When you’re in junior high, the only thing you can do is hang out at peoples’ houses. It was something new.”
Dee Lamphear, who now teaches 14- and 15-year-olds, attended the dances in 1989. “We made fun of it all the time,” she says. “But we ended up having a really good time, which is the classic mind of the high school student: You have to say things suck, but you end up saying you enjoyed it.”
A good amount of cotillion know-how actually sticks. Classens remembers a time “Cotton-Eyed Joe” came on the radio, and she and her friends got up and started doing the Western dance they had learned for the cotillion. “We were like, ‘Oh, how do we remember this?’ ”
