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Once upon a
time, an evening of
partner dancing was a major part of the cultural landscape.
During the Big Band Era of the Thirties, the glamour and sophistication of
Swing dancing
became a
regular part of American nightlife. Those were the days when dinner, dance and
formal attire were a popular way for American couples to enjoy an evening
on the town.
The Swing Era was
glamorized by the legendary Fred Astaire and Ginger
Rogers.
Films such as
Swing Time and Shall We Dance
featured the exciting dancing of Astaire and Rogers. The music and dancing
in these movies captured the magic of the
Big Band Era and spread it far and wide.
The Astaire movies helped inspire the
entire country to spend at least one evening a month
dancing out
on the town.
To me, it
was amazing the power a movie had to inspire an entire
nation to try something new. The 1937 film Shall We Dance
had inspired an entire generation to embrace Swing
Dancing. Now
the 1977 release of
Saturday
Night Fever had
inspired a new generation to partner dance on a
nation-wide basis. Following a 40 year hiatus,
Partner Dancing had regained prominence in the everyday life of
the American public. And here
I was right in the middle of it. John Travolta had
worked a miracle. He made it fashionable for
middle class professionals like the people in Victoria's
private dance class to consider learning to dance for the first time
in their lives.
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Prior to
1978, Disco line dances and freestyle had been an economic
waste of time for dance studios. Until Saturday
Night Fever came along, dance studios had relied on
Ballroom Dancing to stay in business.
However,
partner dancing was a different story. Partner dancing was so
complicated that most people
were forced to take lessons if they wanted to
join the fun. As a result, here in 1978 there were
big bucks to be made
teaching Disco. Ten months into the phenomenon, my
classes were going strong.
I very much
wanted to quit my dreary day job investigating child abuse.
Who knows what I could accomplish if I concentrated all my
energy on growing my dance business? Before making a
final decision I would need to see how my Class Factory
gamble worked out. However I had good reason to be
optimistic. So far Class Factory had handed me 20
students on Tuesdays in September. Class Factory had
delivered 15 more on Fridays in October. Hopefully
more would be on their way in November.
November would
be special for another reason as well. I planned to
offer an Intermediate partner dance class to the original
September Class Factory students. Whoever signed up
would pay me directly because Class Factory students
belonged to me. Or did they? Deborah Gordon
might say they belonged to Class Factory as well.
Lance Stevens might make a similar claim. All students
under his roof belonged to him. Fortunately neither
Lance Stevens nor Deborah Gordon were paying much attention.
As a result my little acorn was being allowed to grow
stronger in secrecy.
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Victoria's
private dance class had just placed $800 in my pocket.
In a flash, I had gone from making $15 an hour to $100 an
hour. As one can imagine, that seriously got my
attention. This huge payday suggested maybe I really
could quit my day job and make a living as a dance teacher. Did I dare
hope this amazing good fortune could become a
career for me? Prior to Class Factory, I had been
skeptical. Working for $15 an hour
was no way to support myself long-term. However, now
that Class Factory had come along, my prospects
were looking much better.
By and large,
so far the Disco Phenomenon had been dominated by the
Singles crowd. Dancing was the perfect way for girls
to meet boys and vice versa. For the younger crowd,
restless and full of energy, this was an exciting time. In
my classes, there was a smattering of married couples, but
they were the exception. Married people had better
things to do. Raise children, pursue careers, plan
vacations, buy homes, mow the lawn. Saturday night was
restaurant and a movie
or cocktail party and cards with friends. For husbands who
worked too hard, pizza, beer and a TV football game at home sounded good. A night of dancing on the
town? Unlikely. As a rule, married men could
care less about dancing. Those rumors that
Slow Dance led to Romance were sweet, but save it for the
singles crowd. They already had a wife, so why should they bother
learning to dance? These guys were way past the
courtship stage. They knew their wives liked
to dance, but so what? No wife would leave a husband
just because he showed no interest in dance lessons.
Content that their marriage was secure without dance, most
married men ignored this weird Disco craze.
"Honey, the game just started. Will you
bring me a beer?"
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Given the
general apathy of married people towards Disco dancing,
Victoria's Friday
night class was unusual because it consisted of 16 married couples.
I wondered how she had persuaded so many husbands to
participate. Several discrete questions revealed that not
one person in Victoria's group had
ever taken a social dance class such as Ballroom. For most couples, the only time they had ever come close to partner dancing was their
First Dance at their wedding.
When their wives weren't listening, Michael's friends confided to me they had faked their way through the ordeal.
They were telling the truth. When I first met them, these guys couldn't dance their way out of a paper bag.
Not
that they should feel guilty. Practically no husband
in America had any knowledge of partner dancing. And
why should they? The tradition of partner dancing had
died with the Twist twenty years ago. And it stayed
that way until
Saturday Night
Fever came along.
Previously the
average American husband could get away with a lack of
knowledge about dancing. A little
alcohol-assisted freestyle dancing on New Year's Eve or a slow dance sway was
the best their
wives could expect. However, once the wives across America saw
images of
exciting partner dancing
in Saturday Night
Fever, they wanted to
get in on the action. Unfortunately, so far they had
not had much luck. In the privacy of their homes, husbands
dragged their feet. "Maybe next month..."
And that is how it stayed until Victoria decided to spring a
trap. Keep in mind I knew none of this in advance, but
further down the road I insisted
Victoria should share the inside scoop. This private
Friday dance class
had been her Secret Agenda dating all the way
back to August. It started when Victoria had gotten fed up
with Michael's long hours at work.
"Michael,
when we got married, I never imagined you would
prefer work over me. I never see you anymore!"
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Sitting by the
poolside as her daughter Stephanie played in the kiddie
pool, one day that summer Victoria decided to take my JCC line dance
class. That gave her an idea. She knew Michael
would never agree to take a line dance class, but what about
partner dancing?
Saturday Night
Fever had given her exactly the opening she needed.
Victoria understood the three most powerful forces in the
Universe were gravity, nuclear energy and gossip. She
started by recruiting two married
girlfriends with powers of influence similar to hers.
Once she got her girlfriends in on the plot, they coordinated a simultaneous take-down.
One night
in mid-September
Victoria cornered
her husband.
"Michael,
you know I've been taking dance lessons. Rick told me about this dance
class on Friday. I would like for you to take this
class with me."
Michael replied,
"Oh, honey, some day I
would like to learn to dance, but not on Friday. I
work hard all week long and Friday night is my first chance to relax
and unwind. Besides, I play tennis early on Saturday.
I need Friday to rest up."
"Nonsense,
Michael. I just learned that Margaret and Michelle's husbands have
already agreed to take
Rick's class. If those husbands are willing to do it, so can you!"
Meanwhile a
similar scenario was unfolding in two other households.
Michelle: "Henry, did you know that Margaret and Victoria's husbands
have already agreed to take this partner dance class?"
Margaret: "Donald, did you know Michelle and Victoria's husbands have
already agreed to take this partner dance class?"
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In truth, none
of these husbands had agreed to do any such thing, but in
the middle of the debate there was no way they dared get on
the phone to check out the stories of the other men.
It took some work, but eventually all three husbands gave
in. Now it was time for Stage Two. Victoria told
Margaret and Michelle to recruit more like-minded wives.
Over the next week the three
wives branched out to contact other wives who in turn
contacted other wives. Working the telephone
relentlessly, Victoria and company organized an army of
wives. Using a combination of the 'Happy Wife Happy
Life' theme and Peer Pressure as leverage, this
well-organized group of wives systematically persuaded their
befuddled husbands into taking Victoria's Friday class.
Pretty much against their will, one by one the men gave in.
Husbands learning to dance? Unheard
of! Nevertheless, it was true thanks to the magic of
Saturday Night
Fever. Now that Partner
Dancing was a trend sweeping the nation, the movie
had made it fashionable for married
couples to learn to dance. If someone didn't know how to Disco
partner dance, they were seriously behind the times.
Now thanks to Victoria and friends, 16 husbands swore under their breath
as they drove to dance class on Fridays in October.
What is this world coming to? Dance lessons
will eat into my free time! Whatever happened to
flowers, chocolate and jewelry as a quick fix to pacify
attention-starved wives? Oh well, those days were over now that
partner dancing had become the new symbol of a husband's
commitment to marital contentment.
The husbands of
Victoria's girlfriends never knew what hit them. Once the snowball began rolling,
in the space of a week it turned into an avalanche
of 16 couples. The
smart ones understood the rules had changed and decided to
cooperate, but that didn't stop them from complaining. Whenever their
wives turned their backs, the men secretly grumbled to me what a great sacrifice they were
making. I grinned at them and whispered, "Oh, knock
it off. It could be worse. Look how happy they
are."
Pointing to the
wives who were laughing and carrying on together, the men
would give me a dirty look and then we would all laugh.
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Did
Victoria stop there? No. Victoria had
accomplished a miracle getting all these husbands to
yield their precious Friday night for the
good of their marriages. But she was unwilling
to settle for a partial victory. Now
that she had gotten these men into class, the next
step was to make them take their wives dancing. Victoria sprang Stage
Three of
her trap on Friday the 13th, an unlucky
night indeed for the husbands. At the end of class
that night, Victoria
insisted everyone gather round.
"Gentlemen, your wives greatly appreciate the noble
sacrifice of your Fridays to take this Disco class.
But that, my friends, is not enough. It is
time to take your wives to a club and dance with
them!"
As
the men turned pale white, someone had the
presence to ask when.
"Tonight!
What better time than now? What's stopping you?
Let's go!"
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The
women were all for it, but the men pooh-poohed the idea.
Victoria was indignant.
"C'mon,
guys,
what is wrong with you? The night is young! Your wives think you are wonderful
for taking these lessons. That's a great start.
Now the ladies want you to take them dancing. Get out there and put these dance lessons
to good use!"
The men
groaned loudly. What about their Saturday tennis match
or 7 am
tee time? Victoria would have nothing of it.
She crossed her arms and exclaimed, "No
excuses!"
The men were about to step up their protest
when something remarkable happened.
The
women suddenly closed ranks. 16 wives each took a step closer together
to their husbands. One by one they looked their
husbands in the eye and gave them the good old "Do
you want supper tomorrow night or don't you?" Divide and Conquer! Taken
aback by this unexpected show of unity, the husbands folded
on the spot. With everyone watching, there was no way a
solitary man had the courage to
protest once the women presented a unified front.
It was an extraordinary moment. Nor was this show of
solidarity an accident.
The men did not know that every woman in the group
was in on tonight's conspiracy thanks to Victoria's knack for
behind-the-scene phone calls.
Thanks to Victoria's coordinated ambush, the entire group
agreed to head
over to the Pistachio Club.
I was impressed by Victoria's master stroke. Curious, I went along to
observe. I was pleased to note the group had a blast.
Once the men got to the Pistachio Club, they discovered partner dancing wasn't nearly
so
difficult after all. Even better, the pulsating Disco
music and the energy of the club inspired them. To their considerable surprise, they actually became enthusiastic about
the dancing. Better yet, they
certainly enjoyed the grins, encouragement and compliments from their wives.
Hey, this isn't so bad after all! There was a lot of laughter and a lot of teasing.
I think the men were secretly proud of themselves.
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None of the couples
stayed very late. After all, the men only had two
hours of dance lessons under their belt. Nevertheless,
the practice did them good. Not only did they lock in
what they had learned so far, they developed a hunger to
learn more. Right before my eyes, I felt like I had
seen the Big Band Era come back to life. For the first
time in 40 years, married couples were interested in dance
lessons. I decided Victoria was a genius.
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FRIDAY,
OCTOBER 20, 1978, the disco years
Victoria's
upcoming Halloween party
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Who were these
husbands? Most of these men knew each other through
work. It all started with Michael's career as a cancer
researcher. His friends had other friends who had
other friends. All Victoria had to do was contact the
wives and the rest was history. The visit to
Pistachio in Week Two had been so much fun that the
objections were weakening. During coffee breaks at work the
husbands
admitted to each other they were
looking forward to next Friday. Then
they realized the utter blasphemy of their words and gulped.
Surely the world had flipped on its axis.
The following
Friday, October 20th, was more of the same, but better.
This time the husbands did not resist when Victoria insisted
they join her and Michael at the Pistachio Club.
However, before they left, Victoria had another announcement.
Whipping out her previously hidden Halloween flyers for show
and tell, Victoria said she expected everyone to attend her
Halloween Graduation Party next Friday. Immediately
the grumbling began.
"I don't want
to wear a stupid costume." "Surely you don't expect
us to go dancing three Friday nights in a row!" "We're
not ready yet. Our class does not graduate till after Thanksgiving." Grumble
grumble grumble.
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I was shocked at the strength of the revolt, but Victoria never blinked.
Victoria ignored the mumbling as she handed out her
Halloween Graduation Night Flyer to the various couples.
When one of the husbands tried to debate the issue, Victoria
retorted, "Why argue with me? I'm not the one who
counts. Talk to your wife." Victoria winked at
his wife, then received a subtle nod of acknowledgement.
One by one Victoria approached each husband, handed him a
flyer and let his wife calm him down. Once everyone had a
flyer in their hands, Victoria crossed her arms, then
addressed the group in a semi-disgusted, half-mocking voice.
"This Friday Night
class is
your reward to the women who care about you most. But
what is the point of learning to dance if you do not put
it to good use? Do you think your wives
have a bit of sympathy for your lame excuses? Don't be
ridiculous. This party is going to be fun and the
ladies
want to go. Most of them already have their outfit. You can either cooperate like every other
husband or you can disappoint your wife and be the only
man who doesn't go. It's your choice."
Like a line of toppled dominoes, one by one the men gave in and promised
to
attend next week's Halloween Party. Despite losing
a showdown for the second Friday in a row, the men were in
a pretty good mood later that night at the Pistachio Club.
These men had not
anticipated that Disco Dancing would turn
out to be a very popular way for the couples to
socialize. Victoria's scheming had recreated the Big Band
Swing Era,
Disco-style.
Friday Night Dancing was a way to make their wives happy and hang out with their
buddies from work at the same time.
The dancing was a great excuse for
an evening of drinks, conversation, laughter and friendship.
Best of all, their wives treated them like Princes.
Victoria's
leadership had swung the tide.
In the weeks to
follow, the women would not have to put their foot down
anymore. Friday Night at the Pistachio Club was now the
place to be.
Keep in mind I tell
this story in Hindsight. At the time I had no
idea that Victoria had been planning this all along, but I
began to suspect
Victoria's penchant for behind-the-scenes phone work was the
explanation for her uncanny persuasive powers. That night when
there was a break in the action,
I sidled over to Victoria's table.
"Victoria,
why do I suspect you organized this cabal ahead of time?"
As Michael and
the husband next to him rolled their eyes in tacit agreement, Victoria
grinned. "Why, Rick, what could you possibly be referring to?"
"I saw how all
those women have banded together two weeks in a row. They
are better
organized than a Roman legion fighting the barbarians.
You're their leader, so I
suspect you have a hidden hand in this."
"Rick,
you've never been married, right?"
"Right."
"Therefore you have
no way of knowing that men are lumps of
clay waiting to be guided by women with grand ideas. Because
men are bigger, they think they're in charge. And
much of the time they are. However, women have
tricks of their own. Over time women have learned to become better organized than men.
Tonight you witnessed an example of how a few
well-placed phone calls can mold a bunch of old grumps
into useful human beings.
My sneak attacks are the culmination of a plan I have been
working on since I first saw you
at the Jewish
Community Center back in August. Now you know
why I have been so interested in partner dancing."
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I looked at
Michael who merely shrugged in resignation. I was
impressed.
This Friday Night
event was no accident, but rather the product of Victoria's
foresight.
Victoria had pulled off her project with the efficiency of a
well-planned military campaign. Victoria possessed the
strategic ability to visualize a goal and take the necessary
steps to achieve it. Using phone calls like Napoleon
used cannons and delegating authority to girlfriends like
field marshals, the battle was won before the men even knew
it started.
My mind drifted
back to the day I had apologized to Victoria because the 9
pm Friday time slot was the only option I had left. At
the time, Victoria had smiled and replied not to worry about
it. Now I knew why she was so positive about Friday
night. Victoria had visualized Friday as 'Dance
Night' for her group of friends and had set up a
campaign to make it happen.
Considering this
moment had been in her plans for three months, imagine
Victoria's satisfaction to see her efforts rewarded.
Here
was yet another example of Victoria's exquisite social
skills. She was a social dynamo, born promoter and
military planner wrapped into one. Although it
was fascinating to watch Victoria in action, the perfection
of her Secret Agenda was also a frightening display of her
power. Remind me to stay on Victoria's good side.
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The creation of
the Friday Night Dance Group was a master stroke on
Victoria's part. Working the phones
with the wives to get cooperation, she had the girls in on
the plot
from the start. The key had been to get the husbands
to take the class in the first place. That had required some enlightened fibbing to persuade
the men to give dance class a try. I will forget watching Victoria bend the men to her
will regarding actually going out dancing. Some of the
men probably would have gone to Pistachio willingly on the first
night, October 13. But to get every single husband to
cooperate was amazing.
How did Victoria
do it? Public Peer Pressure. I imagine if each wife had
asked
her husband IN PRIVATE to take her dancing,
protests and arguments would have ensued. But once the women
applied unified pressure IN PUBLIC, the men were unwilling to have a spat
with everyone watching. And so the men folded without a single shot fired.
The most amazing
thing to watch is how the wives lavished their husbands with
praise once they got to the Pistachio Club. Thanks to
an outpouring of good will on the part of the ladies, the
men felt proud of themselves. Let me add that most of
these people did not know each other very well when the
class started. However, thanks to Victoria, in the
space of two weeks I could see a definite group spirit
emerge.
Pleased to
discover a night of dancing could actually be fun, the husbands and wives had such a
good time, they were ready to try it again the following
week. Their second
visit, October 20th, was even more fun. Throughout the
night Victoria worked the crowd. She thanked them for
coming and reminded them that next Friday was the big
Halloween Party. Victoria was very good at promotion.
Listening to her, you might think this was the event of the
century. Everyone nodded. They had so much fun
tonight, it was effortless to get them to commit.
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This
private dance class was the fulfillment of Victoria's dream.
Once upon a time, she had been the ringleader of a group of
couples during college. She missed those days of
friendship so much that she yearned for a way to recreate
them. I gave Victoria high marks for having the vision
to think of this private dance class idea and having the
ingenuity to pull it off.
Friday
Dance Night was a golden opportunity for
Victoria's group of friends to hang out. I suppose
you could compare it to a group of couples who made it a
habit to meet at a country club on a regular basis. As
the husbands gained confidence in their dance ability, they made sure to dance
with their wives first, then branch out to dance with the
other wives. Not surprisingly, the women were
thrilled. Not only did they get to chat with their
girlfriends, this was the best time they had enjoyed with
their husbands in ages.
Victoria was delighted. The
time spent with her closest friends back in college had been
the happiest years of her life. Now thanks to Friday
Night Dancing, Victoria had cultivated an entire new Circle of
Friends. As we shall
see in the ensuing chapters, Friday Night Dancing at the Pistachio Club
will become a key event in the evolution of my Disco
career.
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