In a spare, second-floor room lit only by Christmas lights, in a building on Court Street in downtown Salem, the music begins.
It’s “You Light Up My Life,” a song I haven’t heard for about 17 years. It starts with a slow intro and then opens up into its glorious, and gloriously cheesy, refrain.
That’s when my husband really starts moving me around the floor in big, graceful swoops. That’s when my calves start to burn. That’s when he looks at my face and we break out laughing, but never lose a step.
Did you know that song was a waltz?
“You Light Up My Life” is the last song R.J. put on for us last Tuesday, just one of the nights we’ve headed down to the dance studio for its open dance night.
There are usually about 4-7 couples at open dance night, but always, there is R.J., the studio’s owner, a former ballroom dancer who has owned this dance studio in Salem since 1984 and who has had one of these events every week for the past 25 years (he generally closes for holidays).
R.J. doesn’t dance too much anymore. But he’s always over there by the stereo, surrounded by about 400 CD’s, boppin’ to the music and, occasionally, when they really need it, showing people the basic steps to waltz, fox trot, rumba, disco, swing and tango.
If you ever get a chance to see R.J.’s wife, who teaches at the studio, you might get one reason that this man is going strong well into retirement.
(She’s a knockout).
But I imagine his longevity has something to thank of the music, the dance itself, the chance to live standing up.
