Stage Is a Ballroom for PS 89 5th Graders

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PS 89 5th graders graced the school's auditorium stage last month following 19 lessons, part of the Dancing Classrooms program that has been at the school for the past seven years. Photos by Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Samantha Lee and DJ Canty demonstrate their moves.

Henry Mondschein and Victoria Perez prepare to demonstrate the rumba.

Mark Bozzuti-Jones and Rebecca Zaletofsky.

Angelina Roffo and Andrew Jacobson.

The tango was one of the biggest crowd pleasers.

Swing dancing on the P.S. 89 stage.

Students promenade onto the stage.

Students promenade onto the stage.

Dance teacher Steve Petrillo leads all the classes in an end of performance stomp.

Dance teacher Steve Petrillo leads all the classes in an end of performance stomp.

Charlie Ames wanted nothing to do with ballroom dancing and the 20 lessons that loomed before him and his fellow PS 89 5th grad­ers earlier this year.

“Dancing with girls. Dancing period. Being on stage. Fear of being watched or laughed at or feeling awkward,” said his mother, Joanne Ames, ticking off the reasons that Charlie dreaded the whole idea of it. “He said, ‘I’m going to get myself expelled before that starts.’ And then he loved it!”

Such is the magic of Dancing Class­rooms, the ballroom dance program just completed for the seventh year at PS 89 and now in more than 200 schools around the city. A performance last month in an auditorium filled with proud, sometimes tearfully joyful parents, proved once again that preteen boys and girls can become waltzing, tangoing, and swing-dancing “ladies and gentlemen.”

Teaching artist Steve Petrillo gave the ever-spirited lessons, overseen by the school’s dance teacher, Catherine Gallant.

“At first I was like, ‘Dancing with a boy is disgusting,’” Awa-Victoria Morel said, in one of several short student “reflections” read from the stage. “But when I got used to it and was focusing on the dances more, it was really fun.”

Each of the three classes demonstrated two dances, with the audience tapping along to a sultry tango or hip-wiggling merengue. And, sure enough, each child looked right at home.

“There are kids who are shier than others,” said Young Yun, mother of ballroomer Samantha Lee, “but on that stage you could not tell.”