Nancy Edmonds Hanson 

Elegant ballrooms a-swirl with graceful dancers floating across the floor: Today, that can seem like a dream sequence set in a classic film of years long past.

For many, those sophisticated moments are little more than a memory. But there’s a solution for those who long to swirl through that scenario – a group of avid dance aficionados who celebrates swirling across the dance floor and, better yet, offers an avenue to teach the left-footed to twirl and dip.

The Northern Lights Dance Club is Fargo-Moorhead’s portal for stepping into that stylish scenario. Founded 32 years ago in the basement of the Moorhead VFW, the local affiliate of USA Dance offers weekly opportunities to master ballroom dance while practicing the art and meeting new friends, both accomplished dancers and neophytes.

“I love dancing,” says member DesaRae Opsahl. “I learned when I was very young from my parents and their friends. I remember standing on a man’s feet while he taught me to waltz. My sister and I danced all the time.

“A generation ago, whenever someone got married,they had a dance. A lot of people originally learned the steps for those wedding dances – the waltz for sure, and maybe swing. Wedding dances,” she adds, “are a big reason a lot of people still join and come to our meetings.”

Northern Lights president Stuart Dobberpuhl concurs. “A lot of the older people did a much better job than we do today. You see a lot who don’t know how today.”

That surely doesn’t include some 70 men and women who attend Northern Lights weekly Wednesday meetings at the Sons of Norway Lodge or El Zagal Shrine. Guests are welcome, too, at the two-hour sessions. Each begins with a lesson in a specific dance style, then moves on to free dancing to a variety of tunes, from big band, latin and country to swing and top 40—anything that has a danceable beat.

The weekly schedule is interrupted each month with a dance featuring live music. A diverse list of musicians, including Rick Adams, the Decades Band, FM Kicks, Myron Sommerfeld, Lute Simley, and the Red River Valley Veterans Concert Band, have headlined the open dances.

Dobberpuhl moved here from the Twin Cities where, he says, both ballrooms and dance instructors were far more common. The local dance club – the only USA Dance affiliate in North Dakota – offers much the same, but at a far lower cost. Memberships for all of its 130 clubs are handled by USA Dance for $35. That enables members to attend any chapter across the country, including Sioux Falls, St. Cloud and the Twin Cities. USA Dance also offers competitive dance events and other programs.

Dancers regularly travel to take part in Northern Lights lessons and dancing. “We see people from all up and down the Red River Valley, Stuart notes, from Grafton to Fergus Falls and beyond.

“Members only pay $5 for any of our weekly meetings or events, while nonmembers pay $10,” DesaRae points out. Events are listed on Northern Lights website (northernlightsdanceclub.com) and its Facebook page.

The club focuses on a different dance step each month, taking beginners to ultimate mastery. Among steps that have been featured are everything from the waltz and foxtrot to the tango, rumba and schottische. Other meetings have featured West Coast swing, East Coast swing, nightclub two-step and cha cha cha. Most recently, the August feature was the country two-step – not technically a ballroom dance, Stuart admits, but a dance that’s extremely popular in this area.

Some instructors, like Tim Mosser and Lute Simle, are professional teachers. Others are experienced members who volunteer to lead lessons in their favorite style for a month.

Some members attend as couples, but individuals are more than welcome. Learning to dance, they say, is generally easier with a variety of partners. “Some dancers are very adept. Others need a little more help,” DesaRae says diplomatically. “If they need more, we give it to them.” New friendships often form as the music plays. Waterfall dances, she says, are a great way to break the ice. Women line up on one side, men on the other. Couples meet in the middle and dance down the line.

A recent schottische session had dancers form a circle, all facing each other. “You may feel a little odd at first,” she confesses, “but after two tunes, you’ll relax and feel comfortable.”

The club has met in many venues over the years, from the West Fargo VFW to the Cash Wise Community Room. One challenge, DesaRae says, is that the floors in many of the locations fall well short of ideal. a good floor needs to provide a balance of shock absorption, resilience, and surface friction to ensure dancer safety and comfort. Ideally, a wooden dance floor with a suitable finish and a floating subfloor is preferred. It should be neither too hard nor too soft, with a surface that allows for comfortable movement and turns.

Dancers are cautioned to wear shoes with hard soles rather than rubber. At recent sessions at Courts Plus, the club had dance socks on hand, which dancers could slip over the front of their shoes to slide smoothly and prevent ankle or knee injuries.

Men and women of all ages have attended Northern Light Dance Club events. While middle-aged and older men and women were out on the floor during one recent lesson, DesaRae says the crowd’s ages vary – young adults, college students, occasional high schoolers and even an eighth grader. “She loves it,” the club spokeswoman points out. “Now she’s trying to convince her whole family to come.”