Gliding Spinning Twirling Stomping Swing Dancing : Jitterbug, Other Steps Unite Couples on Ballroom Floor

Maria and Gaston Dessornes were having a ball. On a recent Sunday afternoon in the Los Robles Room of Reuben’s in Thousand Oaks, the Dessornes danced with brio as the Melodymakers’ 18-piece band knocked out a spirited version of Benny Goodman’s “Let’s Dance.”

The couple, both 50, moved vigorously to the music--spinning, twirling, stomping and gliding in the style that’s known as swing dancing.

An offshoot of the Lindy Hop that evolved in the 1930s and ‘40s along with the rise of the Big Bands, swing dancing is gaining favor again, according to several Southland instructors.

“In the last year, our classes are up about 33% and a lot of these students want to learn swing,” said Mario Vitucci, 49, manager of the Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Van Nuys. “It’s definitely had a resurgence.”

Triple Rhythm

The style is based on a triple rhythm, said Carol Montez, who operates the Carol Montez Ballroom Center in West Los Angeles. “You take three steps to the left, three to the right, then rock back for two steps,” she said. The essential element, along with the smooth turns and arm-extended twirls, “is that the man always has hold of the woman’s hand.”

Montez said there are several versions of the dance, including “the New Yorker,” “the Chicago” and “the Jive,” as it was called on the Continent when introduced there by American soldiers. Another early ‘40s version was the “Jitterbug,” which included such acrobatics as the woman sliding between the man’s legs, then being pulled to her feet. “West Coast Swing,” danced to slow music, evolved in the ‘60s.

“Basically, swing is a modified fox-trot, except that you do it to faster music,” said Ed Nani, 61, leader-business manager and baritone saxophonist with the Melodymakers, a group that was formerly known as the Conejo Valley Dance Band. (The group plays for dances at Reuben’s about once a month.)

The Dessornes, who live in Thousand Oaks, were one of about 100 couples and a few singles who attended the recent Sunday affair, and they were on the dance floor for almost every number the Melodymakers played. “We love to dance,” said Maria, vice president of the Conejo Valley Art Museum.

‘Kept on Dancing’

It’s a pattern they have followed throughout their 25-year marriage. “I met her at a wedding reception in Texas,” said Gaston, an aerospace engineer. “We danced well, so we’ve kept on dancing,” he said with a laugh as singer Janie Lovett belted out a steamy “Teach Me Tonight.”

For those who find jogging or other strenuous forms of exercise daunting, swing dancing can be a very pleasant way to keep in shape, Gaston said. Besides, “it’s much cheaper than joining a gym.”

The Dessornes have never formally studied dance. But many other couples at Reuben’s, such as Gale and Cathy Larson of Reseda--who cut quite a rug to “In the Mood”--said that, even thought they have been dancing together for years, they have taken classes to brush up on their footwork.

Gale, 50, chairman of the English Department at Cal State Northridge, and Cathy, a medical technologist at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, learned swing dancing at the Learning Tree in Chatsworth. Lessons in swing dancing also are offered at Arthur Murray Studios throughout the San Fernando Valley, World of Dance in Northridge, Holiday Dance Studio in Van Nuys and Dance Resort in Reseda.

Dancers of All Ages

The dancers--and instructors--at Reuben’s came in all ages, from a spry-looking Manuel (Vic) Victoria, 68, of Fillmore, who scooted in and out of other couples with his wife, Connie, to 15-year-old Megan Bourgeois, a student at La Reina High School in Thousand Oaks, who was at her first “live big band” dance. Megan was on the floor with her father, Alan, 42, an entrepreneur, doing swing and then a tango. “I teach him the cha-cha,” said Megan, a member of a formation dance team known as the Cotillion Ballroom Dancers.

Later, the elder Bourgeois took to the floor with his wife, Pam, 42. Like several of the couples, they sometimes seemed lost in the romance brought on by dancing to such classics as “Pennsylvania 6-5000,” “Night Train,” “Satin Doll” and “Eager Beaver.”

One particularly happy foursome was Bill and Denuta Robb of Reseda, celebrating their fifth anniversary with their friends, Cary Korobkin and Karen Kinsey of Sherman Oaks.

“The band’s fantastic and the singer’s wonderful,” said Bill, 56, a teacher at the North Valley Occupational Center. Denuta, “39 and holding,” said that both had learned to swing dance and jitterbug as children, “but when you get older, swing is better. It’s easy to learn and your feet stay on the floor. There’re no acrobatics.”

Korobkin, 50, who teaches science at Reseda High School, and Kinsey, 46, an associate of Robb’s at the Occupational Center, found the band’s swing-era-styled music a big plus.

“We’re people from the ‘50s and ‘60s, so we grew up with rock, but this is more pleasant to dance to,” Korobkin said. “It’s more mature music, more interesting, and maybe it’s more romantic because you get to hold the person while you dance, more than with rock.”

The Melodymakers boast a number of solid pros, but none with the credits of Leroy Lovett, the band’s musical director and husband of Janie Lovett. Leroy, 61, who is listed in Leonard Feather’s “Encyclopedia of Jazz,” has played or arranged for Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Barnet, Artie Shaw, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and others.

Lovett is mainly responsible for the band’s far-from-just-nostalgic renditions of classic swing-era tunes. “I’ve taken the stock arrangements and redone them, and that makes them a little more modern,” he said. “But the melody’s still there,” so you always can tell what tune the group is playing.

If there was one complaint from the dancers, it was that it is tough to find a live band that plays for swing dancing in the Valley. Aside from the Melodymakers’ occasional stints at Reuben’s and Chuck Barbata’s combo, which plays Fridays and Saturdays at Barbata’s Restaurant in Woodland Hills, a search failed to turn up any place that consistently offered live swing-based music.

But when dancers can find the music, they have a splendid time.

Perhaps Jeannie Hoffman, 48, an ebullient beauty salon owner from Simi Valley, attending with her friend, Alan Weisel, 61, of Ventura, best defined the reason for swing dancing. “It sets my spirits free,” she said with gusto.