Students learn life lessons through dance instruction

By Paul Dusseault

COLORADO SPRINGS. The college student discount was too sweet to pass up — five lessons for five bucks. So, tucked between his studies at California’s Thomas Aquinas College (TAC) in 1976, Leo Raab learned ballroom dances. 

Before long, he was hauling his portable record player and collection of classic vinyl to various venues, producing events for other students, establishing a repertoire, building a following, and demonstrating the steps of various folk dances and ballroom dances for eager attendees.

One student who benefited from the dances at Thomas Aquinas College is Peter Kwasniewski who went on to become a professor of theology at Wyoming Catholic College.

 “What struck me back then was how good, wholesome, innocent, and healthy these TAC dances were,” he recently wrote on his blog Tradition & Sanity. “So far from being wild, lascivious, and immodest, they were exhibitions of good taste, social restraint, a ‘safe environment’ (as we’d say nowadays) for getting to know members of the opposite sex, and plenty of harmless fun and physical exercise, which is exactly what young adults need from time to time in order not to be excessively burdened with the usual cares of life.”

While leading such college dances, Leo also caught the eye of a certain female schoolmate.

“I remember thinking, ‘This fellow is Catholic, he has a car, and, my goodness, he can dance,” recalled Leo’s spouse of 46 years, Debbie.  “For me, that was the whole package.”

Leo and Debbie have been hosting dance events for over 50 years. The couple favors Catholic venues and have led dance sessions in California, Colorado, Arizona, Michigan, Wyoming, Georgia, Virginia, Ohio, and elsewhere.

At St. Thomas More, a traditional Catholic high school in San Jose, California, the Raabs became a virtual institution. They were master of ceremonies & DJ for the senior prom — often with a 17-piece swing band — for 23 years. 

They now teach dance as an extracurricular activity of Our Lady of Walsingham Academy, a classical Catholic high school in Colorado Springs’ Old North End. They are rehearsing a troupe of students in several “demonstration dances” as entertainment for the Our Lady of Walsingham annual banquet and gala on Nov. 8 at Creekside Event Center.  (Tickets: olwclassical.org/2024gala/)

“Our favorite type of event is a family dance,” said Leo. “It’s multigenerational, often involving younger siblings, parents, and grandparents, all learning how to relate to each other in a new way. The room is always filled with smiles and laughter.”

In that appreciation, the Raabs are not alone.  Dorothy Cummings McLean, a ballroom dance organizer and senior editor for LifeSiteNews, recently posted on Substack:  “One of the great joys of formal dances I organize is the presence of families — sons and brothers gallantly escorting mothers and sisters to the floor. As families are the building blocks of society, families that dance continue societies that dance. Dancing is a fun, healthy activity that creates happy memories within families, and therefore also in the societies threatened with becoming ever less like families.”

“Dance teaches young people so many important life lessons,” said Debbie Raab. “They learn etiquette, they gain confidence in mastering another skill, they get some good exercise, they get away from their smart phones, they learn social consideration and charity.”

The Raabs instruct teenage dancers on how to spread the fun evenly throughout the room.  “We tell the young men that their job as gentlemen is to be sure all the young women have a good time,” said Leo.  “Every lady should be asked to dance.” 

Debbie added “And we ask the girls to respect their partners.  If a young man has worked up the courage to ask you to dance, it’s poor form to say no.  Be sensitive to his kindness.”

Still, the community folk dances — where all parties dance with all parties — remain perennial crowd favorites.

“Everyone should learn to dance the Virginia Reel,” said Leo. “Because it involves the whole room, you can’t be unhappy while dancing the Virginia Reel.” Debbie also recommends the storied Scottish folk dance, Road To The Isles. But both acknowledge that the East Coast Swing may be the most popular proper dance in the country. 

“Formal dancing is an elegant solution for bringing young people together and helping them to get to know each other without the scariness or seriousness of one-on-one dates,” wrote Professor Peter Kwasniewski. One can almost see him wink at the addendum: “It is also a pleasant pastime for the married.”