New Dancers on the Horizon It was a beautiful spring “Zip-a-dee-do-dah” kind of day in 1950 when my best friend Helen and I ascended the old wooden staircase to the second floor dance studio on G Street in Davis. We were about to set out on our dancing adventure, just like in the movies! Jerry Curry, our dance instructor, had just arrived from Hollywood to foster enthusiasm for dance in Davis youth. The studio was situated on G Street above Jerry’s Meat Market (no relation to Jerry Curry) and Styler’s Jewelry Store, between Second and Third Streets. On arrival, we found a large rectangular room. At one end several folding chairs were placed for folks watching or arriving to pick up the dancers after class. Mirrors covered the north wall and a long balance bar ran in front of the mirrors. There was a beautiful shiny wooden floor. Mr. Curry said wood floors were best for dancing; we thought so too because we sounded much better and louder on the wooden floor than we did on our concrete walk or our linoleum kitchen floors. About fifteen eager new dancers gathered for our first class. We had one brave boy, Wayne Wooden, who joined the rest of us girls. Wayne was in our first grade class at Central Davis Elementary School. I don’t think Wayne minded that he was the only boy student. The teacher, after all, was a man, and I’m sure that helped Wayne feel more comfortable. A week before class began, Helen and I went shopping with our moms to gather the dance attire we needed. We went to Rodgers Department Store, just down the street from the dance studio. We each got black leotards, white ballet shoes, and beautiful black patent leather Mary Jane-style tap shoes with black ribbon ties. In those days they didn’t sell the shoes complete with taps, so we headed to the Davis Shoe Shop and got shiny metal taps for the heels and toes of our new shoes. Thinking back on it, I don’t remember that we exhibited any natural dance ability, but we sure had fun! Mr. Curry had been a stage dancer with his wife in Hollywood. He brought pictures of them dancing in fancy dance clothes. Wow, were we impressed! He was a wonderful teacher and made dancing fun. During our second year of dance class we got starring rolls in the Christmas school play of the Nutcracker Suite. Helen was a beautiful waltzing flower, and I was the Sugar Plum Fairy. When I shared pictures of me in my beautiful white ballet outfit with my husband twenty years later, he smiled and said, “Oh, you were the sugar plump fairy.” We both roared in laughter. Helen and I loved our dance class; however, after a few years we left dancing to venture into new experiences. But we always looked back fondly on those fun classes. In 1975 when our youngest daughter Kate was in elementary school, she asked to take tap dancing. What luck; Kate’s tap teacher was Jerry Curry’s wife Julie! In 2004 while attending a class at the Davis Senior Center, I saw a sign posted for a tap dance class. I called Helen and said, “What do you think? Shall we try tapping again?” Her answer was an enthusiastic “Yes!” We are now in our second year of Tap class with our wonderful and exceptionally patient teacher, Jeannine Jette. No, we aren’t now nor ever were any real threat to Ann Miller or Ginger Rogers. But we are sure having fun and keeping our Arthritic Joints jumping or, should I say, tapping! Author Nola