Arthur Murray to showcase variety of dance styles in “Love of Dance”

Different cultures will collide through dance Friday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.
Students and staff of the Arthur Murray Dance Studio will perform their favorite dances, such as the Viennese Waltz and Tango, at 8 p.m. for the “Love of Dance” showcase.

During intermission, audience members will be invited to participate and dance as well.

Barbara Leininger opened the studio on Third Street in 1994, but this is the first year the showcase will take place at the Buskirk.

The most exciting part of her job, Leininger said, is seeing the students come in with no dance experience and end up developing their own routines.

“You see students come out of their comfort zone, and it gives them a new sense of self-confidence,” she said.

Leininger said she also invited a Flamenco dance group and an Acro dance group — a technique that combines modern dance with acrobatics — to participate in the showcase.

IU alumnus Matt Brand has been an instructor at the studio for 14 years. He teaches 24 styles of dance and said most will be featured in the showcase, including couples and group dances.

“I see students growing and learning, from not knowing anything to performing in front of 200 to 300 people,” Brand said.

One of Brand’s students, local resident Karen Kemple, will be performing the Rumba and Waltz.

“It is a work in progress. We are always perfecting along the way, changing and improving our dances,” she said.

Kemple said she is looking forward to dancing on a stage because she has only ever performed in a studio setting.

“The show is the icing on the cake,” Leininger said. “If people feel that they didn’t do their best, you hate to see it, because it’s not about that day but the journey that they took to accomplish it.”

Other participants are veterans to the program. Local resident Meredith Wendell and her husband have been dancing at the studio for nine and a half years.

Wendell said she and her husband started ballroom dancing not only because they loved it but because they wanted to do something together after their child left home.

“I hope we do it till we’re old. It keeps us young,” she said.