We started dancing at Arthur Murray March 2003 not long after the Dallas Studio relocated to the LBJ location.

I had been diagnosed with osteopena (the precursor to osteoporosis) in 2001 and was told to focus on “weight-bearing” exercise in order to grow bone. Clark wanted to work with me to increase my bone mass and so from 2001 until March 2003 we tried
• Power walking inside on treadmills. We didn’t like doing that because we walked at different paces (I walk faster) and it was boring.
• Power walking outside. We didn’t like doing that because of the heat and humidity of a Texas summer, didn’t like being in the cold and wind in the winter, and it was boring.
• Various aerobic programs. We didn’t like doing that because it wasn’t fun, it was only work and it was boring.

Then one day on the way to work in the Fall of 2002, I saw the Arthur Murray sign go up at the LBJ location. Every day on the way to work (around 8am) I would say “There’s no one dancing.” And on the way home (around 6pm) I would say “There’s people dancing now. Maybe we should check into dancing. Dancing’s a weight-bearing exercise.” However, despite all of the hints, Christmas 2002 did not bring dancing lessons. I was crushed. How long was it going to take for Clark to get the hint?!?!?!

In March 2003, after listening to my continued commentary on when people were and weren’t dancing, Clark went into the Studio and purchased the Introductory Lesson as a present for my birthday…..

Deb: “Dancing Lessons! Finally! I wanted these for Christmas.”
Clark: “Our first lesson is this coming Friday.”
Deb: “But I don’t know how to dance!” Panicked because dancing at home with her parakeet was not for public observation and censure.
Clark: “Isn’t that the reason we’re going?” Smug because he had learned how to Country Western dance at Southern Junction.
Deb: “But I really don’t know how to dance!” My tap dance history wasn’t going to count here, I could tell, and this was before “Dancing with the Stars” started!

The highlights of being brave enough to go to that first class:
• 2006 Texas Showdown: Top Solo Couple Award
• 2007 San Francisco Dance-O-Rama: Top Amateur Couple Full Bronze Award
• 2008 SUPERAMA (New Orleans): Top Amateur Couple Full Bronze Award, Amateur 3-Dance Rhythm Finalists. More importantly, we met our teacher's goal and stayed on our feet during the Amateur 3-Dance, although we didn’t have the stamina to keep our energy up through it.
• 2009 SUPERAMA (Las Vegas): Top Amateur Couple Associate Bronze Award, Amateur 3-Dance Rhythm Finalists. We met our teacher's goal and interacted with each other, and received a lot of wonderful comments about our connection and interaction with each other. Getting positive comments from the “fans” we developed that weekend was worth more than the judges’ scores.

We love dancing and we owe it all to Arthur Murray. We started dancing with our head teacher in 2006; she wanted to take the robot out of our Samba, so worked with us on a Samba solo. Now she has selected a team of teachers that are keeping us challenged and focused on becoming competitive dancers. We are currently improving our interaction and technique on our 3-Dance Rhythm routines, and working on a Tango solo that will be incorporated into our Amateur 3-Dance Smooth routines for 2011.

Dancing has helped us be more than the Engineers we are professionally; it’s helped us “get out of our heads” and be in the best shaped we’ve ever been in our lives. Recently we’ve added Yoga to our routine in order to help our balance and core control so that we can improve our dancing.
Knowing how to dance is like having a secret weapon; it’s something you can use if you need to, or have to. And there’s the added joy of having the confidence of breaking out in dance whenever and wherever the music is good. How fun is that?

As for my bone density, after 6 years of dancing it’s now in the Normal range. My doctor is thrilled!