‘‘This is one of the premier dance spots in the country,” says Neal Barrett. ‘‘There’s nothing like this anywhere else.”
Barret, 56, has traveled from Annapolis to Glen Echo to dance from the afternoon into the night in a smoke-free, alcohol-free environment. He has been coming here for five years, he says, learning to dance through a combination of free pre-dance lessons and the tutelage of more experienced partners.
At first, he chuckles, ‘‘these girls thought there was a steamroller pushing them around.” But eventually, Barrett figured out how to move. He realized that dancing was a wonderful way to work out — he says he has seen fellow dancers slim down dramatically over the years — and that the musicians on stage were some of the finest he’d ever heard. He found something else, too: a sense of belonging.
‘‘I can walk into this place any given night and know half the people,” he says. ‘‘It’s not a pickup joint; it’s like a gym. You come here to do what you like to do.”
Got rhythm?
Peering down from a perch above the dance floor, a truth reveals itself: Few things are so elegant — so elevated — as human beings when they dance. Turns out it’s a natural part of the evolutionary process. According to a 2006 study published in the Public Library of Science’s genetics journal, dancers share two human genes that are markers for ‘‘a predisposition for being good social communicators.”
So the ability to dance translates into the ability to sustain a mutually beneficial society. Neil Zimmerman of Gaithersburg agrees with that theory.
‘‘There’s definitely a very large overlap between the dance community and the progressive, educated community,” says Zimmerman, natty in a light gray suit. He says he has been ‘‘hooked on dancing” since he first tried it a dozen years ago.
‘‘I pick new things up easily,” he explains, ‘‘and I have a natural sense of rhythm.
‘‘I learned from dancing with more experienced women.”
Not that he limits himself to the superdancers — Zimmerman says he can ‘‘pitch the skill level to any woman.
‘‘It’s the ability to dance with an inexperienced woman and have her say, ‘Wow!’”
Safe to solo
Whatever their level of experience, women who dance at Glen Echo tend to wear skirts: flowing skirts, floaty skirts — the kind that unfurl with every twirl. The men wear everything from Bermuda shorts to jeans to dance slacks to business suits, although most everybody dances in black leather dance pumps, flat or heeled. One teenage girl dances barefoot, twirling amid the quiet murmur of moving bodies that underlies the music of the quartet playing live onstage.
Ellen Engle, 40, has been dancing since she was 8 — but not at Glen Echo, even though she grew up in Potomac.
‘‘Most of the time I was growing up, it was closed,” she says, adding that the renovation of the Spanish Ballroom by the National Park Service and a battalion of volunteers was an amazing undertaking.
‘‘They spent $4 million to get it to look like it did in the ’30s,” she marvels. ‘‘It was in pretty bad shape — the floors were sagging — but the federal, state and local authorities all worked together.”
And that sense of shared purpose continues at the Spanish Ballroom.
‘‘It’s one of the few places where you really see different age groups interacting,” says Engle, who has taught dance classes at Glen Echo since 1997 with her Flying Feet Enterprises partner Marc Shepanek. ‘‘Everybody dances with everybody else.”
That’s what she loves about dancing at Glen Echo: the way our human need for contact and society is met without the fear of monkey business.
‘‘I didn’t like going to bars,” she says. ‘‘You’re on alert, worried — ‘What does this person want?’ At Glen Echo, there’s none of that; it’s a very safe place to go solo.
”We’ve definitely had people who met there and got married,” she adds, ‘‘but they didn’t come with that expectation.”
Echoes
Colleen Reed can attest to that.
‘‘I’m among the many people who met my spouse at the Spanish Ballroom,” says Reed, the publicity chair for the Folklore Society of Greater Washington (FSGW). ‘‘It’s unlike other kinds of ballroom dancing where you go with a date, and it’s a great way to meet.
‘‘No alcohol or drugs, and if you do meet someone, you get to know them as you’re dancing and talking.”
The FSGW is one of many presenters at Glen Echo, sponsoring a variety of dances including contra and square dancing in the Spanish Ballroom. (Other presenters include LaSalle Dance Orchestra (ballroom), Crawfish Productions (Cajun⁄Zydeco), Friday Night Dancers (Contra), Flying Feet Enterprises (Milonga⁄Tango and Swing), High Energy Productions (Salsa), DC Lindy Exchange, The Jam Cellar, Tom Cunningham Orchestra, Gottaswing.com and the Washington Swing Dance Committee (Swing), and Waltz Time (waltz).
Reed, a flautist who often plays at dances, says the park has become a sought-after gig for top local bands as well as talented bands from out of town. She notes that Glen Echo is a dance destination for dancers of literally every age.
‘‘A lot of people with little children ‘wear’ them on their backs,” she says. ‘‘And the family dances are simple, so kids can learn ... and there are amazing dancers who I’d say are in their 70s and 80s.”
Reed has a soft spot, not just for the older dancers or the younger ones, but for all the people who ever danced here over the decades. Yes, the renovations are spectacular, but she waxes nostalgic.
‘‘There was a certain charm to it before,” she says, ‘‘but it was a bit of a dump. It’s been around since the ’30s.
‘‘Sometimes I think about the young people dancing there during the war, meeting each other, hearing all the great music.
‘‘It’s got these echoes of the past.”
Social dances are held at the Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo Park, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Most dances offer an introductory dance lesson and live music. Tickets range from $5 to $20 and are available at the door. Alcohol is prohibited on park grounds, and smoking is prohibited in all buildings. Dressing in layers is recommended because dance halls are neither heated nor air-conditioned. Call 301-634-2222 or visit www.glenechopark.org.
