You're invited to learn the cross-step waltz

Local dance groups are sponsoring two workshops on cross-step waltz the first weekend in May at Fermilab and in Oak Park.

Cross-step waltz is an accessible "vernacular" vintage waltz style with a graceful, swooping feel and many variations. It is a return to America of a French interpretation of an early 20th century American dance style and has been taught and promoted by Richard Powers, a professor at Stanford University and a well-known expert in vintage dance.

The Chicago-area cross-step waltz workshops will be taught by Jeanette Watts, who has studied with Powers and has been performing and teaching vintage dance for a decade.

Watts is currently a performer with the Forget-Me-Not Historical Dance Company in Cincinnati and has founded her own non-profit organization, the Terpsichorean Delights Dance Assembly in Dayton, Ohio.

She teaches ballroom dance professionally and is the founder and director of two other performing groups, the Raks Devi belly dance troupe and Madame Gigi's Outrageous French Cancan Dancers.

Watts describes cross-step waltz as "terribly fun."

"It has a grace to it sadly lacking in the stiff box step. The basic can be taught in about five minutes to the uninitiated, and then the possible variations are endless," she said.

There will be two cross-step waltz workshops in the Chicago area. The first will be Friday at Fermilab's Barn, located on Sauk Boulevard, just north of Batavia Road in the "village" on the east side of the Fermilab site near Warrenville.

The second will be Saturday at the Harvard Congregational Church, 1045 S. Kenilworth Ave., Oak Park.

Both will run from 7:30 to 10 p.m. Suggested donation for the Fermilab workshop is $5 per person, and for the Oak Park workshop is $10 per person.

The workshops are open to those with no background in waltz or ballroom dance, and one does not need to come with a partner. They will also be of interest to experienced dancers. One may attend one or both to good advantage.

These workshops are sponsored by Fermilab's international and English country dance groups as well as Evanston's English country dancing and are endorsed by the Folk Dance Council of Chicago. More information is available on the Web site at www.fnal.gov/orgs/folkdance/, by e-mail at folkdance@fnal.gov or call (630) 584-0825.