Vargo's Dance studio celebrates 7 years in Geneva

It wasn't that Jamie Vargo didn't enjoy teaching children how to dance. It's just that she had a vision of providing an outlet for adults to get away from their hectic schedules and simply have fun learning to dance.

After years of working as a private contractor at various dance studios, and mostly teaching children, Vargo flipped the switch and opened her own studio in Geneva.

Last weekend, she celebrated the seventh anniversary for Vargo's Dance at 205 W. State State St. with a live band and cast of students and friends hitting the dance floor.

"Some days it feels like it's only been two years, and some days it feels like it's been 20 years," Vargo said of the hectic world that is dance instruction.

Her ultimate goal is in place, manifesting itself through numerous open dance nights and instruction for her loyal students and anyone else who wants to drop in for a lesson.

"I wanted people to have a glass of wine, learn how to dance and have a baby-sitter at home," she said. "It's just to have a night out, and not just couples. There are a lot of single moms out there who just need a break."

It's been a nice climb for Vargo, who has lived in St. Charles for nearly 18 years after moving here from Texas. She's had the dancing bug since she was a young girl, and learned the trade from various instructors and professionals.

Vargo lived in Mexico for a short time, learning the Latin dances and culture. About 10 years ago, she was giving weekly lessons at the since-departed Milano's Italian Restaurant in Campton Hills.

Even after opening her own studio, briefly located at 115 W. State before the move to a larger facility, Vargo has kept that "nightclub" feel alive. She offers lessons at various local pubs through dance nights at Old Towne Pub and the 1910 Bar in Geneva, and special events at Club Arcada in St. Charles.

It's those connections to various other businesses that help spread the dancing bug through the Tri-Cities. Not long ago, there were not that many places to dance ballroom or swing in this area. Enter Vargo - and that has changed.

"I would hope I've had an influence on that," she said. "One of the biggest things for me is trying to get other small businesses involved, but we also like working with park districts and for charities."

Her influence has spread in different ways. Indirectly and directly, she has created some competition for herself in that a Fred Astaire studio has opened in St. Charles in the past few years, and former Vargo instructors opened Lux Dance Studio in St. Charles.

"We can all survive in this area," Vargo said. "There are enough people who want to learn how to dance, but I think what is different for us is that it's just to create a fun environment, and is not based on preparing for any competition."

Her anniversary event put that fun on display last weekend with about 40 people testing their skills to a live band - and praising their instructor's efforts.

"We didn't know much about dancing until we came to Jamie in 2013 to be prepared for our daughter's wedding," said Mel Harder of Batavia, who with wife Joyce has been going to the dance studio ever since.

"Jamie is a wonderful instructor," Joyce said. "She's not critical and she's not harsh; she's just very encouraging."

It's all about arts:

The St. Charles Arts Council is once again preparing to make a big arts splash as the summer fades away from us. It's time for the annual ArtsFest in St. Charles from Sept. 8-17.

The event, through a partnership with the park district, essentially reminds area residents of all of the good things happening in town related to the arts, including a juried pop-up gallery at 311 N. Second St., the Sculpture in the Park setting at Mount St. Mary Park, as well as many other places and events, and the new ArtsFest Poetry Crawl.

Check it all out on the St. Charles Arts Council website.

Sniffing out cancer:

There's a good reason those supporting earlier awareness of ovarian cancer symptoms will walk with their dogs at 10 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 9, at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve in St. Charles.

The 5K dog walk and fun run event supports the Ovarian Cancer Symptom Awareness organization and its Veterinary Outreach Program. The connection between the organization and the vet program is based largely on the belief of the organization's late co-founder Susan Roman that her dog's sense of smell alerted her to the cancer that ultimately took her life.

But this particular event is dedicated to popular pet author Darlene Arden, a member of the OCSA advisory board, who lost her life to the disease earlier this year.

Funds raised at the event will go to the group's Veterinary Outreach Program, and also to support an internship at the Penn Vet Working Dogs Center's program training dogs to sniff out cancer odorants in plasma affected by the disease.

Registration starts at 8:30 a.m. and opening ceremonies at 9:30 a.m., prior to the 5K event at 10 a.m. and then lunch at 11 a.m. Tickets for the event are available at ovariancancersymptomawarness.org.

Missing the trees:

When I first wrote about the city's arrangement with merchants along a strip of Randall Road to allow some trees to be removed so the store signs could be seen easier, a few readers chimed in with regrets that the city would allow this.

I have also talked to friends and neighbors about this, and it seems rather unanimous that folks are not happy about this dramatic aesthetic change.

Let's not forget that the city got $25,000 for its Tree Fund from the merchants to allow the better view from Randall. We all know that money will come in handy as the city continues to try to replace ash trees destroyed by borers.

The topic recently came up again on a Facebook thread as the new Randall signage is in place for At Home, Best Buy, Burlington clothes store and Fresh Thyme farmers market.

Many people believe the new monument signs are so big that the nice trees that fit in with the rest of Randall's landscape would not have blocked a thing and should have never been removed.

I'll make the comment here that I made on that Facebook conversation: It just looks too much like what one would see in a desert city out west.

The Tri-Cities communities are quite aggressive in utilizing our ability to have green trees and bushes around here. Geneva might have been wiser to make sure a few of those trees stayed.

Officials could point to an example on the other side of Randall in which the landscape does not overwhelm sight lines to Ashley HomeStore, but a few pine trees on the store's parkway still deliver a nice look.

dheun@sbcglobal.net