TOD: When I was about 9 or 10, my brother (a year younger than I) and I went to a Saturday evening dance class to learn ballroom dancing for about ten weeks. It seemed like every kid I knew in my small town was also there (a conspiracy by our mothers?). It was held in a long ballroom at the Women's Club and, though I can't remember how partnering was achieved, we were all in a large oblong sphere that reflected the shape of the hall where we were taught your basic box step and we kept moving forward around the hall, but since we'd only learned the box step moving one direction, the oblong sphere kept moving onyl forward and inward to where at regular intervals we all had to move back out to the perimeter of the floor. I don't recall if we ever learned to move the other direction or how to reverse or any other subtler moves. The class was taught by a rather grand dame who was the wife of a local Cincinnati TV personality, Len Goorian (who hosted a local amateur talent show onTV, if I recall). Coats and ties a must for the boys; the girls, party dresses. At the end of the evening, the young gents had to get their partners cake and punch. Our instructor's chant of "slow, slow, quick, quick" is for ever burned into my brain and I used it in PSYCHO III when Tony Perkins teaches Diana Scarwid the basic box step.
