Cutting a Rug Outside the Classroom

The floor of the Roosevelt Hotel was thumping on Wednesday night during a star-studded benefit given by the  American Ballroom Theater for the Dancing Classrooms project. The program, which came to national prominence in the films Mad Ballroom and Take the Lead, brings dance instruction to fifth graders throughout the New York City area. The group's goal is to use ballroom dancing as a means of instilling confidence and changing young kids' lives in ways that contemporary dance never could. Among the supporters at the gala, which raised upwards of $250,000, were actress and dancer Bebe Neuwirth, one-time Miss America and current Ugly Betty star Vanessa Williams, Broadway star Karen Akers, Kevin McKenzie (artistic director of the American Ballet Theater) and Martine van Hamel (a principal at American Ballet Theater for more 20 years). The assortment of dances (salsa, merengue, samba, the foxtrot and the paso doble) kept things in the ballroom warm despite the violently chilly winds outside. The final dance of the evening, however, brought the room's temperature down a bit. It was—you guessed it—"The Last Waltz." 

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