Dancing in The Dark

For the students in the Haddonfield Lions’ ballroom dance classes, the first lesson is important: Leave your troubles at the door and take your smile to the dance floor.

“Dancing is a time to relax and have fun,” said dance student Nimit Kaur. “There’s no time to think about your day or anything else. You’re too busy thinking about your steps.”

Kaur, 27, has been blind since birth, but that hasn’t stopped her from learning to ballroom dance. For 10 weeks in the spring and 10 in the fall, she and other blind and visually impaired adults in the Haddonfield, New Jersey, area learn the waltz, foxtrot, tango and merengue, all thanks to their local Lions.

The First Steps

Lion Joe Murphy, a self-described dance fanatic, came up with the idea for his club to provide specialized dance classes after a guest speaker at a Lions club meeting told them about her two blind sons and how she wanted them to enjoy life, to thrive.

New to the club, Murphy thought, “Well, I don’t know anything about Lions yet, but I do know something about dance, and if you want to enjoy life, there is nothing that beats dancing.”

A ballroom dancer since 1998, he shared his idea with fellow Lions, then reached out to Bestwork Industries for the Blind, a nonprofit corporation in nearby Cherry Hill that provides training and employment for the blind. They helped him connect with employees interested in dancing.

Unsolicited financial support came in from private donors to start the program, and more generosity from others followed. Grace Episcopal Church in Haddonfield offered their social space with a wooden floor perfect for dancing, the Lions volunteered to provide and serve refreshments at every class, and 25-30 volunteers, many of them Lions, signed up to drive the students to and from class.

Gene LaPierre, a dance professor at Rowan University and the owner of LaPierre Dance in nearby Glassboro, New Jersey, offered to teach the classes for free. A professional dancer for 34 years, he founded the nonprofit, Dance for A Better U, in 2015 to bring ballroom dancing to adults with special needs.

Murphy and LaPierre also offered a workshop so other dance instructors could learn how to teach the visually impaired. Many attended and three come to class every week to assist LaPierre.

Making Connections

With all the pieces in place, Murphy welcomed his first seven students to the dance floor in May 2023, and one year later, weekly attendance was up to 15 or more.

Every class begins with the students and teacher in a circle on the dance floor holding hands and moving to the music. According to LaPierre, this friendship circle creates a community of people who share a common goal, gain social skills, and build the mind and body coordination. It also helps them connect and feel the movement, hear the beat, shift the body weight and follow verbal directions. From there they form pairs to dance.

“Not only is dancing fun and good for your physical health in many ways, such as aiding in memory development, reducing depression and relieving stress, it also builds camaraderie,” said LaPierre.

It provides an opportunity for people like Patti Cole, 65, to get out of the house for an evening. Cole, who has retinitis pigmentosa and has lost most of her sight, stays active by taking a walk every day. A woman along her route told her about the classes, and now in her third trimester of ballroom dance, Cole said, “I always wanted to learn to dance. Now we’re learning together. It’s fun. And the teacher is excellent.”

Understanding Challenges

The class schedule —from 5:30 to 6:15 p.m. in early spring and early fall — was purposely chosen to accommodate not only the visually impaired, but also the volunteer drivers who prefer to not be out at night. Murphy says the transportation has been key to drawing students.

“I don’t know if I would have joined the class if they didn’t provide rides,” said Kaur, a social worker for the Camden County Health Department.

“It would have made it more difficult for me. Lions not only help build up this population, but they understand some of the challenges people who are blind and visually impaired face. I appreciate it.”

Among those challenges is just getting out there.

“Ballroom dance is a great opportunity to try something different,” said Cole. “You can meet new people, and it takes you out of your comfort zone. I’ve never been a good dancer, but I think it’s a great program.”

From the beginning, the Lions wanted more than a program for the people in their community, said Murphy.

“We wanted a sustainable program that could be replicated by other Lions clubs, to see the blind and visually impaired enjoying a healthy pastime. That’s what I get out of it.”

One evening Murphy asked a dancer, a blind man from Philadelphia, what he would be doing that evening if he wasn’t at dance class. “I would be home alone,” the man responded.

Said Murphy later, “You can’t ballroom dance alone.”