The dancers wait for instructions. That's teacher Geraldine Trainor in the green capris.
A lot of things happen in Geraldine Trainor’s kitchen.
It’s where she learned to jive back in Country Tyrone to the sound of Ireland’s Queen of Country, Philomena Begley, using the door jamb as her partner.
And it was her kitchen in Norristown where she planned to teach her kids and their friends how to jive, but then they got wrapped up in the Gaelic football season.
But dancing lessons seemed like too good an idea to just toss, especially since her son is dating a dance instructor.
So, for the last three weeks (with three more to come, she and her son’s girlfriend, Laura Gittings of Take the Lead dance studio on Pine Street in Philadelphia, are teaching adults how to swing, jive, and foxtrot at the Philadelphia Irish Center in Mt. Airy on Thursday nights.
“I thought it would be good for people who want to get ready for the Mayo and Donegal balls this year,” said Trainor, whom I caught up with recently after a grueling hour of box-stepping and foxtrotting. And she has some other good ideas. “I’m thinking about having a couple of competitions this year, our own ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ I don’t know who the stars will be—it might be ourselves!” She laughs.
It was the popular celebrity dance show on ABC-TV that prompted her children to ask her about learning to dance. “The kids are all talking about it, and I thought it was important for them to learn. I think everyone in the world should dance,” she says. “The boys are embarrassed to learn, but I said, ‘Now, don’t fight with me because you know it’s no use.’”
Trainor plans to repeat the classes in the fall when the kids have promised to trade football gear for dancing shoes. But the classes are open to all, even her husband, Sean, who, while he can dance, “can’t jive,” she laughs.
