Ballroom: A Novel by Alice Simpson

Author:Alice Simpson [Simpson, Alice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-09-23T00:00:00+00:00

Before tearing it into pieces, he held it to his mouth, took in her perfume on the stationery; then he threw the pieces in the cafeteria trash.

As years passed, there were one-night stands with women he met at Roseland and other dance places around the city. When he began giving private lessons, he was careful never to get romantic with any of his students. It wasn’t as if he didn’t have the opportunity.

Chapter 26

Sarah

Such a man at the head of a dancing school would be of infinite assistance to the young men and women coming upon the stage of action. In his class he would teach pupils the laws of good behavior; he would warn them concerning the evils of bad association; he would instruct them in the importance of regularity of habit and of keeping proper hours; with which instruction he would reform many abuses that now exist at public entertainments.

—Thomas E. Hill, Evils of the Ball, 1883

What you doin’ Tuesday, sweetheart? You wanna go dancin’, Sarah?”

It’s the first week of February. She can hardly believe that Tony D remembers her name. He has this funny tough-guy way of speaking that reminds her of movie gangsters like Jimmy Cagney.

“Sure. Where?” She’s flattered and excited to have a real dance date.

“China Kim’s, in College Point. My buddies all go there on Tuesdays. Great buffet, all you can eat. Good DJ, too, and a good floor. I think you got what it takes, Sarah.”

And just like that, they are partners.

On Tuesday Tony picks her up at the subway station in his blue Chevy Impala and pays for her at China Kim’s—her admission, her drinks, her food—and then drives her home at the end of the evening. All his buddies, who meet there regularly, love Tony and whisper in her ear how lucky she is to be his partner. They tell Tony he’s found “a winner.”

“You guys look great together,” Rocky, one of Tony’s oldest friends, says to her. “I never seen Tony so happy. Not in a long time. You’re a hell of a dancer, and don’t let Tony tell you no different.”

Rocky’s wife Delores nods in agreement, taking Sarah’s hand and squeezing it. Tony and Sarah sit with Rocky and Delores and their crowd of older Italian men and their wives. They only talk about the music and make comments about dancers. Gabriel Katz is also there, dancing with a fashionable new partner, but he doesn’t seem to notice her.

On Wednesday, Sarah and Tony practice at the Fifty-Second Street Y; weekends, they dance at the Copa, or Our Lady of Sorrows, the church on the Lower East Side. Maria and Angel are there, and greet her by name. She is thrilled to be dancing five nights a week. Everywhere they go, she looks for Gabriel, and usually she sees him. It goes without saying that everyone is on their own on Sundays at the Ballroom, except Maria and Angel, but at the end of the evening Tony asks Sarah if she needs a ride home, and drives her all the way to Brooklyn.

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