Their dance cards are full

IT was a mad hot ballroom last Sunday at the Park Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles as 60 students from six L.A. area schools strutted their stuff to the merengue, rumba, tango, fox trot and swing at LA Ballroom 2008. The team from the Culture and Language Academy of Success in Inglewood took home the first-place trophy.

The judges included board members from USA Dance L.A., some of its members helpfully performing a Viennese waltz during intermission.

In addition to studying the basic elements of ballroom dance, the 10-week, 20-lesson program nurtures self-confidence, team spirit and etiquette. “When I first came here this year, I was afraid my friends and brother would tease me,” said Aaron Newman, a fifth-grader whose mother researched famous men who were dancers and encouraged him to dance. “Now ballroom dancing is my favorite,” said Newman, who also studies ballet at Gabriella Charter School.

The dance competition is part of an education program funded by the nonprofit Gabriella Axelrad Education Foundation, named for a 13-year-old Studio City dance lover who was killed in an auto accident. Through its program Everybody Dance!, professional dance instruction is provided at little or no cost to disadvantaged children ages 10 to 13. More than 900 students are enrolled in ballet, jazz, tap, hip-hop and modern dance at three dance studios in the Pico-Union, Rampart and Koreatown districts. For more information on the dance program and foundation, visit www.everybodydance.org.

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-- Liesl Bradner