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Lydia Raurell of Palm Beach realizes ballroom dancing dream, authors book
- Date Published:
- January 10, 2009
By ROBERT JANJIGIAN, Daily News Fashion Editor
Saturday, January 10, 2009
It had been Lydia Raurell's dream to become an expert ballroom dancer since she was a little girl.
"It wasn't until I was 54 that I could realize my dream," said the Palm Beach resident, who four years ago came across an advertisement for Caruso's DanceSport Palm Beach, a recently opened dance studio on North County Road, and headed over from her Midtown home to sign on for lessons with owner Angelo Caruso.
Raurell set a high goal for herself: to win the title of top female student dancer out of 3,000 women competing in theDanceSport Series competitions held in various cities from November to November, starting and beginning with the Ohio Star Ball in Columbus, Ohio.
With Caruso as her professional partner, Raurell almost immediately started entering the pro-am competitions, while practicing three hours a day, four days a week at the studio, learning the steps of the 24 dances required to be seriously considered a contender.
That first year of her rekindled passion for dance and her journey from a beginner to an accomplished competitor is documented in a just-released book Raurell has written, called A Year of Dancing Dangerously (Overlook Duckworth, $24.95), which is illustrated with photographs taken by her husband, publishing executive Robert Forbes.
"Lydia is the most determined, focused and dedicated of my students," said Caruso, who has been a professional ballroom dancer for 26 years. "And she's turned into one of my best."
Caruso, half-jokingly, explained that Raurell has been so successful because, he said, "She has a great teacher."
"She came in as a good freestyle dancer, which we had to tame and tone down to prepare her for the ballroom repertoire," he said. Raurell's ballet experience as a girl also was helpful.
"It's 110 percent concentration and control that helps me to dance well," said Raurell, who has continued to participate in ballroom competitions over the past three years, building her confidence and practicing while moving up through the National Dance Council of America's established levels.
While still considered a student, Raurell has moved from the bronze-level category to the higher silver level, in which she won a third-place medal last year.
When Raurell entered her first competitions, she anticipated it being a tough, cliquish environment, unfriendly to newcomers. "I learned that when you join the ballroom dance world, the people are very embracing and supportive," she said.
"We all come to speak the same language," she said. "We're a tight group."
"In the beginning, I think all the other competitors weren't exactly welcoming, especially when Lydia started winning awards from the very first time she stepped on the dance floor," Caruso said.
Raurell lists the Viennese waltz as her strongest dance, with the bolero as her personal favorite because of it grace and the chance it gives her to be more expressive. "My weakest dance is the cha-cha," she admitted. "Of course, that's Angelo's favorite."
Forbes, who often travels with his wife to the various competitions, is "very much in favor" of Raurell's pursuit of a ballroom dancing career.
"I support it totally, " he said. "I've even taken a few lessons myself."
"Bob is a fabulous dancer," Raurell said. "It's another one of my dreams that eventually we'll compete together."
In the meantime, Forbes goes to see his wife dance with Caruso at ballrooms from San Jose to Manhattan and shoots photographs such as those in A Year of Dancing Dangerously.
"I've been a photographer for years, at one time even earning a living taking pictures," he said. "The challenge with dance is to capture the motion in a still medium."
The key to taking a good dance photograph, he said, is "a slow shutter speed."
Source:
Janjigian, Robert (2009 January 10). Lydia Raurell of Palm Beach realizes ballroom dancing dream, authors book. Retrieved June 6, 2009, from http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/content/news/2009/01/10/ForbesDance0111.html
