Dancing will be the star ‘Back Door’ competition benefits Project Graduation

EDDINGTON – Dance instructor Chuck McKay has a mission. He wants to expose younger generations to the art of social dancing – the kind those of us of a certain age recall doing in the gymnasiums and Grange halls of our lives – also known as partner dancing.

His plan to achieve that goal is simple and straightforward: Make it fun and teach anyone who wants to learn, especially children. And if money for a good cause can be raised in the process, so much the better.

McKay, who operates the Back Door Dance Studio and Meadowbrook Dance Center in Eddington, has organized a fundraiser for Orono High School Project Graduation.

“It will have a ‘Dancing with the Stars’ format,” he said. Ten advanced-level dancers will train members of the Orono High School faculty, including coaches, staff and students, to dance.

Those new dancers will pair with one of the trained dancers and compete for votes at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 15, for the first round; and 7 p.m. Friday, March 21, for the second round, both at Orono High School.

The new dancers raise money by finding sponsors, and audience members contribute by giving $1 for each vote for their favorite couple. McKay said he expects the event to raise some $8,000 for Project Graduation. Last year, a similar event raised $4,000 for Project Graduation in Brewer.

Over the years, McKay has been involved in many benefit projects.

McKay and his wife, Sue, established the Back Door Dance Studio 10 years ago and opened the Meadowbrook Dance Center last November.

“We had a dance studio in our basement and outgrew it,” he said. In those years he also had a full-time job at Shaw’s supermarket and Sue worked full-time as a certified public accountant. Yet they managed to teach dance classes some part of seven days a week.

Eight years ago, he was invited to Damariscotta, where he taught an entire school to dance – something he continues to do each year.

And yet, 20 years ago, McKay said, he couldn’t dance at all, let alone teach anyone the steps.

“Our sons were growing up and my wife and I wanted to do an activity together. I wanted us to learn bowling and she wanted us to take dance lessons,” McKay said.

When they couldn’t agree which to do, they flipped a coin. Sue called heads, and heads it was.

But McKay had no desire to learn to dance. He convinced his wife to do another coin flip in hopes that it would be tails and they could bowl instead. It came up heads again. Still determined not to learn to dance, he lobbied for one more coin toss. Heads again.

“I said, ‘What’s destined to be is destined to be,'” he recalled.

So off they went in 1988 to the Thomas School of Dance in Bangor, where they signed up for an eight-week dance course with Leonard Robbins.

“My wife had the basic step down in about five seconds,” McKay said, “but at the end of the eight weeks, I still did not have the basic step.” Sue decided to call it quits, but McKay was determined to learn and they signed up for another eight weeks.

But it was only by week 30 that McKay finally ‘got’ it. He and Sue, he said, learned everything the school had to teach and went on to invent their own moves. Soon, others were asking them for pointers, and before they knew it they were holding classes in the basement of their home.

Now, they conduct classes in the new Meadowbrook Dance Center, including an after-school dance program for children in grades one through eight.

“We teach social dance,” McKay said, “the waltz, the Lindy hop [also known as the jitterbug] and Latin dances. If I can’t teach anyone to dance and have fun in four weeks, it can’t be done.”

Back Door Dance Studio offers a limited number of scholarships to students. The fund is supported by proceeds from dances open to the public 8-10:30 p.m. every Friday at the Meadowbrook Dance Center. Admission is $3 for dance studio students, $5 for others.

A free dance for senior citizens is held 1-3 p.m. the first Thursday of each month.

“It took me a long time to learn to dance,” McKay said. “It’s gratifying to teach something to someone they think they can’t do.”

To learn more about the Back Door Dance Studio and its scholarship program, call 843-5638 or visit www.backdoordance.com. The dance center is located on Route 9 in Eddington.