REVIEW: SIX DANCE LESSONS IN SIX WEEKS @ CHESTER THEATRE GROUP

In an age when hip hop, break dancing, crumping and dance as sport are popular on television, it is lovely to watch couples twirl around the floor in the Viennese Waltz, the Jive/Swing, the Cha Cha and the Passe Doble. Ballroom dancing used to be a six-minute date, a brief encounter when two strangers could hold each other close, engage in an albeit shallow conversation or a flirtation and maybe strike up a romance. Certainly, it was a chance to be connected to a person of the opposite sex for however short a time.

It is that impetus that leads lonely Florida retiree Lily Harrison to engage dance teacher Michael Minnetti for Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, which is the name of a rather predictable comedy by Richard Alfieri now onstage in a production by the Chester Theatre Group at the Black River Playhouse in Chester through December 5.

That Lily (and Michael, for that matter) will learn more than just dance steps is a foregone conclusion from their near-disastrous very first meeting, for as these two mismatched individuals get to know each other more intimately over the six weeks, they both learn some important life lessons that will serve them well, no matter the differences in their ages. (Left: Eileen Waite as Lily and Matt Cotton as Michael dance the tango.)

What saves Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks from being humdrum are the two actors who play Lily and Michael and who get to speak some pretty funny dialogue, especially in the first act. Eileen Waite is the epitome of old lady moral rectitude; her primness fits her like a glove, and her reproving, tight mouth says, “Don’t try to put one over on me.” It’s great fun to watch this lonely character let her hair down lesson by lesson, shucking her preconceived notions as a Southern Baptist preacher’s wife and using language that would never have passed her lips before. It’s a lovely and bittersweet transformation that takes place before our eyes.

Equally as fine is Matt Cotton as the angry, profane, middle-aged gay Michael Minnetti, late of the chorus line on Broadway and reduced to giving lessons to condo-dwelling ladies of a certain age for a living. He’s lonely too, having endured a spate of unfortunate and disastrous relationships and caring for his mother in the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Cotton is really quite light on his feet and just as nimble at teasing the truth out of Lily, whether or not she wants to give up her secrets. They make quite a couple, these two: she so buttoned up she can barely breathe, he so open that there’s almost nothing he won’t say. (Michael and Lily dance the Viennese Waltz.)

Roseann Ruggiero directs Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks well, with the first act of four lessons moving along quite crisply and steadily. The rhythm of the second act, with longer sections of dialogue and much less dancing, lags a bit. The two actors have a monumental task remembering long blocks of dialogue; they can be forgiven if they flub a few from time to time. But there are some stretches of dead air which slow down the drama’s progression to its inevitable ending. Part of this problem stems from the nature of the play itself, I think, but a bit of directorial tweaking would keep the dramatic tension of the second act as high as that of the first.

Solid production values are in play at the Chester Theatre Group. Chris Mortenson and Roseann Ruggiero have designed the quintessential St. Petersburg Beach condo, complete with rattan furniture, etageres filled with knickknacks and mementos of a former life and the de rigueur balcony facing the daily sunset. Jeff Knapp has provided music to fit each dance style and to suit the particular personal interaction between Lily and Michael, and the cast and Scaramouche Costumes have dressed the actors to beautifully reflect both the dance being taught and their states of mind.

Thank you to Michael (and playwright Alfieri) for teaching us, and Lily, that many of what we consider to be classic social dances have a whiff of scandal in their origins, some of them rivaling the often very physical (and sexually charged) so-called dances of today. And thanks to the Chester Theatre Group for once again bringing local audiences a play that addresses important social issues and forces us to face the stereotypes we so often apply to others—in this case, old ladies and gay men—and to do it with humor and great acting. We are familiar with homophobia, but how many of us have considered the effects of ageism, that older people often feel invisible. It is certainly food for thought.

Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks will be performed Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM through December 5 at the Black River Playhouse on Grove Street in Chester. For tickets and information, call the box office at 908.879.7304 or visit www.chestertheatregroup.org.
Photos by Lamont Hill.