"We learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same…. One becomes in some area an athlete of God."

Martha Graham

Press

Diane Jarmolow Trains Ballroom Dance Teachers

by Dolly Tavasieff

September 2007

The dancers enrolled in the Ballroom Dance Teachers College teacher training program all share the same dream: to become an instructor and make ballroom dancing their life. Many of these future teachers are fresh out of high school or college and have been dancing all their lives. But there are also dancers who come to the training classes after spending most of their professional lives somewhere else. They've been lawyers, or engineers, or dentists, or rocket scientists. Now they are learning to teach the box step in the Waltz, and loving every minute of it.

"I want people to know that it is possible to become a ballroom dance instructor at every stage in their life," says Diane Jarmolow, the founder and director of Ballroom Dance Teachers College, and an internationally renowned luminary in the ballroom world. "It's never too late," Jarmolow adds. "You can be in your 40's, your 50's, your 60's, or your 70's and you will be welcome in our training classes. The only prerequisite to enrollment is a love of dance and a desire to help others experience that joy." Are you ever too old to consider a career in ballroom dancing? "Never," says Jarmolow, adding that one of the most thoughtful and engaging teacher trainees she has ever known was in his 80's when he began the program.

Ballroom dancing differs from other dance professions in that it is possible to have a successful career even if you begin dancing as an adult. If you want to be a principal ballerina, you must have that early training in your physical development. But if you want to help a wedding couple learn the Foxtrot, it's more important that you are an enthusiastic, supportive and knowledgeable teacher who understands the dance figures and knows how to communicate this understanding to people with a variety of learning styles.

This is what the future teachers learn in the Ballroom Dance Teachers College. The program is rigorous. Graduates must master the formal technical elements of each dance. They learn musicality and partnership skills and have regular presentation exams. Ballroom Dance Teachers College is the premier ballroom teacher training program in the country, and by the time the graduates have gone through the program, they are teaching at a national level of professional excellence. "No matter what your age when you begin," Jarmolow says, "you will be a great teacher when you are done."

Still, Jarmolow adds, not everyone is destined to become a United States ballroom champion. Many of the graduates are teaching in schools, in senior centers, and in community recreation programs, sharing the love of ballroom dancing with people who may never have had an opportunity to take formal dance classes. Most importantly, these dance teachers are doing what they love to do.

"So many people spend their lives working in careers that they hate," says Jarmolow. "Becoming a ballroom dance teacher is a viable option for people at every age. It is a wonderful profession that engages your body, your mind, and your heart. You don't have to spend every day doing something you hate," she smiles, "you can become a ballroom dance teacher and truly live your joy."

Available To Dance Studios Everywhere

by Dolly Tavasieff

November, 2006

For years, there has been only one formal vocational ballroom dance teacher training program in the United States: the Ballroom Dance Teachers College (BDTC) in San Francisco, California. Widely regarded as the gold standard of teacher training within the ballroom industry, the College has turned out hundreds of fully trained professional instructors who are teaching and dancing in top studios across the country and around the world.

But there’s been one problem: this rigorous sixteen-month program has only been available to dancers who live in (or are willing to relocate to) the San Francisco Bay Area. Now, BDTC’s extraordinary founder, Diane Jarmolow, has created BDTC In A Box, a kit that contains everything a studio needs to run its own vocational teacher training program. With BDTC In A Box, studios will be provided a method for training their own staff as well as be empowered to make the program accessible to those in their surrounding community interested in becoming ballroom dance instructors.

“My goal is to improve the way ballroom dance teachers are trained,” says Jarmolow. “BDTC In A Box is the way to do it. This kit is my contribution to a revolution in the ballroom industry,” she adds, an incandescent smile lighting up her face.

If anyone can revolutionize the ballroom business, it’s Diane Jarmolow. She’s a ballroom luminary who has been teaching, dancing and training dance teachers for nearly thirty years. She founded and ran the enormously successful Metronome Ballroom in San Francisco, was a top professional competitor, and now regularly consults at ballrooms across North America and the Caribbean. She helped to create DVIDA’s series of professional certification examinations and has edited their technique and syllabus manuals.

Her greatest professional achievement, however, is the Ballroom Dance Teachers College. BDTC is a formal vocational training school. Jarmolow’s genius was to run the training program like a regular group class. There is no prerequisite to join the class, nor is there any promise of employment at the end. Enrollees pay for the course as they would for any group class. Thus, BDTC becomes a profit center for the dance studio while at the same time providing the studio with a ready supply of fully-trained dance teachers.

“Dance studios always need trained teachers,” Jarmolow says. “But the traditional method is all wrong.” Studios generally hire untrained employees who think they want to be dance teachers. The studios then train these employees, for free, while the employees are on salary. Often these employees decide they don’t want to be dance teachers after all, and the studio has lost all of its investment.

“BDTC works because the prospective teachers pay for their training,” Jarmolow says. “They are investing in their professional future, just like students in a law school, musical conservatory, or cosmetology academy. BDTC graduates are helping to raise the level of professionalism in the whole industry.”

A formal teacher training program can be a tremendous financial boon to a studio. A well-run BDTC has the potential to generate thousands of dollars each month, year after year. And the program is rigorous; graduates will learn to master the technical, musical, and partnership elements of each syllabus dance figure. Even people with no ballroom experience can graduate as fully trained professional instructors, if they have the dedication and the commitment to work hard.

This is a daunting proposition, but Jarmolow, a master teacher herself, has designed and successfully implemented a structured program that consists of a series of innovative exercises, regular examinations, and supportive feedback to the trainees. All of this has made BDTC the apex of professional teacher training. She has formalized this course into BDTC In A Box.

BDTC In A Box contains 128 lesson plans that will develop prospective teachers through the entire Bronze American Style syllabus for Smooth, Rhythm, and Club dances (seventeen dances in all.) The kit also includes Master Teacher Manuals for each section, a Business Guide that explains the administrative and marketing aspects of the course, Resource Sheets containing reference information on specific technique and teaching issues, and a series of homework exercises, examinations, and answer guides.

Now studios from Alaska to Alabama have an opportunity to run their own Ballroom Dance Teachers College. “BDTC has created hundreds of professional instructors from people who never believed that a career in dance was possible,” Jarmolow says. “It is possible,” Jarmolow says, her green eyes flashing. “People can have a career doing what they love. Now studios everywhere can help to make people’s dreams come true with BDTC In A Box.”

Studios and future dance teachers who are interested in Ballroom Dance Teachers College In A Box can contact Diane Jarmolow through her web site www.teachballroomdancing.com, or by phone to (510) 336-9426.

American Style Ballroom Dancing In Trinidad
A Meeting of Hearts and Minds through Dance

by Dolly Reynolds Tavasieff

January/February 2005

Traditionally, American Style ballroom dancing--that smooth, romantic, earthy, creative style of dancing embraced by both Fred Astaire and the Mambo Kings--has been confined to the United States. Professional ballroom dancers from Maine to California have raised the standards of American Style dancing to unprecedented levels. But for the rest of the world, professional ballroom dancing has a European face: it is the formal, rigid elegance of the International Style.

But now, on a beautiful island 7 miles off the coast of Venezuela, the small Caribbean nation of Trinidad has its own corps of professionally certified American Style ballroom dancers. This is the extraordinary result of the collaboration of Diane Jarmolow of the Ballroom Dance Teachers College in Oakland, California, and Eugene and Jessica Joseph of the Trinidad Dance Theater in San Fernando, Trinidad. This was much more than just a series of professional certification workshops. Diane’s experience in Trinidad was a true cultural exchange, a meeting of hearts and minds through dance.

“Politicians should learn from our experience,” says Eugene Joseph. “Our work with Diane proves that dance has the power to transform the world.”

The fortuitous collaboration between Diane and the Josephs began a year and a half ago when the Trinidad couple began their own training in American Style with Diane. Eugene and Jessica were hardly novices to the ballroom dancing world. They have run their own enormously successful ballroom studios, The Trinidad Dance Theatre, for nearly forty years. They operate schools in four separate cities and enroll nearly 900 students. The schools have been accredited by the British Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance and the Royal Academy of Dancing. Recently, the Josephs hosted U.S. Latin champions Bob Powers and Julia Gorchacova.

Additionally, Trinidad Dance Theater has a performing company that celebrates the rich traditions of native Caribbean dance and musical forms. The company has performed all over the world, including at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and the Royal Festival Hall in London (where they were the first Black dance company ever to perform in that prestigious location.) In addition to his work with the Trinidad Dance Theatre, Eugene also served as Trinidad’s Minister of Culture.

The Josephs were attracted to American Style dancing because it is more compatible with Trinidad’s tremendously rich cultural traditions. Trinidad is an island nation about the size of Delaware whose population is almost evenly split between those of African descent (who were first brought to the island as slaves in the sixteenth century) and more recent immigrants from Northern India (who began arriving in the mid nineteenth century.) These two ethnic traditions contribute both dance and musical forms to create an ecstatic cultural mélange.

Calypso music began in Trinidad. It was derived from a West African storytelling form of music called kaiso, and was used as a means of communication and story telling among plantation workers. Calypso has since spawned a tremendously popular modern form of music called Soca (for soul calypso), including the popular ballroom samba “Hot!Hot!Hot!.” There is now also Rapso (rap + calypso) and, due to the Indian influence, the hugely popular forms of exuberant, spicy Chutney music, which is influenced by classical Hindi songs. Add to this Trinidad’s native musical forms of Steelband (also called Pan) and Parang (from the Spanish word for “to party” or “to spree”), and you can see why this beautiful Caribbean nation has one of the richest musical landscapes in the world.

“The East Indian musical tradition is very lyrical, the African tradition is earthy and sexual, and European classical music is very cerebral. All traditions have something to contribute,” says Eugene. “ Trinidad’s music epitomizes the synthesis of cultural unity; it is what brings us together.” he continues. “But still, we need structure and standards to be most effective. I was searching for a formalized system of dancing that could incorporate our own cultural tradition. And I found it in DVIDA’s American Style syllabus. And in the wonderful person of Diane Jarmolow.”

American Style ballroom dancing accommodates the more natural movement of Trinidad’s own dance styles. Mambo, Samba, Cha Cha and Tango all have Caribbean roots. In the Rhythm dances, the hip action comes from soft knees as opposed to the long lines achieved with the straight legs in the International Latin dances. Some of the Rhythm dances like Lindy and West Coast Swing, allow (and even encourage) improvisation on the part of the follower. The partners can dance in open position or even apart in the Smooth dances, which greatly increases the creativity and range of expression. Additionally, American Style is, at its core, social dancing that requires dance partners to focus primarily on each other rather than on a formulaic series of dance figures.

“For years, Ballet has been presented to Caribbeans as the highest form of dancing,” said Eugene. “However, for all its grace and beauty, Ballet has been difficult for the Caribbean psyche, because it imposes a European aesthetic that denies our own cultural traditions and contributions. But with American Style ballroom dancing, there is room for what we Trinidadians know how to do so well.”

Still, Eugene says, structure and standardization are crucial, especially for teaching and learning dance. “Diane has given us a system for teaching American Style ballroom dancing to our students.”

Diane has been extremely influential in the creation of DVIDA, which provides manuals, videos, professional certification exams, and student medal tests for all American Style Smooth and Rhythm dances, in addition to a vast network of professional support services. These materials, especially the syllabus manuals and accompanying videos, have allowed dancers around the world to study and master American Style ballroom dancing. “DVIDA’s motto is ‘Teaching the World to Dance’,” said Eugene. “Now, with DVIDA’s help, we are teaching the Caribbean to dance.”

Eugene and Jessica discovered Diane on the Internet and began consulting with her. Diane has been training dance teachers for nearly thirty years and is widely regarded as the United States’ premier expert on ballroom dance teacher training and professional certification. The Josephs have traveled to California twice to prepare for and take their DVIDA American Style professional certification exams. These dance masters from separate parts of the world had an instant chemistry.

“The Josephs are such spiritual, inspiring people,” Diane said, “and extraordinary dancers, whose technique shows a level of sustained excellence. What a joy to work with them!”

Eugene puts it this way. “It was Divine Intervention that brought us together with Diane.” And, after years of coming to know Diane on her territory, the Josephs invited Diane and her husband Peter to be their guests at their beautiful home studio in San Fernando, Trinidad.

Over the course of the next nine days, Diane came to know and work with the dedicated instructors and students of the Trinidad Dance Theater. She gave professional certification exams to four teachers (all of whom passed with high honors) and, most incredibly, gave medal exams to thirty-four different students!

“The dancers were so gifted and so dedicated,” Diane said. “They were incredibly serious about their dancing and at the same time totally joyful and buoyant about life. It was transporting! There were times when I was teaching that I was so in the moment I lost the awareness of my body. That’s really a spiritual experience that happens maybe once or twice in a teacher’s entire career.”

One night, Diane said, she and the Josephs traveled to a studio in San Miguel, an hour away, to teach a nighttime West Coast Swing class. When they got there, they discovered that the power was out in the studio. It was sweltering hot and there were no lights or any way to play music. Diane expected the class to be cancelled, but none of the students wanted to leave! Eventually, someone brought a few candles and the whole class began to learn West Coast Swing by candle light with no music. After an hour the electricity came back on and the whole class erupted in a cheer.

Her time in the Caribbean was not all work and no play, however. Even with all her teaching, Diane still had time for some swimming and snorkeling in the beautiful tropical ocean. On their last night there, the Josephs held a party for Diane and her husband where the two Americans danced to Trinidad music until dawn. “To dance with the Josephs and their students and teachers was an amazing experience of connection,” Diane said.

Currently, the Josephs are working on bringing partner dancing to Trinidad’s schools and to its poorer communities. It is through dance, they believe, that young people can awaken in themselves a sense of their own power and a respect for others. Boys come to treat girls with reverence and dignity. They learn that through coming together, tremendous avenues of possibility will open up. The Josephs have rigorous standards for all who participate. From the earliest age, all students in the Trinidad Dance Theatre must espouse the credo of Trust, Honesty, Consciousness, and Purity.

“Dance has the power to transform the world,” Eugene says. “People from all cultures can come together and learn from each other. This is what we have learned from our wonderful experience with Diane. Now it is our job to take the riches of this connection and give it back to the world.”

Become a Ballroom Dance Teacher & Make Your Dreams Come True

by Dolly Reynolds Tavasieff

November/December 2001

For two weeks this November, the Metronome Dance Center in San Francisco will host the first national Professional Ballroom Dance Teachers College. The Teachers College aims to provide aspiring dance teachers from around the country with the essential tools they need for a successful career as a ballroom instructor.

"So many people dream of a career in ballroom dancing, but they feel trapped working in jobs they hate," says Diane Jarmolow, director of the Metronome Dance Center in San Francisco. "I want people to know that a wonderful career as a ballroom dance teacher is a possibility. Basically, I want to make their dreams come true."

A tall order? Not for Diane, who has run a year-round professional teacher training program for the past fifteen years. She has trained hundreds of professional dance teachers, including U.S. and International champions. "Becoming a ballroom dance instructor is a very viable career option," she says. "The hours are flexible, and the pay can be quite good, especially as the teacher acquires more training. People seem to think to be a professional dance instructor, you need to have started training at age five and have a ballerina's body," she continues, "but this is not true, there is much more to being a good dance teacher than just being an excellent dancer. There are specific skills that all students can acquire with determination and hard work."

Diane herself could be a model for the hopeful students in her training program. She had her first dance lesson at age 28, after working as an accountant and nurse. "I was electrified," she said of her first dance experience (at a San Francisco disco), "I knew then what I wanted to do with the rest of my life." Diane has been a professional dance teacher for twenty-five years. In 1991, she founded the Metronome Dance Center, the largest ballroom in San Francisco and a veritable Bay Area institution, many times voted "Best Place to Learn to Dance." The Metronome employs 30 professional dance instructors and offers more than 50 group classes and workshops each week. All full-time dance instructors receive health insurance and 401(k) retirement accounts.

Diane has also had a very successful professional career on her own, and is a fifteen-time winner of the "Top Teacher" award at national competitions. She is currently an adjudicator for national professional and amateur DanceSport competitions. A real "teachers' teacher", she has successfully prepared U.S. Champions Victor Veyrasset and Heather Smith, Olga Forapovna, and current Rising Star Smooth Champions David Weise and Valentina Kostenko for their U.S. Terpsichore examinations.

Diane was inspired to create a formalized training program, after her own challenges in acquiring the training to become the wonderful teacher she is today. "I had excellent teachers," says Diane, "but they were focused on teaching me how to dance. There didn't seem to be any place I could go to learn how to teach. I had to take a bit from this teacher, a bit from that teacher, a bit from this workshop, a lot of trial and error. It was a very expensive, inefficient way to acquire information."

Successful dance teachers need to have s very specific understanding of the mechanics of each individual dance step. Diane teaches her students to break down each step into its component parts (foot position, alignment, rise and fall, amount of turn, footwork, sway, contra body movement, and timing), and do so for both the leader and the follower's parts. Every dance teacher must understand these elements and be able to demonstrate them in isolation. This is a learned skill that requires a systematic study program.

"Many gifted dancers are able to dance the patterns perfectly, because they have an intuitive grace," says Diane, "but this does not necessarily mean they will be able to teach others how to dance, especially if their students do not have a dance background. There is no substitute to learning the steps element by element, from the ground up." Diane cites the familiar paradox that the greatest dancers do not always make the greatest teachers. "You do not have to be the U.S. champion to be a wonderful teacher with a great deal to offer your students," says Jarmolow, "but you must understand every aspect of the dance you are teaching."

Several other elements also contribute to a wonderful dance teacher. Diane cites enthusiasm, patience, compassion, and the ability to teach students with a wide variety of learning styles. "No single method will work with every student," she says, "a good dance teacher will have a flexible teaching style, and will be able to present the information in many different ways. Above all, the teacher should support the student's individual learning style."

The November Teachers College will be divided into two one-week segments. The first week will cover the American Style Smooth dances (Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, and Viennese Waltz) and the second week will cover the American Style Rhythm dances (Rumba, Cha Cha, Mambo, Bolero, and East Coast Swing.) Students may take the sessions individually or together. Students will receive 43 hours of classroom instruction and will learn to lead and follow five basic patterns from the Bronze syllabus of each dance. Although as experienced dancers, most students will have already mastered these patterns as a leader or follower, students in the Teachers College will approach and master these steps from a teacher's perspective. One hour each day will be devoted to specific teaching challenges (e.g. how to start a group class to music, how to deal with couples who fight, how to help a student who can't hear the beat, etc.) Two Saturday sessions will be devoted to preparing for professional licensing exams.

Diane will be using the Dance Vision International Dancers Association (DVIDA) Bronze Syllabus, which was recently been approved by the National Dance Council of America. The DVIDA Syllabus manuals and accompanying videotapes were created by dance luminaries Ron Montez, Jim and Jenell Maranto, Victor Veyrasset and Heather Smith, and Corky and Shirley Ballas. DVIDA's Director Wayne Eng plans to hold the first national conference of professional ballroom dance instructors in December 2002. "I am absolutely thrilled that someone of Diane's caliber will be implementing the DVIDA syllabus in her teacher training program," says Eng. "This has really given a shot in the arm to our entire organization," he adds.

Can you really learn to become a ballroom dance teacher in only two weeks? Diane laughs. "We will give them the tools," she says, "but they must provide the day to day practice and hard work once the course is over." Due to the compressed time frame, students who attend the Teachers College must already know how to dance. Diane says they should have been social dancing for at least a year, and should know several patterns in each of the dances they will be studying at the College.

"We will teach students how to understand dance steps from a teacher's perspective," says Diane. "We will teach them the professional vocabulary they need to read dance manuals. These are tools for future study. In November, the students will learn five steps in each dance. But more importantly, they will have acquired the tools to learn the entire syllabus."

Similarly, students will learn how to prepare for professional licensing exams. "It often takes working dance teachers a year to prepare for a professional exam," says Diane "I will show the students how to study for the exam, and what to expect from the examiners. Again, these are the tools they need to do well on the examinations, but the students will also have to make a significant commitment to mastering the materiel on their own, once the course is over."

If students are willing to make this commitment, the rewards can be truly great. "If you are a professional ballroom dance instructor," says Diane, "you have the greatest job in the world. It's good for your body, your mind and your heart. You get to introduce people to the joy of moving together to the music. Every time I stand up in front of a class of eager dancers, I get a tremendous feeling of joy."

Diane feels that it is her personal mission to bring the joy of ballroom dancing to as many people as possible. "Every single student, even the most challenging, can learn to dance. Maybe he will never be the U.S. champion, but he will learn how to do a simple foxtrot. It is the teacher's great privilege and joy to develop the student's skills and confidence," says Jarmolow, with a smile. "At the end of every workday," she adds, "the teacher will be a better dancer, and a better person."

"Learning to Keep the Beat at Metronome Dance Center"

by Octavio Roca

Saturday, April 13, 2002

Should you lead or should you follow? Should you perhaps be flexible enough to do both? These basic questions come with their own beat in San Francisco's Metronome Ballroom, where experts of that swinging sport have been meeting this week to achieve certification in ballroom dance teaching.

The scene is Metronome's Potrero Hill studios. Sixteen dance teachers from all over the United States and Canada, a display of virtually all body types and several generations, stand in loose lines before an elegant, lithe woman dressed in a floppy cotton blouse, black slacks and, yes, cha-cha heels.

She is Metronome founder Diane Jarmolow. Behind her are charts and symbols, presumably illustrations for the chanting that follows as all repeat, "One, toe. Two, toe, heel, toe... It changes on 13, ball of foot, toe heel toe" or something along those lines. These complicated formulas sound far from "Strictly Ballroom" and closer to "A Beautiful Mind."

"What dance is this they're doing?" a visitor asks.

"The waltz," explains the guide.

Like baseball and ballet, two other very physical spectator sports with meticulously detailed rules, modern standard ballroom dance can look back on deep roots in history as well as ahead to growing respect as a sport.

The rules, born in Blackpool, England, nearly a century ago, have grown to cover the steps involved in the waltz, tango, foxtrot and quickstep and Latin. This last category has ballooned with the popularity of salsa, on top of the existing vogues for samba and cha-cha — though the British-made rules for ballroom cha-cha would puzzle anyone familiar with the original Cuban cha-cha-cha.

"But dancing is mainly social," said Jarmolow. "And most people just want to dance, not compete. We are here for them."

No kidding. Metronome's intensive teacher training program winds up today but returns in June and December. There is also a new Latin course from May 9 through Aug. 19. A swing course follows in August and runs through December. There is a gay and lesbian partner dancing program, including salsa and Lindy hop. There are also wedding workshops ("Low-stress instruction will make sure you shine on the dance floor: for wedding couples and their wedding parties"). There is even an adult ballet program, taught by Oakland Ballet alumna Julie Lowe.

After a suggestion of "Let's see you teach now," students take turns leading the class under Jarmolow's smiling direction. Was that toe-heel-toe or is there a slide before toe? Learn by doing, then learn to explain it to others: That is what the class is about. Salsa and the foxtrot follow the waltz. An unusual "karate chop technique" for slipping your right arm under the partner's left armpit proves a particularly fascinating way to lead.

A short while later, a walk next door to Metronome's larger studio reveals a busy hive of activity and at least one face familiar to Bay Area dance lovers.

"This is very different," said Tianne Frias, a dancer with Robert Moses' Kin who also teaches at the Metronome. "And I've learned a lot from Diane. She is a master teacher, very clear."

Who goes to Metronome?

"Right now, we have a lot of engineers, for some reason," said Jarmolow. "We have a judge, a vice president of MasterCard, secretaries, all kinds of people."

Is there anyone who just plain can't dance?

"I've never met that person," said Jarmolow.

BIOGRAPHIC: "Jarmolow Hasn't Had the Last Dance Just Yet"

by Paul Sterman

June 7, 2001

As a young woman growing up in Brooklyn, Diane Jarmolow's life seemed to be all mapped out for her.

"I was supposed to be a math teacher, like all the good Jewish girls from New York City were supposed to be," she says with a smile.

But Jarmolow moved to San Francisco and her life took a joyful detour.

When she was 27, she ventured out one night to a now-defunct dance club at Taylor and Lombard streets. It was called "Dance Your Ass Off."

And that's exactly what she's been doing ever since.

Jarmolow, who now lives in Oakland, became the "ultimate disco queen" boogying [sic] at clubs every night of the week and, later, teaching disco-dancing lessons. This was back in the "Saturday Night Fever" era, when disco was dominating the landscape.

Eventually, Jarmolow discovered the pleasures of ballroom dancing, an activity she had previously thought of as too "stuffy." She grew to love partner dances like the foxtrot, the tango, the quickstep and the Viennese waltz.

Jarmolow competed as a professional ballroom dancer, taught dance for many years, ran the San Francisco School of Ballroom Dancing from 1986 to 1991 and then founded the popular Metronome Ballroom in San Francisco.

The Metronome, which celebrated its 10-year anniversary last month, offers 50 group classes a week, everything from swing to ballroom to Latin. Dance parties are also held every weekend. (For more information about Metronome programs, call (415) 252-9000.)

These days Jarmolow spends most of her time with business and administrative duties at the Metronome. But she still teaches a couple of days a week, training people to become dance teachers.

Jarmolow was in action on a recent evening, showing several new moves to her teachers-in-training class. There are 12 students — representing a wide age range — and they continually rotate partners, working on the steps that the teacher shows them.

Jarmolow gracefully demonstrates the cross-body lead and then the Cuban motion — a specific type of hip action used in Latin dancing.

Patient and friendly, the 51-year-old teacher offers plenty of tips and encouragement as the pairs practice their techniques. Often Jarmolow steps in to take one of the student's hands in her own and demonstrate her point by dancing with him or her.

"She's very upbeat and she really cares about her students learning well," says Jerry Halligan, a Fremont real-estate broker in the class who hopes to become a dance instructor for a cruise ship. "I'm learning a tremendous amount — and I'm having fun doing it."

How would you describe the epiphany you had that one night at the old Dance Your Ass Off club in San Francisco?

I saw a couple doing partner dancing, and what I remember is the moment that I saw this couple dancing, fireworks went off in my head, and I just knew from that moment on this is what I was destined to do. It was a very big switch for me.

Did you feel a lot of pressure when you performed in ballroom dancing competitions?

It gets pretty tense. People put a lot of energy into it. You practice really hard — most professional competitors practice two or three or two to four hours a day, and the costumes are incredibly expensive, with beautiful, feathered, sequined gowns that people wear, which are around $3,000. And the men's tail suits are close to that as well. It means a lot to people to do their very, very best.

And it all comes down to a minute and a half of performance — 90 seconds per dance. So all that practice is reduced to what shows up in those 90 seconds. In that sense, there's a lot of pressure.

Do you have to have natural talent to dance well, or can anyone learn to dance if they practice enough?

If you can walk, you can dance... There's a famous Fred Astaire quote: He would say 'Most people think dancers are born. All the dancers I know have been trained.' And I really like that. People can learn this — absolutely they can learn it. You just have to do what you have to do to learn things — which is show up, put a little attention on it, and spend a little money. But it's definitely something everybody can do.

What do you enjoy about teaching dance and owning a place like the Metronome?

My favorite thing, when I really think about why I enjoy doing what I do, is that when I look out at a party (where people are dancing), I see people get that kind of look in their face — kind of giddy and happy, kind of like a 7-year-old. Dancing really frees people of their cares and their woes and their everyday concerns, and it's just wonderful to provide that kind of opportunity for people. Not to mention that (dancing) is wonderful exercise, people meet people through dancing, it's social, you express yourself through dancing, and it's a very creative process.

How do you feel about the Metronome celebrating 10 years of existence?

Doing business in the Bay Area is not an easy thing to do, and certainly we've had lots of hurdles, but I feel very proud of what we've accomplished. We have 50 employees, and one of the things we do is train people to be dance teachers.

And that's something that gives me lots of personal satisfaction, knowing I can take people and help them change their careers, so that people don't have to, at the end of their lives, say, "You know, I did this job which I didn't like all these years, and I wished I could have danced."