Dancing can be good for your heart

COEUR d'ALENE - Swing and sweat, two-step to a tighter tush, and while you're at it cha-cha for a healthier heart-heart.

Dancing makes great exercise, and what better way to help fund research for heart disease than dancing the night away?

And when professional dancers are on hand to iron out your moves - all the better.

"We're really excited about this one," said Mark Vesterby, member of the Coeur d'Alene Dance Connection. The recently-formed group promotes charitable dance events around the area, with its last one drawing in 170 people to benefit Hurricane Sandy victims through the Red Cross. "We expect to get an even larger crowd than before."

Coeur d'Alene Dance Connection's first dance of 2013 will be from 7 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday at the Eagles building, 209 E. Sherman Ave.

The event not only promotes heart healthy activities like dancing but will raise money for the American Heart Association's Learn and Live program and research for a cure to heart disease.

A wide variety of music will be played in ballroom, country, Latin, and swing for dancers of all skill levels in a public dance fashion. Come solo or bring a date.

But professionals will be on hand as well, and anyone interested in detailed instruction on the popular dance, the cha-cha, will be able to pick up some pointers.

Sheryl Bentz-Sipe, owner of DanceTales Ballroom Studio, will offer a mini dance class on the dance.

Vesterby is a local businessman by day but a ballroom dance competitor and instructor by night. He, Bentz-Sipe and Tex Peak, of Country Dance Lessons with Tex, formed the group in the fall.

And dancing is healthy.

"It definitely gets you moving, and it keeps you moving, and anything that keeps you moving is good for the heart," Vesterby said.

Ballroom dancing has proven to help with dementia, he added, as learning movements and performing in character keep the mind sharp.

Easy? Well, not so much.

"If anything has been proven with the stars on 'Dancing With the Stars', they've proven this is a lot of work," Vesterby said.

But as stated, Saturday's dance is for all skill levels, 15 and older. A no-host bar and free snack table will be on hand on the upstairs level of the building. Tickets cost $7.