Paul Ross

People who admire Paul Ross's calling and dancing will find it hard to believe that he was once "averse to dancing." All that changed when Paul discovered English country dancing as a grad student at the University of Chicago in 1971, fresh from a stint in the Navy. Paul was ready for something new. He had a musical background as a singer and trumpeter but was "tired of always singing in a baritone section perpetually surrounded by men!"

Then, "by a happy accident" Paul tried English country dancing and "took to it like the proverbial duck to water." At the break, his dance teacher, Pat Talbot, came over to him and breathlessly asked, "What kind of science are you in?" She apparently assumed that since Paul picked up the dance patterns so easily he had to be a scientist, with a mind that worked in an orderly, geometrical, scientific way. Paul remembers that "Pat was nonplussed when I told her 'political science'!" Nevertheless, the precision, clarity, and order she perceived characterize Paul's dance teaching--and no doubt his work as managing editor of PC Magazine as well.

After only a few years of dancing, Paul began teaching the English country dance group at the University of Chicago, from about 1974 to 1980. Then in September 1990, he began apprenticing at Country Dancers of Westchester, working for two years mainly with Christine Helwig and Fried de Metz Herman. In addition, he studied with Genny Shimer, Sue Salmons, Bertha Hatvary, Bruce Hamilton, Helene Cornelius, and "various ineffective tango instructors." Paul also names his contemporaries Brad Foster, Beverly Francis, and Gene Murrow among his teachers.

Paul began teaching in Westchester in fall of '93, and he is now one of the regulars for CDW and CD*NY. At CD*NY's Playford Ball in spring 2000, Paul and Fried Herman were Master and Mistress of Ceremonies, and in spring 2003, Paul shared the podium with Carol Martinez. He has also taught and called dances for the Princeton and the Lambertville Country Dancers, the Saratoga Springs Dance Flurry (1999), and at Woodstock and Hurley, New York. In Massachusetts, Paul has called in Amherst, and he has occasionally been one of the dance leaders at the Fried-for-All in Lenox. Fried does the entire weekend herself now. In summers 2001 and 2002, Paul taught English country dance at Pinewoods Early Music Week. With Sharon Green, Paul served as co-director of Christine Helwig's Chelsea English Country Dancers. Currently he is a member of CDSS, CDW, and CD*NY.

Paul has set down some thoughts about teaching in a 7-page pamphlet, "How to Teach English Country Dancing." He has also composed several English dances.

Paul's email address honors one of his favorite dances: childgrove@yahoo.com.