Excerps from New York Times, April 11, 2005:

"Don't look down," said Jess Bambalan, the teacher, or the "D.I." as the instructors are called at Dance Bergen, a twice-a-week dance with the motto "We Play the Music You Desire." He then demonstrated just how awkward a graceful man can look if he is watching his dancing feet.

He wears a gold scorpion medallion around his neck and said, laughing, "Watch out if you step on me." But he manages to pass most evenings without being injured by dancers with two left feet, as he shares with them the secrets of salsa, the fox trot and East Coast Swing, known at the dance hall as "the boogie."

"You love it, and you're also giving yourself to people who like to dance," he said. "Anybody can learn to dance."