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Before, she would just watch everyone else dancing, but now, Cynthia Crincic is one of the people to watch on the dance floor.
As a member of the K-Club Girls, Mrs. Crincic is helping to teach others how to dance on the Texas-sized dance floor at the Kazabra Club, affectionately known as the K-Club, on Vogelweh.
***image2***Originating almost two years ago, the K-Club Girls are a group of about a dozen volunteers who teach free classes on how to country line dance, two-step and waltz from 8 to 9 p.m. Fridays at the U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern’s club. Two types of country dances are usually taught during this hour.
Donned in black t-shirts with the red K-Club Girls logo, most of the dancers are female, hence the name, but there are two male instructors who teach most of the classes. Sgt. Charles Johnson, from the 7th Signal Brigade, and Larry Sutton, from the 5th Signal Command, also wear black t-shirts but with the logo K-Club Leader.
Words like “free” and “volunteers” may lead one to think that these classes just go over the same tried-and-true steps from years gone by. Not so, said Sergeant Johnson and Mr. Sutton. They both attend country line-dancing workshops and competitions several times a year in the States and throughout Europe.
“We learn the new dances and bring them back here (for the classes),” said Sergeant Johnson, who has been dancing for seven years. “Every time there is a new song that comes out whether its country, rock, pop, rap, hip hop, salsa or even Celtic, there’s a line dance that goes with it.”
That could add up to a lot of dances. As a matter of fact it adds up to more than 1,000 new line dances a year, said Mr. Sutton, who learns as many as 20 new dances from each competition and workshop he attends.
“I love it. I would like to do it every Friday night,” said Billie Burgard, the garrison’s budget assistant who has been taking the country dance classes for two months.
For the K-Club Girls, Friday nights are work – teaching during and after the classes, but Saturday nights are play – showing what the students learned the night before.
“When we have line dancing here on Saturday nights, it’s really fun to watch a whole bunch of people on the dance floor moving the same way,” said Jutta Morgan, Kazabra Club manager. “It makes customers say, ‘Oh, that’s really neat, I would like to learn that,’ and I tell them to come on Friday nights and they will learn to do that.”
Ms. Morgan said the K-Club attracts as many as 700 people on a Saturday night, from as far away as Würzburg and Stuttgart.
Directions:
From the main gate at Vogelweh, travel west on Fifth Avenue. The Kazabra Club is on the left side across from the Bowling Center.
Hours: Wednesday and Thursday, 5 to 11 p.m.; Friday, 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.; Saturday, 2 p.m. to 4 a.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.; and, closed Monday and Tuesday.
Web site: www.mwrgermany.com/nonflash/Kaiserslautern/clubs/home.htm
