It’s seven in the evening on a warm Saturday night, and all the dancers are in Chautauqua Hall in downtown Pacific Grove.

People shuffle all around the room, some of them gliding along like pros, some gingerly feeling out the steps that they, perhaps, learned less than an hour ago. Some of these people you wouldn’t even believe could walk without assistance, that’s how old they are, but here they are dancing gracefully, putting the young kids to shame.

The woman at the door seems hard of hearing and slightly confused when I explain I’m a journalist. One figures she herself is a dancing enthusiast, someone who, when her door duties are finished, will be out on the floor twirling along with the rest of the people here.

I am told by Greg Bullock, who has been president of the Chautauqua Hall Dance Club for about five years, that the club has about 250 members.

Ever since sometime either before or after World War II (no one is sure), the club has met at the Hall to dance their hearts out. It’s been happening at least sixty years, maybe seventy years, and it’s been held almost since its inception at the intersection of Sixteenth and Central, the same place it is tonight.

The music pounding from the stereo ranges from Boys II Men, which reminds me of middle school dances, to the more classical swing and jazz recordings that one would expect to hear at a dance like this. I approach two young rug cutters who seem to be having a good time, and ask if I can interview them.

“I love ballroom dancing,” says Rebecca Haskell, a Robert Louis Stevenson student. “I took cotillion in middle school and thought this would be interesting.” Dragged along with her is Russell Sterten, who, although he’s very cute, Haskell insists, is just a friend. This is his first time here, and his one timid comment is, “It’s a good time.” After telling Haskell that she should snatch that cutie up, I walk away to observe the other dancers.

Standing alone in the middle of the floor and looking lonely is 21-year-old Michael Tierney, who isn’t so bad looking himself. Originally from Ohio, he’s come tonight to meet new people and shake a leg. Asked about his thoughts on the evening, Tierney says, “I enjoy an atmosphere where people are relaxed and uninhibited.” Tierney seems eager to show off his moves, and he twirls me around the dance floor, although I don’t know how to dance and am about as graceful as, say, a three-legged dog. Tierney takes the lead and suddenly I’m a Disney princess in the wedding scene, twirling and jiving and having a good time. Having a good partner, I discover, makes a hell of a difference in ballroom dance.

Pulling my partner aside, I inquire as to his training. It seems that he was a dance major, during a mysterious time in his life. “I don’t like to talk about it much,” he says, but he retains the love of the art and the moves to match. He says he doesn’t like to go to clubs because of the “graphic nature of the way people dance there.”

“I prefer the grace and elegance of the older forms of dance, when it was not only a form of flirtation, but also expression of something vivid and beautiful that can’t be put into words. It can only be expressed through movement.”

Feeling for a moment that Tierney may be putting some of his polished moves on me, I move on.

Surveying the rest of the floor, I see young men dancing with women old enough to be their mothers, pairs switching partners every now and then, and couples that stop to sit out and watch and marvel at the grace moving across the room.

The Chautauqua Hall Dance Club holds ballroom dances every Saturday night from 7–10pm. Lessons are held at 6pm. $5 for non-members. For more information, go to www.pgdance.org.