Gotta dance

LAYTON — A group of East Layton Elementary School students has been studying a new subject this year — ballroom dancing.

From the tango to the cha-cha, the group's 60 students have been learning and perfecting dances steps and positions.

"I thought it was going to be kind of hard, because if you watch 'Dancing With the Stars' ... you know," said 11-year-old Colton Bascon.

But Bascon discovered it wasn't as hard as he thought it would be, and he has enjoyed the dancing lessons. He is one of the students led by dancing instructor Gina Wescott. Each Wednesday and Friday morning from 8—8:45 a.m. they can be found lined up along the gym's center brown circle.

With partners facing one another, they are ready to dance.

"It's fun and it's a new experience," said sixth-grader Shayla Nikzad.

Wescott started ballroom dancing when she was a freshman at Brigham Young University. She worked her way up to be part of the BYU Ballroom Dance Formation Team. She also taught social dance classes at the university.

Last year Wescott ran into one of her BYU team directors, Cheryll Treu, and asked her what opportunities she had in exposing her children to ballroom dancing.

She found out that Treu created a program called Elementary Ballroom Dance and had been working in her children's elementary school teaching the youths for 10 years.

That's when Wescott decided to bring the Elementary Ballroom Dance program to East Layton Elementary School, where her children go to school.

"I went to our fifth- and sixth-graders, and we offered it to them as a before-school program," she said. "They signed up, and they had to pay a fee, and they had to come two days a week. It's voluntary. The kids want to be there, which is really key. I'm not about forcing anybody into this."

Wescott said that the Elementary Ballroom Dance program was well received, and 60 students signed up.

"I thought I'd get maybe five couples, 10 if I was lucky, and I ended up teaching 60 kids," she said.

Some students, like Jesse Barnard, 11, said they signed up for the dancing lessons because their parents encouraged them.

"I didn't really want to do it, but then when I got doing it I started liking it," he said.

Others, like 11-year-old Devan Hughes, signed up because they wanted the chance to dance.