Dance passion blooms into studio in Haymarket

The ego has to go.

This is ballroom dance, where the weakest link is also the only link between two partners.

And that's what Shelley Fritz loves most about ballroom's form of artistic movement in pairs. Fritz is the owner and founder of the DelRay Ballroom & Lounge at 817 R St., which operates as a dance studio and a dance floor open for special events Monday through Thursday and opens for public dancing on Friday nights.

"It's a lot of give and take, so it's almost like a relationship," Fritz said. "It's a reflection on everyday life and your relationships with other people."

Similarly, Fritz said her experience at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she earned a degree in dance, allowed her to consider the world's infinite number of viewpoints and how they interlock to form diverse partnerships.

"I became aware of the many, many opinions in the world and that there's no right or wrong, just compromise with others who have varying ideas than yours."

While her dance background stems back far before her days at UNL, Fritz's involvement with ballroom dance began relatively later on, with an invitation from a friend.

"In 1984, Fred Astaire Dance Studio had just opened up in Lincoln, and a girlfriend of mine didn't have anyone to go with, so she drug me in kicking and screaming," Fritz said.

"And I just fell in love with it."

She went on to become a teacher at the same studio and continued to work with Fred Astaire until it closed down, almost overnight, Fritz said.

"I had students wanting to know what was going to happen with their dance lessons, so I started teaching out of my living room for about three months while I started a small studio on 27th and O Street," Fritz said.

"The business kept growing and growing, with more students and not enough space."

Eventually, Fritz was forced to find something new.

To gain the bigger space needed, she realized it had to be more than a dance studio.

So she did some research on similar establishments to find what was popular and what worked.

It was the idea of combining a dance studio with a facility that was open to the public for dancing that she stuck with, and in September 2001, the DelRay opened in a yet-to-be developed section of the Haymarket.

"I was probably one of the first businesses that went to the far north end of the Haymarket," Fritz said.

"With my ballroom, I knew I didn't want to be somewhere generic but somewhere more artistic.

"We used to be at 27th and O Street in a place with big windows through which everyone saw us dancing, so I lost a lot of my visibility when I moved.

But I was willing to take that chance knowing what the area would grow into."

Today, Fritz's business offers group classes and private lessons, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. From 5 p.m. to close Monday through Thursday, there are social dances adhering to a particular style such as Argentine tango or salsa.

And Friday there is anything-goes public dancing from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m.

To help provide the DelRay's services, Fritz enlists a facility manager, a receptionist, part-time bartenders and dance instructors.

One instructor in particular, Robert Harris, found ballroom dance through a Spanish class, and steadily progressed up the ranks at DelRay until he was asked to teach.

"I'd been a student there for a while, and they were short-handed on male teachers," Harris said.

"The owner there talked to me about it and asked if I wanted to work last winter."

Harris said ballroom dance has taken a good deal of his time because it makes clear sense to him but can only work when both halves of the whole work in concert.

"You can move with music, move with another person in a partnership," Harris said.

"You both have to contribute to it, and there's a form and function to everything: There's structure behind it."

michaeltodd@dailynebraskan.com