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.
"The most rewarding thing is probably learning the dances and dancing with cute boys," she said.
On Nov. 3, East Layton Elementary School held an audition that narrowed the group of 60 dancing students down to a team of 20. That team will compete against other elementary school teams in January.
"Our school is considered a team and will compete against the other schools as a team," Wescott said. "The kids bond and cheer for each other, and we're really united."
Right now the East Layton team is reviewing the dance steps and adding new ones.
"It's easy right now," Bascon said. "I know it's going to start getting harder and harder in steps, but so far it's been all right."
Wescott said she had to coax the students a little bit to get them to dance with members of the opposite sex.
"It took our whole entire class period to get them to stand across from each other and touch each other," she said.
Bascon said he wasn't embarrassed to dance with girls because he had seen sports heroes like Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith do it on ABC's hit show "Dancing With the Stars."
Austin Hadfield, 11, said that dancing with the girls has made it easier to get along with them.
"It helped us socialize with the girls," he added.
Wescott said that not only does the dancing help with the students' coordination, but it provides positive social interaction for the students.
"It teaches them the proper way to dance and the proper way to treat each other," she said, adding that the students are not allowed to be mean to each other and must look one another in the eye and thank each other after dancing together.
Jesse Armitstad said the dancing has helped with his coordination.
"I started to like it because it helps me with doing something with my feet without looking at them," the sixth-grader said.
Sixth-grader Melanie Wescott, Gina Wescott's daughter, said that learning ballroom dancing has taught the students respect for each other and given them self-esteem.
"It's something different and something you can be good at," she said.
Melanie attended a ballroom dance camp at Brigham Young University last summer. She said she really enjoyed the camp and asked her mother if she would do something with ballroom dancing at her elementary school.
That's another reason why Gina said she started teaching the group.
"It's really fun and a good experience," Melanie said. "We'll use dancing the rest of our lives."
Wescott said her goal is to help ballroom dancing spread in Davis County. East Layton Elementary was the first school to do the Elementary Ballroom Dance program, but since they started, Samuel Morgan Elementary School in Kaysville has also started the program.
Anyone interested in starting the program at other elementary schools can e-mail Cheryll Treu at elementaryballroom@hotmail.com.
Wescott said that teaching the students twice a week has become the highlight of her week.
"They are amazing," she said. "They are so good. They are fun and they love it."
E-mail: nclemens@desnews.com