By Cedar Falls News Hub Staff
Watching people learn to dance is uplifting.
It’s good for the soul.
It’s good for the senses.
It’s good for confidence building as you have to shed your shields and just enjoy the moment.
Hilda and Steve Ostby know that and that’s one reason why the Cedar Falls dancers get as much enjoyment out of dancing as they do out of teaching others to dance.
The masterful dancers teach a Rumba class at the Cedar Falls Rec Center every Thursday evening at 7 p.m. until the end of March.
“We love sharing,” Hilda says. “It’s great for your body and great for your mind.”
Fourteen couples, of all ages, and all levels of agility, joined the Ostbys in the rumba class, or, as they called “the dance of romance.”
Hugs and welcome greetings were shared as the students assembled in pairs, some holding hands.
Wearing a shimmering top and black leggings with glitter matching her top, Hilda put on her dance shoes as the students arrived.
“Because we dance so much, we invest in dance shoes,” she says.
The students, though, took a holistic approach to the footwear. Some put on socks over their regular shoes, while others stayed in their sneakers.
In short order, they were ready to step onto the floor of the Fit Gym at the Rec.
For an hour, they learned the steps of rumba, how to hold their arms together and how to lead and follow.
“Five, six, seven eight,” Hilda intoned.
This was the signal that a step is about to begin.
So they did.
And again,
And again,
And again.
With the exception of this writer, everyone followed the lesson well and no one stepped on anyone’s feet.
Betsy Minkel and her husband, Steve, aka Steve II, since Hilda’s husband also shares the name, took well to rumba instruction.
The Ostbys and Minkels met through dance about five years ago.
In January, the Ostbys held a waltz class at the rec that the Minkels took.
They have become as close as extended family and clearly enjoyed reconnecting at the rumba session.
Dance with them
The Ostbys are graceful humans and patient instructors that take the fear out of dance.
Making any step is better than not, so if you mix the moves, keep going.
Hilda, who used to provide child care in her home, has a talent for encouraging others.
And Steve, a retired school teacher from Elk Run Elementary in Waterloo, is also a positive reinforcer.
The Ostbys made Cedar Falls their home after meeting at UNI in 1971.
Steve studied education and Hilda was a psychology major.
They married at Nazareth Lutheran Church in town on Oct. 12, 1973, Steve’s mom’s birthday.
A Cedar Falls native, Steve wanted to stay here and the couple bought a home in an old neighborhood “after a few years and a few kids,” as Hilda puts it.
They started dancing as a way of anticipating their empty nest when their five kids were about to leave the house.
They took lessons from the late Louis Finsand, a teacher at the Lab School, who passed away at the age of 93 in 2020.
A World War II Navy veteran, Finsand taught at UNI, retiring in 1996, after 32 years as a Professor of Teaching and Science Education, according to his obituary.
He also started the local chapter of the national organization USA Dance, called Cedar Valley Dance, a nonprofit.
To this day, the Ostbys remember their dance teacher and, in a way, taking on teaching dance themselves, they honor his legacy.
“He was very motivated to having this be an activity to meet people and friends and it’s great social activity. And I think, as an exercise, you don’t think of it as work, you have so much fun enjoying it.”