Windham Swing Dancing will wrap up its summer of dance lessons and free dances with the Summer Gala for local high school students from 7 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 8 at the Windham Town Gym.
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| Audrey Knowles and James Orasky swing dance during an event hosted by the Windham Swing Dance group. The summer of dance lessons and free dances concludes with the Summer Gala dance for local high school students from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8 at the Windham Town Gym. PHOTO BY HEATHER PAULDING |
“If anybody has danced with us, even if they’ve since graduated, or if they’ve never danced with us before, they are more than welcome to come,” she said.
While the group’s events are typically free, due to the scale of the gala, there will be a $5 charge to help cover expenses decorations and the baked treats that will be available.
“Usually, we try to keep everything free, but because we had to rent the space from the town and with all of the decorations, it’s a lot of expense,” Paulding said. “If $5 is too much, put on whatever you have that’s fancy and come have some fun.”
Paulding’s mom, Heather, has been a major help to the group during its time and is working to prepare the decorations by hand for the gala.
“She’s making 20 to 30 feet of bunting from scratch,” Paulding said. “Our house is literally covered in fake wisteria and muslin, and fake flowers are coming out of the walls.”
The group has been preparing for the gala all summer, with lessons in ballroom dance styles, such as Viennese waltz, foxtrot, and cha cha during their weekly Wednesday meetings.
“Part of the fun of this gala is for them to be able to ballroom dance,” Paulding said.
They also did a lot of country swing dancing, which allows partners to pair off but does not require full body contact, which can help nervous teens.
“The nice part of country swing dancing, it’s more open and fluid,” Paulding said. “It’s only really hand contact for the most part, which means you can take someone by the hand, spin them around, and have a great time without feeling super close.”
Paulding also says that all the members of the group have been novices at one time, so they also understand the challenges of learning the different steps.
“You don’t have to be a great dancer or be good at this. It’s your first day,” she said. “If you can manage to spin in a circle and not fall down, you’ve already done better than I did on my first day.”
The gala will also be one of the group’s final events for Paulding, as she is engaged to fellow Grove City College student Caden Schipani, and will be moving to Pennsylvania once she graduates in the spring. As to the group’s future, it remains unknown.
“There is interest from the kids to keep it going, but there is nobody who is stepping up to lead,” she said, citing difficulties teens have in planning future summers, with internships, beginning college, or finding work taking priority. “We’re praying it continues in some capacity.”
“Right now, there are no good answers, which is why we are celebrating everything that we have done and all of these great people we have brought together,” Paulding said.
The Windham group was founded after Paulding started attending college at Grove City, where a school club helped Paulding discover her interest in dancing. That interest helped Paulding overcome mental health challenges.
“When I was a freshman, I had a lot of different mental health things that I was struggling with, including anxiety and depression. I’m also on the spectrum too, so I was dealing with a lot of stuff,” she said. “Even so, I said ‘it’s swing dancing, how bad could it be?’”
“It’s only loud music and lights and crowds and physical touch, all the things that would set me off,” Paulding continued. “For the first month probably, I would have pretty frequent panic attacks after going swing dancing because my body was not used to that.”
“I just kept going back because I was making these new friends, getting more active and getting more healthy. I was even miraculously slowly getting better at it,” she said. “It was so much fun, and the community was so wonderful.”
Not only has dancing improved her physical health, it quickly made long-lasting changes to her mental health.
“All of the anxiety symptoms that had kept me away from social spaces disappeared and didn’t come back,” Paulding said. “They haven’t come back.”
Seeing how dancing helped her anxiety helped inspire Paulding, with the support of co-teacher Knowles, to provide the same opportunity for local teens.
“All through high school, I was watching all of these other kids struggling with things that were so much worse than what I was dealing with and they had no outlet,” she said. “I came back and said, ‘I have one year of swing dancing under my belt. How hard could this be?’”
“I asked my friend Elsa, who is the coolest person I know, who also had not really done much dance,” Paulding said. “Elsa is phenomenal.”
The group started small in 2024.
“If we had 10 people in the room that year, it was a miracle,” Paulding said. “But we had a really fun time.”
A marketing major and a graphic artist, Paulding used her expertise to help grow that number to 25 for 2025 after an Instagram post found popularity.
“Usually, we try to keep everything free, but because we had to rent the space from the town and with all of the decorations, it’s a lot of expense,” Paulding said. “If $5 is too much, put on whatever you have that’s fancy and come have some fun.”
Paulding’s mom, Heather, has been a major help to the group during its time and is working to prepare the decorations by hand for the gala.
“She’s making 20 to 30 feet of bunting from scratch,” Paulding said. “Our house is literally covered in fake wisteria and muslin, and fake flowers are coming out of the walls.”
“Part of the fun of this gala is for them to be able to ballroom dance,” Paulding said.
They also did a lot of country swing dancing, which allows partners to pair off but does not require full body contact, which can help nervous teens.
“The nice part of country swing dancing, it’s more open and fluid,” Paulding said. “It’s only really hand contact for the most part, which means you can take someone by the hand, spin them around, and have a great time without feeling super close.”
Paulding also says that all the members of the group have been novices at one time, so they also understand the challenges of learning the different steps.
“You don’t have to be a great dancer or be good at this. It’s your first day,” she said. “If you can manage to spin in a circle and not fall down, you’ve already done better than I did on my first day.”
The gala will also be one of the group’s final events for Paulding, as she is engaged to fellow Grove City College student Caden Schipani, and will be moving to Pennsylvania once she graduates in the spring. As to the group’s future, it remains unknown.
“There is interest from the kids to keep it going, but there is nobody who is stepping up to lead,” she said, citing difficulties teens have in planning future summers, with internships, beginning college, or finding work taking priority. “We’re praying it continues in some capacity.”
“Right now, there are no good answers, which is why we are celebrating everything that we have done and all of these great people we have brought together,” Paulding said.
The Windham group was founded after Paulding started attending college at Grove City, where a school club helped Paulding discover her interest in dancing. That interest helped Paulding overcome mental health challenges.
“When I was a freshman, I had a lot of different mental health things that I was struggling with, including anxiety and depression. I’m also on the spectrum too, so I was dealing with a lot of stuff,” she said. “Even so, I said ‘it’s swing dancing, how bad could it be?’”
“It’s only loud music and lights and crowds and physical touch, all the things that would set me off,” Paulding continued. “For the first month probably, I would have pretty frequent panic attacks after going swing dancing because my body was not used to that.”
“I just kept going back because I was making these new friends, getting more active and getting more healthy. I was even miraculously slowly getting better at it,” she said. “It was so much fun, and the community was so wonderful.”
Not only has dancing improved her physical health, it quickly made long-lasting changes to her mental health.
“All of the anxiety symptoms that had kept me away from social spaces disappeared and didn’t come back,” Paulding said. “They haven’t come back.”
Seeing how dancing helped her anxiety helped inspire Paulding, with the support of co-teacher Knowles, to provide the same opportunity for local teens.
“All through high school, I was watching all of these other kids struggling with things that were so much worse than what I was dealing with and they had no outlet,” she said. “I came back and said, ‘I have one year of swing dancing under my belt. How hard could this be?’”
“I asked my friend Elsa, who is the coolest person I know, who also had not really done much dance,” Paulding said. “Elsa is phenomenal.”
The group started small in 2024.
“If we had 10 people in the room that year, it was a miracle,” Paulding said. “But we had a really fun time.”
“We had one post that reached 16,000 views, which was really exciting,” she said. “We got reposted by all of these different organizations as examples of building community. It was awesome.”
The post also helped bring new members from far afield to attend the group’s meetings.
“We had a whole group of kids that came from New Hampshire after they saw us on Instagram and drove two hours to find us,” she said, adding that a Grove City graduate who lives in Bath, Jack Herman, has been driving an hour weekly with his sisters to attend and help teach. “He’s been holding down the fort for us on ballroom styles.”
“We have a huge cohort out of Yarmouth, with one friend group who keeps pulling new people in, and one girl who comes all the way from Durham by herself every week,” Paulding said. “It’s been wonderful.”
Now, the group has over 30 members who attend regularly, but summer schedules make it challenging for everyone to attend every week, so there are usually 20 to 25 people dancing each week. Their final regular meeting will be on Wednesday, Aug. 12.
For more details, visit the group’s social media pages on Instagram and Facebook. <
The post also helped bring new members from far afield to attend the group’s meetings.
“We had a whole group of kids that came from New Hampshire after they saw us on Instagram and drove two hours to find us,” she said, adding that a Grove City graduate who lives in Bath, Jack Herman, has been driving an hour weekly with his sisters to attend and help teach. “He’s been holding down the fort for us on ballroom styles.”
“We have a huge cohort out of Yarmouth, with one friend group who keeps pulling new people in, and one girl who comes all the way from Durham by herself every week,” Paulding said. “It’s been wonderful.”
Now, the group has over 30 members who attend regularly, but summer schedules make it challenging for everyone to attend every week, so there are usually 20 to 25 people dancing each week. Their final regular meeting will be on Wednesday, Aug. 12.
For more details, visit the group’s social media pages on Instagram and Facebook. <
