Keeping in the swing of things together

Allen Hall, 77, and Rudy Hall, 64, swing dancers • South Haven, Minn.

Him: When I was a kid in St. Louis a long time ago, I always wanted to be a jitterbugger because the coolest guys could do the jitterbug. I was too shy to ask girls to dance and didn't know how to do it anyway. But a long period of time transpired and I married Rudy, and she's always been a dancer. She got me into dancing and into swing dancing, so it took a while but I finally had the little light pop over my head and I said to myself, "Maybe I'm going to be able to do this."

Her: I started doing the Lindy Hop in 1953. My family [members] were musicians, and I tried my hand at playing instruments, but I couldn't make myself stay with it because when I'd hear music I just wanted to dance. It took me years to get Allen to dance. He was too shy to dance when he was young, but after he retired he had more time. I was still going out dancing with friends and I'd come home every night soaking with sweat, talking about what a good time I had. Finally he said, well, maybe he should take a renewed interest. He took some lessons, and I taught him also.

Him: We get it where we can. We're home about five months of the year in Minnesota, and I'm guessing we dance about two or three nights a week -- sometimes more. We're on the road in the motor home the remainder of the year, and last year we danced almost every other night.

Her: I was so in love with dancing and music, and of course I was driving to dance a couple nights a week without him, and there was just always something missing, but I couldn't put my hand on it. Once he started dancing with me I just looked forward to it a lot more because I knew he was going with me. It was just a totally different feeling. It seemed like my dance was more complete.

Him: Every marriage is different, but I think successful marriages rely at least in part in having something in common, so we have this. This is a great part of our social life, our friends are mostly all younger people who also dance. There's no intergenerational friction in dancing. They don't care if you're blue and have only one leg -- if you can dance, you're in.

Her: We both have something to look forward to together every week, and sometimes every night because we dance so much. It just keeps the relationship together.

SARAH MORAN