Still dancing

She took her first dance steps at age 2, in front of Tucson's old Carnegie Library Downtown.

"A man was playing his fiddle out front and I danced. People threw money. My parents were embarrassed," says Sue Bartholomew about that impromptu performance.

The dancing would continue, this time with lessons, all the way through high school, followed by a stint as an instructor with the old Arthur Murray studio Downtown.

Meanwhile, half a continent away, Bart Bartholomew was learning to glide around the dance floors of Cleveland.

"I always liked to dance," says Bart. "When we were in high school, we'd always crash those big Polish weddings."

Somehow, you just knew these two would meet — and in the summer of '55 they did — at the Arthur Murray studio on East Congress Street.

She was the teacher, he the more-than-willing pupil.

An Air Force second lieutenant, young Bart made it a point to sign up for dance lessons everywhere he was stationed — from Biloxi to Rapid City, San Antonio to Denver. "I did it to meet people, go to their dances," he says. "I never took all 10 lessons."

This time he did.

"I was assigned to him," says Sue, who noticed him right away. "I thought he was good-looking. Right away we just clicked."

Bart thought so, too. Before long, he was asking Sue out. She said no. For everyone who took lessons at Arthur Murray signed a contract.

"I kept telling him, 'If I date you, I have to sign your contract. If it's broken, I have to pay,' " says Sue, who remembers the lesson package costing about $150.

"I had no intention of stopping," says Bart, who kept his word.

They married in November of 1955. "He was still taking lessons," says Sue. But soon, she was expecting a baby. "I didn't teach long after that."

And so the dancing ended, but only at the Arthur Murray studio. "Always, we danced," says Sue. Family weddings, out on the town, at various Air Force bases where Bart would be stationed in a career that stretched from California to Cleveland.

Today, Bart, 74, and Sue, 75, still trip the light fantastic from time to time — and remember how it used to be.

Her story began at the old Stork's Nest maternity hospital Downtown. The oldest of three kids, she was soon taking lessons from a local drama teacher who lived next door.

"We did plays at the Temple of Music and Art and put on plays on the radio," says Sue.

She also took dance lessons from age 7 on. "We couldn't afford the lessons so my mother made all the costumes for the recitals."

The live radio shows were every Saturday morning, says Sue, who graduated from playing Cinderella and Snow White to doing more current plays during her high school years.

After high school, she married young and had a baby. But the marriage did not last.

She went to work at the Arthur Murray studio in 1953. "I started as a receptionist there. I asked them if I could be a dancer. They made better money." After a couple of months' worth of lessons, she was allowed to teach.

"You had to know the men's and women's parts so you could lead or follow."

Fox trot, waltz, tango, rumba, samba, swing — she taught them all, sometimes as early as 11 in the morning.

"The typical lesson was one hour, but some men took two hours because they wanted to learn to dance in a hurry," says Sue. "Dancing was a big part of socializing back then."

Sometimes her days didn't end until 10 at night. "We were paid by how many hours we taught."

Inevitably, men stepped on her toes. Then there was the customer who wore lifts in his shoes. "He was always pushing into my feet," she says.

Patrons ranged in age from their 70s down to a "little kid from the Air Force. He was in love with me," says Sue.

"They were all in love with you," says Bart. Ah, but he's the one who got her.

After Bart's Air Force career — which included earning a Distinguished Flying Cross in Vietnam — ended with retirement in 1973, he enrolled at the University of Arizona, earning a degree in electrical engineering. He then went to work in California. He and the family returned to Tucson in 2000.

Besides doing an occasional turn 'round the dance floor, Bart and Sue also love to watch dancers on TV, as well as in live performances.

Neither, however, cares for social dancing done without a partner. "You can stand around and just shake," says Bart. "That's for people who can't dance."