31 Jan 2022 Celebrating Artistic Excellence: Two to tango
By Donna Lampkin Stephens
Rick and Sarah Pinedo are quick to credit ballroom dancing for revolutionizing their marriage. In fact, it’s probably safe to say that what started as Sarah’s dream has changed their lives.
The owners of Cabot Ballroom Latin & Swing Dance Room won the 2016 “Dancing Into Dreamland” competition in Little Rock and competed in the 2019 Dreamland Tournament of Champions. “It started as a hobby, turned into a part-time gig, and if we’re not careful, it could turn into a full-time gig,” Rick said.
Since 2006, Sarah has uttered “I told you so” to her husband only a few times.
That was the year they became friends with a couple who had recently moved to the area. The wives worked together at Cabot Public Schools, and the husbands also hit it off.
“My friend said one night, ‘Let’s go out to dinner, and then we’d like to go to Fred Astaire’s (Dance Studios) in North Little Rock since we’ve been going there for lessons,'” Sarah recalled. “I came home and told Rick about the dinner plans, but I did not mention going dancing.”
As a little girl, she remembered she’d always wanted to learn to dance. Still, her single mother had little money for extracurricular activities, so she never had many opportunities beyond wrapping a blanket around her waist to dance around the house and learning to salsa when her uncle put her feet on top of his to teach her.
She had broached the idea of ballroom lessons to Rick a few months before the dinner date, but there had been no progress beyond, “Yeah, we should do that.”
So, given the opportunity, she sprang it on him. “I did not mention the dancing until nine the night before,” she said. “And Rick was like, ‘Oh no, I feel sick; I can’t go.’ And I said, ‘Nope; it’s too late.'”
Rick remembered he went along, dragging his feet. “They taught us a basic beginners lesson,” he said. “At the end, the owner asked if we’d like to continue. In reality, I didn’t, but I knew Sarah did. So, I asked him, ‘What is the cheapest, shortest package you have?’ and I bought it. It made Sarah happy. It was only a week-long, so we ended up doing that cheap, short package for three years and learning all they could teach us there, and then we expanded out to the ballroom/Latin/swing clubs in Little Rock.”
He said men often have several excuses for not wanting to dance.
“One is, ‘I have two left feet’; another is, ‘I don’t have any rhythm,'” Rick said. “But I discovered the third reason was mine — most men don’t want to look foolish in front of their peers. Most men think that dancing is effeminate. But in reality, if you do it correctly, it’s one of the most masculine things you can do.”
Rick, 59, and Sarah, 53, grew up in the Chicago area and met in 1985 at the bilingual (Spanish and English) First Baptist Church of Bensenville, Ill. They were married in 1988, and he joined the Air Force shortly after that while Sarah was in college.
Their military career took them to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska; Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Ga., and twice to the Little Rock Air Force Base. After 24 years of service, he retired a Master Sergeant in 2012, and the family chose to stay in the 501, where they’d lived from 1992-2001 and again since 2004.
By 2006, their children, Maricela and Richie, were in high school, and they could see an empty nest on the horizon. “Dancing came at the right time,” Sarah said. “The kids were busy all the time and starting to branch out and do their own thing, and it was going to be just the two of us.”
Over the years, the couple has sometimes danced four or five nights a week. Now they’re averaging two or three. Their specialty is the Argentine Tango. Rick is of Mexican heritage; Sarah’s roots are Puerto Rican. “We’re kind of like West Side Story,” Rick said, chuckling.
What sets the couple apart on the dance floor? “There’s not a lot of Latin dancers in Arkansas, and not a lot of married Latin dancers in Arkansas, and not a lot of married dancers who can perform the Argentine Tango,” Rick said. “When we dance, we’re very, very connected.”
Added Sarah: “The Argentine Tango lends itself to seeing a connection. It’s all lead and follow. There’s not a set pattern. It’s very different.”
Just before the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world, the owner of Cabot Dance Academy, approached the couple about offering ballroom dance lessons in her space. As a result, they opened Cabot Ballroom Latin & Swing Dance Room in January 2020.
After the pandemic closure, they’ve started back. The benefits to dancing include physical, health and social aspects. “It really has changed our lives,” Rick said. “We say our specialty is people with two left feet and no rhythm.”
Another focus for the couple is Marriage Enrichment classes. “Because Sarah and I have been so successful, we have decided to reach out to other couples and teach them how dancing can revolutionize their marriage,” he said. “We use the dance floor as the vehicle to teach them how to dance and to get them to reconnect.”
Sarah said she’s wondered over the years what they’d be doing now if they hadn’t taken the dance leap in 2006.
“We’d probably be sitting in front of the TV.”
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