Re “Are You Running a Dancing Fever? Check with the Dance Doctor”
Almost 30 years ago, the Dance Doctor to the stars and others did show business in New York.
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Mr. Cassese and his dance partner Jenelle Wax
A Bronx native who knew when he was a stripling of a schoolboy that he wanted to dance his way through life and take a pass on the family business, John Cassese glided and caromed lightly across all manner of East Coast dance floors as a young man.
Soon enough, though, New York’s bitterly cold, snowpacked winters were gnawing at him, and he kept eying Southern California where several relatives had found refuge.
Hollywood was not exactly the magnet. “Weather,” he said, “the East Coast’s and the West Coast’s.”
One of the fascinations about the bearded, low-key Mr. Cassese is just that. His personality, uniquely for show business, is ‘way below the radar.
The restrained ambience in his modestly lighted office, just off the huge, mirrored main dance floor that is the centerpiece of his popular studio at 1440 4th St., downtown Santa Monica, is tailored for his quite laidback lifestyle.
Mounds of electronic gadgetry is within comfortable reach of his easy chair – but we are not talking bells, whistles, flashing lights.
A Time for Business
Since 1984, first Mr. Cassese alone, and later his dance studio faculty, have been teaching a blend of celebrities and Joe the Plumbers to swing and to perform with the confidence of a professional when the music starts and your partner calls out, “Let’s go!”
What has impressively unfurled into a marvelously fulfilling life, rounded off nicely with an airy beachfront home, started out as a brief gig for Mr. Cassese. “I wanted to experience the weather a little and also spend time with my family who lived on the Westside,” he said.
It is a little cloudy, but Mr. Cassese was not sure he wanted to morph into a Californian. He is not exaggerating. “My visit turned into a move, but I kept my New York apartment for several years,” he says.
“It’s not that easy to cut the umbilical cord.”
What changed? Did his embryonic dance teaching business take off? Nah, it was far more mundane. “It was a decision my landlord made for me,” he says.
Now that his safety net was gone, it was time to get serious here. “I had to be near the beach,” he said. “If I am going to live in the city, it’s going to be New York. To me, L.A. is not a city. It’s a collection of neighborhoods.”
(To be continued)
