After 5: Movers and Shakers

That’s when she and husband David take their weekly dance lessons.

“We just love it,” says the Springfield-Greene County Library District community relations director. “Once it started, it became an obsession.”

The Duffeys, who have danced for about eight years, are among a growing number of Springfield businesspeople who are jumping feet first into an emerging dance subculture.

Tamara Finocchiaro, owner of Pythian Castle, which offers dance classes and private lessons, says she’s noticed a rise in new students and credits it to reality TV shows such as “Dancing With the Stars,” as well as to the working world’s increasing dependence on computers.

“People touching that computer and talking to people with the keyboard isn’t quite the same as actually touching them on a dance floor,” she says. “It’s just, I think, an innate need in our being to be out, see people and touch people, and work doesn’t always provide that.”

Don McCarty, owner and instructor at Sonshine Royal Ballroom at the Sonshine Performing Arts Academy, 1329 E. Republic Road, agrees that dancing particularly appeals to businesspeople.

“People are used to telling people what to do all day long – now I’m the one telling them what to do,” McCarty says. “They like that somebody else is the boss. It’s a relief.”

Duffey says she looks to dancing as a way to unwind, both mentally and physically.

“It’s certainly for people who sit all day and talk on the phone at the computer,” she says.

Trial lawyer Dee Wampler of Law Offices of Dee Wampler & Joseph Passanise has danced for nearly six years with his wife, Anne. He says he’s often exhausted after work, but an hour on the dance floor rejuvenates him for the rest of the evening.

“It gets your endorphins going – it becomes therapeutic,” he says.

Private dance lessons generally run between $20 and $50 an hour, and group classes can cost between $8 and $15. Popular dances include ballroom, swing and the salsa, Finocchiaro said.

Aside from dance instruction, Springfield also is home to a handful of dance clubs – private groups that rent halls and throw dance parties for their members. Local clubs include Beaux Bells, Starlight Debonaires Ballroom Dance Club and Millennium Ballroom Dance.

Pediatrician Chris Snyder and his wife, Linda, started Millennium Ballroom Dance about three years ago, and membership has grown to about 20 couples.

“Springfield has really blossomed as far as a place for learning and doing ballroom dance,” Snyder says, adding that dancing is relaxing after a long day at work. “You’re just moving with music. Nothing else is going on in your head.”

In the Spotlight: Dee Wampler, trial lawyer with Law Offices of Dee Wampler & Joseph Passanise

Dance experience: About six years of lessons and a one-week camp in Las Vegas. He and wife Anne also are looking to go on a “dance cruise.”

Favorite dance: Waltz. “The man has to stand up straight … (and) I have bad posture – I’m humped over all day long at the office. I realize I can arch my back even more than I thought I could.”

Least favorite dance: East Coast Swing. “It’s a very energetic dance, and it’s tough for me to master.”

Hooked from the start

“I surprised (Anne) on our wedding anniversary – I said wear comfortable shoes and don’t ask any questions. I took her over for a free lesson … and within an hour, we were doing the waltz and the rumba. We didn’t look good, but we got the beat.”

Strange bedfellows

“My law partner started dancing, Joe Passanise and his wife, and then we got three judges dancing. We’ve got (Associate Circuit Judge) Mark Fitzsimmons, (Circuit Judge) Dan Conklin and (Family Court Commissioner) Scott Tinsley. We get together, and we go to somebody’s house and just roll all the furniture back and start dancing. It’s kind of funny – I’m dancing with the circuit judge’s wife, and my wife is dancing with the circuit judge. It’s all in good nature.”