West Seattle's Lilli Ann Carey operates "Dance for Joy!" Her 19 year-old daughter, Claire, teaches with her at the Highland Park Improvement Club. Instructor Nancy Fry instructs with Lilli Ann at the Hiawatha Community Center. You can learn Waltz, Swing variations, Zydeco, Polka, Foxtrot, One-Step/Blues and others while bonding with your spouse, meeting someone new, or both.

"I started dancing with my daughter when she was six or seven," said Lilli Ann at her Saturday night "Dj'd dance with pre-dance lesson" that runs 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. She has been dancing 15 years. "To dance with your kid is probably one of the coolest things on the planet," enthused Lilli Ann, who described West Seattle as "a little more like a small town, more warm-hearted than other places around Seattle."

Lilli Ann Carey teaches Wednesday nights, too, at Hiawatha Community Center, which offers affordable childcare with advanced notice for the dances, (not yet available for the classes). The Highland Park Improvement Club classes are Tuesdays, 7:00 p.m. and again at 8:15 p.m.

"When you attend my classes you feel like you belong," she said, while encouraging singles to dive in. "This is an incredible opportunity to feel truly connected to other people. We can text our friends and send emails on the Internet. But here, people are laughing together, noticing together, actually 'checking in'. (Acknowledging each other in person.) There is play and physical contact involved in dance."

West Seattle residents Vicki and Brendan Kitts who attended Carey's Saturday night gathering have been dancing for 10 years,

"We know a lot of people here from dance class at the Highland Park Improvement Club," said Vicki. We take Waltz classes, and have taken Latin Waltz and Fox Trot from Lilli Ann. It's amazing. If you take just one beginner class and if you can do a dance with about two or three moves, everyone else is impressed by that. They offer good music, and we like to get out and see a lot of people."

"We've had a lot of classes with different teachers, and she's quite good," said Brendan of Lilli Ann. "And dancing is good exercise."