Hello! We are Don and Elaine Reed. We are "empty nesters: who have two grown daughters,
a son-in-law and a grandson who delights us to no end. Many of you saw him at the
December '2000 Dance and know that he is an avid dancer too!
Elaine is a school psychologist with the Rapid City School District. Aside from
a keen interest in her work, she enjoys golf, tennis, skiing and weightlifting.
She really enjoys the process of learning and being with others who enjoy learning.
Don retired from the National Weather Service. He was in charge of the local Weather
Service office for 15 years, when located at the airport. The past 5 years he was
the data acquisition manager at the new office located in town. Now that he has
retired, Don has more time to devote to hobbies and interests. In addition to dancing,
he enjoys playing golf, cards, computer games, skiing, fishing and reading World War II history.
We both love to travel and have been to nearly every state as well as many international
destinations. Before we moved to Rapid City in 1980, we have lived and worked in
California, Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico. We both graduated from the University
of New Mexico and were married on the island of Guam; that's a story in itself, which
is more humorous when shared in person.
About six years ago we began taking dance lessons and enjoyed the fact that we could
dance "together", rather than standing face to face and "improvising." We joined
DTDC in 1994 and have participated in many dances, practices, fair parades, mixer
group dance performances and lessons. We truly appreciate all the guidance our fellow
club members have given us in learning how to dance.
We like all kinds of music and love to learn new dances, or we should say, dances
that are new to us. Our favorite is swing music and we especially like West Coast
Swing as there are unlimited variations to the dance which allow a couple to be
creative with the music.
We look forward to our club dances where there is a large dance floor and many friends
who enjoy dancing. Elaine loves to take lessons and we both enjoy dance workshops.
We especially enjoy the local Black Hills Dance Festival and Rocky Mountain Festival
in Casper, Wyoming. We have also gone to the Colorado Classic in Denver and are in
awe of the dancers who perform there. We are planning to attend our first workshop
in Sioux Falls this February.
Our most memorable dance moment was probably our fist workshop with Jo Thompson, a
world-renowned instructor and competitor. She is able to make even the "greenest"
beginner feel like they really can dance. A close second would be Don and Dave Pakalski
having to perform at a "Jack and Jill" competition in Casper.
