Shall we dance?

MGMA Connexion, Aug 2004 by Pope, Christina

Alice G. Gosfield, JD, MGMA member and president, Alice G. Gosfield & Associates PC, Philadelphia

It all started six years ago when Alice Gosfield, a new empty nester, searched for an activity she and her husband could do together. They tried ballroom dancing. But as he failed at the foxtrot, she triumphed with the tango. "The lessons [with him] were a nightmare," she recalls, "and all I could think was, 'What am I going to do?'"

The answer came from the Academy of Ballroom and Social Dance instructors - they split Gosfield and her husband, and paired them with instructors to help them dance at their own levels. Gosfield paired with Scott Lazarov (pictured below), ranked No. 1 in professional salsa dancing in the United States and No. 3 in the world.

Next thing Gosfield knew, she and her new partner were entering her first professional-amateur competition.

"For a long time, I hid the fact that I did this," she says. "I mean, the dance world is very strange. Just look at the costumes. When I had my first dress made for competition, I was asked, 'Where are the stones?' Not sequins. Rhinestones."

Gosfield, who is coached by Lazarov and Chuck Danza, the former Italian national champion and now a world-class judge, says she has participated in more than 25 competitions and logged thousands of miles visiting states as far from her Philadelphia home as California, Florida and Louisiana. She even traveled to Buenos Aires with her instructors and several other students to learn Argentine tango. In 2002, she was rewarded for her hard work at the Heritage Dance Competition with the "top silver student" trophy, a prestigious award that moved her up in the ranks of competitors.

In the past year, Gosfield's instructors have bumped her up to the gold level - the top level of professional-amateur competition. She is embracing the international Latin-style of dancing such as the paso doble and samba, sometimes considered more technical than American-style. Though she adeptly executes "smooth" dances such as the waltz, tango and foxtrot, Gosfield prefers the Latin numbers and has narrowed her repertoire from 19 dances to 14.

"It's an enormously good time," she says. "I love it because I get to measure myself and compete, there's always room to improve, and there's fashion!"

Gosfield's costume collection holds dozens of dresses, and it has taken over the spare bedroom closet. Her costumes are all custom made, in part to prevent, well, a "wardrobe malfunction."

"A few years ago, I was into flying airplanes," she says. "This is a lot more expensive."

So what became of her sidelined husband, Ed Shay?

"Oh, he's still taking lessons," Gosfield says. As for the time she spends away from him dancing, "The way he looks at it, he always knows where I am."

By Christina Pope

about the author

Christina Pope, MGMA senior writer, cpope@mgma.com