The Legendary Frankie Manning with Carla and Bob Brown

Profile:  Bob and Carla Brown

Carla hails from Caribou. Bob’s father was from Maine, his mother hails from Brooklyn, NY, and his family moved back to Maine from California when Bob was in high school. Bob and Carla met at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. Like most dancers at the time, they were into "freestyle" dancing, but then, in 1989, they started taking ballroom dance classes, first in Belfast, then Bangor. They were "off and running" from that point. Beginning with a positive experience at the Dance Flurry, a dance camp held in upper New York state in wintertime, the Browns began a habit of attending one or two dance camps each year, continuing to this day. They have also learned much from videotapes. They concentrate on lindy hop, waltz, foxtrot, rumba, and cajun-style rhythm two-step. About 6 or 7 years ago they were introduced to west coast swing at the Colorado Country Classic, and have added that dance enthusiastically to their repertoire. 

Carla also has a successful perennial nursery business, "Hidden Gardens" in Searsport, raising some of the best, most healthy perennials in the state of Maine (editor’s note: I speak from personal experience here!) For the past 28 years Bob has taught high school biology at the Belfast Area High School, but he is retiring after this school year and joining Carla in the gardens. 

The Browns teach dance in the Belfast area during the fall and winter months in two ten-week class sessions. Their teaching philosophy can perhaps be summed up by the words of that great swing song "It ain’t whatcha do, it’s the way that you do it", i.e. technique and style are very important, even more important than knowing a lot of steps or patterns. They also focus their students on only one or two dance forms at a time, with lots of review.

Bob and Carla have never entered a dance contest. They feel that dance is their hobby, and they do it for the love of it - they never want it to feel like work. "Dancing should be stress-free", they say. We agree!