Neighbors: Bev Marsh

Siesta Key resident Bev Marsh only took a few tap lessons as a child. So, it may seem a bit odd that the nurse from Ohio would fall head-over-heels for ballroom dancing later on in life. It’s a passion she has enjoyed for the last 20 years. 

Marsh met her husband, James, in Ohio. He was doing his residency the same place she was working as a nurse. In the summer of 1979, the couple moved to Siesta Key, and James Marsh set up his plastic surgery practice. They married at the Longboat Island Chapel the same year. For eight years, Marsh worked along side her husband helping him run this practice. In 1988, the couple had their son, Christopher, and Marsh left the practice to become a full-time mom.

One night, Marsh went dancing with some of her girlfriends when a man approached her wanting to know if she was a dancer.

“I said, ‘Well, I’m dancing right now,’” Marsh said.

He offered her complimentary ballroom dancing lessons. Right away, she was hooked. She joined Ballroom Sarasota and began her training with owner and instructor John Moldthan.

After 15 years at Ballroom Sarasota, she took a hiatus from ballroom dancing but found she couldn’t stay off the dance floor long. Within a year, Marsh had two new dance partners.

The first of her new dance partners was Thomas Mielnicki, a Polish immigrant living in New York and a former U.S. America Smooth Champion (American-style waltz, tango, foxtrot and Viennese waltz). Mielnicki was competing professionally when he took Marsh on as his student and partner; soon they were traveling the East Coast, competing in the pro-am division. In November 2008, the two made it to the finals in the largest pro-am competition, the American Smooth Division Ohio Star Ball, giving them a top-six U.S. ranking.

Two years later, while Marsh was at a competition in Atlanta, Michael Neil, of Boca Raton, approached her. He wanted to know if Marsh had an American Rhythm partner. Marsh had only competed in American Smooth dances, and Mielnicki had yet to learn the American Rhythm dance. Marsh decided to add to her ballroom repertoire and began learning and competing with Neil, dancing the cha-cha, rhumba, swing, bolero and mambo. She still competes with both partners.

Because Mielnicki is only in town every few weeks, Marsh works most often with Neil, competing in the nine-dance division (both American Smooth and American Rhythm).

For years, her friends never understood what she was doing during her Wednesday “dance day.” But then the television show, “Dancing with the Stars,” became popular. “After it came on, my friends looked at me and said, ‘You do all those dances?’ and I said, ‘I’ve been doing them for like 12 years now and you’re just noticing?’ They had no idea. They had just heard me talk about it,” said Marsh.

Marsh jokes that in her household there are two “widows.” Her husband makes her a “golf widow” and she makes him a “dance window.”

“Everyone needs a passion. My husband’s is his golf, mine is my dancing and my son’s is his surfing,” Marsh said.

Although the moves, the dresses and the competitions are all part of Marsh’s reasons to keep dancing, she appreciates another noticeable benefit.

“I think that dancing keeps you young in so many ways,” she says. “It forces you to use your body. It keeps your mind sharp by learning choreography and thinking about things. I’m afraid almost to stop dancing.”