SSQQ Slow Dance and Romance Written by Rick Archer First Published: March 2006
What we teach at SSQQ is known as "Social Dancing".  Over my 32 year career I have witnessed time and again that "Dance" and "Romance" clearly go hand in hand.   Women love movement and they love music.  When a woman finds a man who can guide her gently through a series of patterns in time to the music, a lady begins to trust him.  At this point, she starts to let go.  The lady turns off her mind and allows the call of the music to reach her soul.  She begins a magic carpet ride in his arms.  She feels like she is floating to the beat.  The lady feels joy at this chance to let go and free her spirit. When the dance is over, the lady is grateful to her partner who has given her so much joy.  To her surprise, she finds herself opening up to him.  She has become naturally receptive to his leadership.  She looks for a way to thank him. Without even realizing it, she also lets her curiosity wander.  If this man can be so gentle and careful on the dance floor, maybe he is special in other ways as well?  These feelings could just be the subtle yet powerful beginnings of Romance.
	Based on observations I made on the very first night I ever took my students out dancing after class, I designed a Social Program that would run parallel to my Dance Program.  I sensed that if I could create simple opportunities for single men and single women to dance together, friendships would be sure to follow.  Then as time passed, sometimes those friendships would turn into love.  It turned out my instincts were absolutely correct. You have heard me insist many times that SSQQ is a favorite place for Cupid to work his subtle art.  For many years, the studio's reputation as a Romantic Playground relied mostly on hearsay.  I asked all of you to take my word for it.  In 2006, I finally decided to document the entire story.  I wrote an article known as "Matchmaker" complete with names, pictures, anecdotes, and explanations. As you will soon read, the Legend of SSQQ Romance is no Loch Ness Monster, Bermuda Triangle or UFO... these claims are built on solid ground.

SSQQ has never been about dance competitions.  Although we have instructors who teach people to compete, our main purpose has been twofold - we teach people to dance very well for a reasonable price and we create opportunities for people to meet via Practice Night, Dance Parties, and through our Cruises.  As a result, SSQQ has been creating marriages since its start in 1978. 

Unfortunately it never dawned on me to keep records back in those days.  We will never know the full extent of the studio's impact.

It wasn't until 1999 when the SSQQ website first came online that I began to write about the people who were getting engaged or married through the studio.  Each month I would write down a couple stories here and there. 

That led to an incredible moment at the end of 1999 when I decided to add up all the stories from my first year.  I was stunned to find the studio was responsible for 24 marriages and engagements that year.  This was the first time it ever dawned on me that helping people find each other was a big part of my studio's Legacy. 

Until this point, I had taken the studio's matchmaking ability for granted.  Now that I realized just how good we really were, I started to pay much closer attention.  The next six years passed very quickly.  

Each year we would see another bumper crop of weddings and engagements.  Then at the end of each year I would publish a list of the year's marriages and engagements.  And yes, these numbers were impressive, but then one day I realized I was still the only one who knew the full extent of the story.

I assumed that everyone knew what I knew, but the truth was most students only saw the tip of the iceberg.  The problem was that the results from the different years were scattered all over my web site.  Some years weren't even posted any more!

No one really understood the full extent of this remarkable story because the various files I had compiled that listed the marriages and engagements from each year were either removed from my web site or scattered into remote corners of the website.  Only the most aggressive link clicker would ever find all the different records.

This meant that the studio's 30-year track record remained the stuff of Myth and Legend because I was the only one keeping track.  And truth be told, even I was somewhat in the dark.

That changed over the Christmas Holidays in December 2005.

Since I wasn't going on any trips, I had some free time.  I decided to give the ssqq web site an update.  As one of my first projects, I gathered all seven years of Newsletters and created a new section where I could fit them into one place.  In the process I ran across several Wedding Lists from the early years of the web site.  Hmm.  'Haven't seen those in a while.'  It occurred to me to look for the records that were missing.  It took me over an hour to find them all, but eventually I rounded up each individual List from the first seven years of the web site.  Rather than publish seven separate pages, I decided to collect the individual Lists from each year and put them on their own special page which I named the "SSQQ Wedding List".  This meant I had finally gathered all the names in one place for the very first time.  Faced with seven long lists of marriages and engagements, I started to stare at the names and numbers.  These lists went on and on and on! The first thing that caught my eye was the studio's consistency.  For seven straight years we had crossed the "Twenty Marriages and Engagements" threshold.  Twice we even crossed "Thirty".  Finally I added them all up - there were over 175 Marriages and Engagements! Not only had the studio averaged 25 marriages and engagements for seven straight years, in this time over 300 people had found their future spouses at SSQQ!  (see below)

It dawned on me that people needed to see these Lists for themselves.  They only covered one quarter of the studio's long history of Matchmaking, but they definitely suggested that serious "Romance Magic" had existed here at the dance studio for a long time. 

It stood to reason that the more people were convinced our reputation went way past mere rumor, the more powerful the Magic would become.  After all, this is not an energy that diminishes with numbers.  Au contraire.  In fact most people would say this particular energy grows.  As they say, "the more, the merrier".

For that reason I decided to take my Wedding List page from the Newsletter section and move it to a specific new location on the SSQQ wed site, oops, make that 'web site'.   Now you know how this SSQQ Romance section originated.

On Saturday, January 14th, 2006, the SSQQ Romance Page made its official web site debut.  I was pleased.  With the seven lists in place, I didn't have to ask people to take my word for it any more.  

Isaac Newton once said that for every action, there is an equal reaction.  The creation of the new Romance Page and the publication of the Seven Wedding Lists was followed by two developments, one curious and the other direct.

The debut of the SSQQ Romance Page was followed by three months of new attendance records at SSQQ.  Were these attendance records related to people reading the newly-created Romance Section and deciding to join the fun?  Or was it just a coincidence?   There is no scientific way to know, but it was a very pleasant development nonetheless.

There was also another development that was directly linked to the appearance of the SSQQ Romance Page.  In January 2006, an SSQQ dance student named Tara Dooley noticed the new Romance Page.

Her curiosity led her to read some of the stories.  By coincidence, Ms. Dooley was also a writer for the Houston Chronicle.  Ms. Dooley decided SSQQ would be a good place to start for an upcoming assignment, so she gave me a call. We talked for well over an hour as I answered her questions about my studio's claim to be one of Houston's leading Romantic Playgrounds.  I guessed my arguments were convincing enough.  Ms. Dooley's Chronicle article named me one of Houston's leading 'Matchmakers' on Valentines Day 2006.  On the one hand I was deeply flattered by the article.  But on the other hand, I was frustrated that many of the stories I had told her did not make their way to print because the article had to be brief.   I felt very incomplete.

I spent the next couple days moping around the house thinking about the stories that had been left out.  Finally I decided to handle my frustration by writing a short story about Ms. Dooley's Valentine article in the next Newsletter. I intended to include a couple of my favorite stories that had been left out.  That would definitely make me feel better. 

So I started writing.  However every time I finished one story, another one popped into mind.  My story began to grow and grow and grow.  I could not stop writing.  One day I realized the original 'short' story had grown too long.  I saw no choice but to subdivide it into Chapters.  One chapter led to another. 

Although I didn’t realize it at the start, this project turned out to be the Matchmaker Story. It was a story I had wanted to write about the studio for a long time, but never quite got around to the project. 

As I typed away, I realized I was in great debt to Ms. Dooley.  She had given me the inspiration to get a huge project going.  I had accidentally written half the story before I even realized what I was doing.  Now that I was half way there, I realized this was as good a time as any to go all the way. 
I wrote every day for a month.  I didn't pay bills.  I answered every email with one sentence or one word.  I avoided phone calls.  I ignored the outside world just as much as I possibly could.  I stopped exercising.  I gave up my hobbies.  I came to the studio late for class on several occasions.  Often I was unshaven with hair sticking out in every direction.  I left the studio the moment class ended to begin writing again.  There was no Newsletter for two months.  I was in the grip of this story.  I was obsessed.

My short story grew and grew.  The story was well on its way to becoming a small book.

I wanted to write the best story I possibly could.  I wanted to make certain that anyone who read the article would come away convinced that SSQQ Romance Magic was no longer a 'Legend'.  I believe I succeeded.

My guess is that anyone who reads the "Matchmaker" article will be stunned at the staggering number of serious relationships SSQQ has helped to create or has played a major role during the courtship.  There is something special about this place.

The Matchmaker Story really is amazing when you stop and think about it.  After all, SSQQ doesn’t make one penny off the marriages.  Nor would we want to.  It would destroy the Magic if people thought we were doing it for profit. 

Obviously it is good for business to be so good at creating relationships, but deep down our motives are pure: we get a lot of satisfaction from making people happy.  Matchmaking is good for the soul.      

SSQQ Matchmaker Article