“You’re in the mood for dance, and when you get the chance, you are the Dancing Queen”

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“Dancing Queen”

by ABBA

ROANOKE RAPIDS — They say you only go around once in life, but Dr. Diana Pesteanu begs to differ. Right now, she’s going around and around on many levels and she loves it. Pesteanu is a successful optometrist and business woman, and now winning praise as a ballroom dancer.

Pesteanu never dreamed she’d be dancing competitively when she started lessons in February. “All my life I wanted to ballroom dance. All my life I’d dance to anything. I’m a quick learner, but if it were not for my vocation as a medical doctor, I would have been a dancer. I mean it.”

Originally from Romania, Pesteanu moved to the Valley in 1993. She set up her practice and developed a fine reputation, but said as she’s gotten older she “doesn’t have much time left. It’s like I told a patient when they said I was a fine doctor, I said, I have to be, there isn’t time for improvement.” She laughed lightly at her joke.

Her eyes twinkled, then Pesteanu giggled like a school girl with her first crush as she poured over her dance photos. “I’m competitive, that’s no secret,” she said as she looked up. “America is a country of fulfilling dreams and when I came here, I started from scratch. I became a doctor of optometry, graduated from the New England College of Optometry in Boston and built a practice. I fulfilled my dream to help patients see — in a successful setting. Now I’m going to fulfill my second dream of dancing, as well as I can, and advancing on a competitive level as far as I can,” she said. She smiled with determination and a tilt of the head.

Pesteanu said she was nervous at her first competition in July at the Richmond Showcase and Dance Challenge Competition. Pesteanu had only practiced since February with instructor Kem Overby, Dr. Dance Inc. from South Hill, Va. “I was surprised when he asked me to compete,” said Pesteanu. “I thought he was joking.”

Overby wasn’t joking, however, and Pesteanu scored 95 percent and higher in her division in every dance. Two weeks later, Pesteanu and Overby took the Top Student Award in the Waltz, Tango, Fox Trot, Viennese Waltz (which she only practiced twice), the Rhombi, Merengue, Cha Cha, the East Coast Swing and the Country Two-step.

Pesteanu said her favorite dance is the East Coast Swing, “I’m good at it and I don’t have to think when I do it,” she said. “That’s what I’m doing here,” she said, pointing to a photo. You can see the whirl of her dress and the expression of sheer joy on her face in the performance.

She also likes the Country Two-step. She said she learned it by living in the Roanoke Valley and she knew it before the competition. “I asked Kem ‘don’t you do the Country Two-step?’ and “he said, yes.”

Pesteanu said her instructor has been most supportive and helpful in her second quest to be the best. “His smile and approval during the dances really help the butterflies go away!” she said.

When asked about her future plans on the dance floor, Pesteanu said she’d like to practice more, but she definitely wants to go to Atlanta in the next year. “It’s the third largest dance competition in the world!” she said in a breathless tone. Her voice became more excited, then she said “It’s the place where the instructors from Dancing With the Stars perform and compete.”

Pesteanu encourages everyone who likes to dance to get involved. She’d love to share her love for dance. “They can call me if they want any information,” she said. That number is 519-9401.