Above, Buddy Sharbel and his daughter jitterbugged to the Bobby Darin classic, “Mack the Knife,” a song about a serial killer, while her brothers John and Charlie cut in at predetermined points.By Anne Ruisi
When Buddy Sharbel took his daughter, Margaret, into his arms in May for the father-daughter dance at her wedding reception at The Club, the tune was anything but traditional.
Instead, the Vestavia Hills resident and his daughter jitterbugged to the Bobby Darin classic, “Mack the Knife,” a song about a serial killer, while her brothers John and Charlie cut in at predetermined points.
While the Sharbels didn’t train for this dance, since father and daughter are accomplished dancers, they did practice a little, with Margaret wearing a gown to simulate her wedding dress and planning the moments when her brothers would cut in, Buddy Sharbel said.
Having her brothers cut in, finally relinquishing their sister to their dad before the dance ended, was Margaret’s idea, Buddy said.
Margaret and her groom, Parker Quigley, a University of Alabama graduate and native of Orlando, Florida, did take dancing lessons to prepare for their first dance as husband and wife.
That couples and members of a bridal party prepping for their big moment on the dance floor take dance lessons isn’t really new, said Kim Smith, owner of Dr. Dance Studio in Bluff Park. But signature dances at wedding receptions are more than a dignified waltz or a series of simple box steps.
“We are seeing more elaborate choreography,” Smith said.
“Mack the Knife” isn’t your usual wedding dance tune, particularly for a touching moment when the bride dances with her dad. But it had special meaning for the Sharbel family.
“My grandfather loved the song,” Margaret said. “People said it felt like Art (her grandfather) was there. It was neat to have that there. It felt like a family type of thing.”
Family background was reflected during the dabke, a traditional Lebanese folk dance the Sharbel family and their guests enjoyed during the reception. Dabke combines circle dance and line dancing and is widely performed at weddings and other joyous occasions.
Mr. and Mrs. Parker Quigley’s first dance as a married couple, one of Welsh crooner Tom Jones’ swinging signature songs, “She’s a Lady,” came about due to lessons at a Fred Astaire dance studio in Raleigh, North Carolina, where the couple live.
Safe From Embarrassment
Parker gave Margaret a package of dance lessons for the studio for Christmas last year. The couple, engaged at the time, took them so “we didn’t look like we didn’t know what we were doing,” she said.
“Parker has good rhythm but he didn’t grow up with swing,” like she did, Margaret said. “It ended up being one of his best experiences.”
The weekly Wednesday night classes became almost like a date night for the couple. Their instructor was a Ukrainian woman named Yuliia, who fled with her family from the Russian invasion. They learned steps to the rhumba, foxtrot and other ballroom dances, including some cha cha steps that Margaret described as “tough.”
“Yuliia was so patient. At our last lesson she teared up. We shared a bottle of champagne with Yuliia and her husband,” she said.
Several of her friends have signed up for lessons to feel confident before their big days, Margaret said.
“You don’t want to be in front of a couple hundred people and not know what to do” when it’s time to dance, she said.
Among the couple’s bridal party were friends and family from the Over the Mountain area. These included the matrons of honor, Eve Wald Byrne and Becca Harrell Burton; and bridesmaids Ginny Jost Dooley, who is Margaret’s cousin, Sydney Brown Wright, Callie Garrison Inge, Catherine Walker Wiggins, Chandler Rodgers, Julia Simmons, Carly Galbraith Derencz and Cameron Bruce.
Groomsmen from the Over the Mountain area included Margaret’s brothers, John Sharbel and Charlie Sharbel, Jack Carvalho, Paul Roth and Will Edwards.
Earth, Wind and Fire
The father-daughter dance wasn’t to a sentimental tune at Jessica and Matt Martindale’s wedding reception at Avondale Brewery in December 2015. There were gasps of astonishment among the 200 or so family and friends when Jessica and her father, Chuck Dean, hit the dance floor to the rhythm of “September” by Earth, Wind and Fire.
Matt, whom his wife described as more of a traditionalist, chose a Frank Sinatra cover of the Great American Songbook standard, “The Way You Look Tonight,” for their first dance as husband and wife. He and his mother, Sue Martindale of Hoover, danced to a Sheryl Crow cover of “Sweet Child of Mine,” another untraditional song, for the mother-son dance at the reception.
Father/daughter and mother/son didn’t take formal lessons to prepare for their dances, but a friend of Jessica’s showed them how to move.
“It wasn’t majorly choreographed,” Jessica said. “And my dad has four right feet and needed some help.”
“I think he was skeptical of it but he did it because he knew I wanted it. It was something special between us,” she added.
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