Nestled away in a quiet cottage at the Independence Hill Retirement Community is seasoned ballroom dance instructor and loving mother of two, Theresa Zinsmeyer. A skilled performer and leader, Zinsmeyer has more than 35 years of experience teaching dance to students of all ages. Now, at the mature age of 82, Zinsmeyer continues to lead her peers and friends at Independence Hill across the dance floor, shining a light on the exquisite art of ballroom dancing.
“I put my heart and soul in dancing,” Zinsmeyer says. “I worked hard and I worked at individually teaching each one of my students. Even in the groups, I danced with each person and I’m still doing it here.”
Born in Alexandria, LA., Zinsmeyer considers herself to be a native Texan. Her family relocated to San Antonio when she was just 14 years old. One of seven children, her family originally came to the Alamo City to support a movie her father filmed in Brackenridge Park about the Catholic Mass and the story of Christ. While filming, her father took a liking to San Antonio and decided to permanently move the family.
Growing up in a lovely house on Ashby Street, she attended St. Josephs Academy. She was surrounded with the warmth and love of her family. Yet as years passed, Zinsmeyer yearned for more and recalls positive experiences visiting dance halls with her sisters during World War II.
“There were these spots you could go to and dance with the men who were going to the war and they had one for the Catholic U.S.O.,” Zinsmeyer says. “Some were held at the bases; the buses would pick us girls up and we’d go dance with those guys. We met some fabulous dancers and my sisters and I just ate it up because my daddy was what they called in those days a hoofer. My father could dance to just about anything all the while my mother played piano and sang.”
Balmy evenings were spent dancing amongst soldiers and alongside her sisters. At the age of 24, she fostered her developing dance techniques and enrolled at an Arthur Murray dance studio. After three rigorous and fulfilling years of training, Theresa’s sister started taking ballroom dancing classes and the two completed training at Arthur Murray together.
Around the same time, while attending a dinner party hosted by one of her sisters, she met her future husband, Jim Zinsmeyer. After a five–year courtship, the two wed in an intimate ceremony and raised two sons, William and Glenn.
“I knew the second Jim walked through the door of that party that he was the one,” Zinsmeyer says. “He was precious, just adorable. While I had my studio, he did book work for a hardware store. He was a salesman, selling equipment for this big lumberyard, Vaughn and Sons.”
Zinsmeyer led her first ballroom dancing classes in the home that the family purchased shortly after getting married. After teaching children one–on–one for a while, she felt it necessary to move forward with her professional teaching endeavors. Appropriately named Terry’s Dance Studio, Zinsmeyer’s first instructional facility was a large space located on West Avenue. However, while the ballroom dance instructor found the studio initially useful, it eventually failed to accommodate the needs of her booming business.
“The classes were getting even bigger so one of my students offered the back part of his hardware store that had never been used,” Zinsmeyer says. “We had all of our mirrors in there and it was really huge.”
Located on Fredericksburg Road, Zinsmeyer’s second facility was larger than the first and able to accommodate the large volume of students. Additionally, the facility was equipped with the then newly introduced central air and heating system, a drastically positive change from the single cooler and air conditioner her first studio held. Yet after roughly eight years of test–driving facilities, Terry’s Dance Studio made its final move to Blanco Road, allowing the passionate teacher to flourish as a dancer and spread her talent to a wide range of students, two of which were her sons.
“My brother and I first started dancing when mom put us in tap and ballet classes in the 1950s,” William Zinsmeyer, owner of AMCORP Inc. says. “When the dance studio opened, Glenn and I were pretty much there two to three days a week ballroom dancing and it helped me as far as my personality and relationships with others were concerned. I was certainly not shy because of dancing, no question about it. It was a huge step because there weren’t a lot of guys who could dance and in that way, it was unique.”
Driven by a need to spend more time at home with her family and less time at the studio, Theresa eventually closed the dance facility yet continued to give private lessons and choreograph dances for clients such as Robert E. Lee High School, where her dance won best of show, a culminating prize she was ecstatic about.
“She has given a whole lot of joy to other people, joy that maybe wasn’t there before,” William says. “Now that they can get out there dance and move around on the floor instead of just sitting at a table and watching, they’ll have a lot more joy.”
The ambitious and energetic dancing guru has yet to let anything stand in her way of spreading joy. Zinsmeyer still leads a room of pleasant and lively residents at the Independence Hill Retirement Community each Friday evening, an impressive and bold task for an experienced veteran like herself.
As she unwinds in the relaxing setting of her newest treasure trove, Theresa can and often times does reflect on the many blessings that she’s found along her path. Surrounded by a caring family, warm friends and students still eager to emulate her every move, Zinsmeyer has choreographed a long, captivating path that’s won best of show.
