Show your cultured side with Valentine's offerings from the fine arts

Give him one hour per week for a month and a $40 check, and Richard Badu will teach you how to dance. And not that leg-quaking, booty-shaking brand last seen on the Shooter's bartop, either.

Badu teaches East Coast Swing for beginners and intermediates, that swanky triple-step maneuvering derived from street jazz dances in 1920s Harlem. His classes are held every Thursday evening out of Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Church in Durham.

If you don't have a baby lurking in the corner, no sweat-campus posters for the classes proudly assert "no partner necessary!" And those looking for a little supplementary material to Wilson Gym's social dance class can drop in for a single lesson, ringing in at $11.

For the Fred Astaires, the left-footed and the singletons alike, we'd call that a deal.

Swing Dance lessons with Richard Badu are held in the commons room in the CARE Building of ERUUF, 4907 Garret Road. For a complete schedule or private lessons, e-mail rbadu@aol.com or call (919) 383-7054.