Dancin Machine

So I was invited by my graceful, elegant friend to go dancing at the community center recently.  My friend, whose legs are twice as long as mine and has been dancing ballet for years, obviously felt more comfortable on the dance floor than I did.  I tried tap dancing at the age of five, quickly learned that dancing was not for me, and bowed out of the dancing world for many years. 

Travel with me down the road many years later to college where I decided to join an amazing campus wide performance where many student social clubs and organizations competed with song and dance.  Surely I could blend in the large group of sixty on the stage.  During one practice the dance instructor said, "Row number 2, try it again."  My row was the special row that couldn't quite get the timing down.  She finally said, "We'll come back to you."  I remember freezing during the country song when I was on the front row during the live performance.  I performed several years donning many costumes such as a frog, a Newsie, and an Egyptian.  I really thought I had improved by my senior year, but upon watching the tapes, I looked as though I was barely moving.

I had the privilege of attending several modern jive dances with a friend in Manhattan around ten years ago.  My dancing was pretty stinky at first, but I was in passing awarded the "Most Improved Dancer" from the instructor (pity vote?).  One dance partner with an Australian accent told me, "Don't look at your feet.  They know what they're doing."  Well, even if my feet knew what they were doing, I didn't know what they were doing so I wanted to look down and find out.  Every time I goofed up with another partner, he would take the blame saying, "Whose fault is it?"  Such characters!

At a wedding in San Antonio, I was asked to cut a rug (seriously, that was the terminology he used, how fun).  I decided to imitate and act my way through it because I just had to get on my boogie shoes.  Although there were a few times that I seriously botched his attempts to spin me, a friend watching stated, "I didn't know you were such a good dancer."  Apparently, I was a better actress than a dancer that night.

So, I thought that maybe I had improved my dancing skills after years of old exercise videos, Fred Astaire movies, "Boogie Wonderland" on the X-Box Kinect, and a successful wedding dance.  I was wrong!  At this recent dance lesson I was partnered with a seasoned swayer.  He was a great teacher, really he was!  I wasn't offended at all by the comments, "Noodle arms," or "Lose the stiff leg."  Which leg was that?  Whenever I had a partner who knew what he was doing, a few steps into the waltz or rhumba, he would start counting for me or giving me tips--which I appreciated.  I asked the T-A-N-G-O speller to keep it up, I needed the help.  After dancing with another partner, I said, "Hey, I'm getting better," to which he replied, "You'll get there."  Although Ginger Rogers I am not, I had a blast, and I am not giving up.

A few nights later, my shattered dancing ego was boosted with my niece and nephew as we 'let the dogs out' bustin' a move with their new Wii Just Dance for Kids.  As with many things learned in life, I need to remember to take one step at a time and have fun with it!