Shall We Dance

Alan has been longing for dance lessons for about a year.  He wants to be able to dance at weddings and parties without "lookin' dumb."  So, for Christmas, I gave him, well...us, 5 private dance lessons.  We had our first lesson last Monday night.

Alan came home from work at 5:30, and off we headed to our 6:00 dance lesson at Dance with Me, "Lubbock's New Private Club, Premiere Ballroom Studio and Banquet Hall."  It's some sort of remodeled dance hall with a large wooden dance floor.  Well, here...take a look at their commercial...

Our dance instructor, Shanna, greeted us and then had us fill out a questionnaire which basically was an assessment of our past dance experience and what our expectations for our future dance skills would be.  I decided that I would not try to look like a hot dog by including a bulleted list of my vast dance background which would have looked something like this:

• "modern dance" at "Miss Ray's" house in Carthage, TX
• studied tap under the tutelage of "Miss Jody" at Jody's Dance Studio in Waco, TX
• was a drill team girl
• tried a little ballet in college but quit when I was told that it would take YEARS for me to dance en pointe

Yep.  This girl has had a little bit of dance experience.  But, puh-shaw!  I think I ended up putting something like "some."  

We begin.  Shanna, a petite blonde ball of fire, showed us the four basic steps that make up all dance.  We walked forward a few steps.  Then, we did the "movie theatre" step which involved walking from side to side like we were trying to sit in the middle seats of a crowded theatre.  "Scuse me...pardon me...scuse me...pardon me."  Sadly, I cannot remember the other two basic steps.  Neither can my dance partner.

Next, Shanna showed us how to rumba.  And, it looked nothing like this:

I cannot quit watching this guy's "game of attraction with his hips."

There was absolutely no mention of attracting each other with our hips.  Our rumba was made up of walk-forward-side-step-walk-forward-side step.  Shanna had to break me of my habit of "putting too much into my foot work."  (Thanks a lot, Miss Jody.)  After about 15 minutes of practicing our less complicated, boring-hipped rumba, we moved on to the waltz.

Ahh, the waltz.  Alan and I had been stumbling through the waltz for years.  "Isn't it 1-2-3...do a box step?  No, wait...which way are we going?!"  Within about 20 minutes, we couldn't believe the difference Shanna had made in our "grace and poise."  She taught Alan how to lead and me how to follow.  If you know me at all, you know that following is not my strong suit.  It was more than a dance lesson.  It was an allegory for life.  I began to relax and enjoy the fact that Alan was in control of our boxes, hesitation steps and underarm turns.  He learned how to signal changes in steps by applying pressure with his hand on my back.    

Soon, we were relaxed in our waltzing.  We gazed into each other's eyes and grinned ear to ear.  We're waltzing!  Look what we can do!!  I felt like that pig on those commercials.  I wanted to bust out with a big ol' "WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-WE-WE-WEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The hour passed quickly.  Shanna made our lesson so fun and easy.  We left Lubbock's New Private Club, Premiere Ballroom Studio and Banquet Hall feeling exhilarated and bright-eyed.  It was almost like we'd had our first date all over again. One hour of dancing the rumba and waltzing.  Worth every penny.  We can't wait until next Monday's lesson.  Until then, we'll keep practicing in our kitchen in our bathrobes while our leftovers are heating in the microwave.