Dancing

 Or Dancing is Possible Even with Two Left Feet

I don't have any dancing pictures, so here's what we woke up to yesterday.

In a previous post, I mentioned different dance things Ward and I were doing and said I would elaborate on them in the future. So here it is - the elaboration of my dancing experiences through the years.

I'm not a dancer. Never really have been. Part of this is because of inexperience, and part of this is because of a lack of coordination. I grew up in a small town with no dance classes like many little girls take. I don't think we could have afforded them if they had been available, anyway. The only dancing I did in my youth was square dancing in PE. I went to a couple of dances in high school, but I didn't dance much because I wasn't sure what to do. My lack of coordination became apparent when the simple dances I had to learn as a cheerleader took me twice as long to learn as everyone else.

Fast forward to my twenties when Ward and I took ballroom dancing with a group of friends through the local community college. Our instructor was named Louie, and he didn't do much more than talk and tell stories. But we ended up going to a dance where we did a basic foxtrot around the room with others. I guess we did okay because we didn't run into anyone. I don't know if that was because I knew what I was doing or if Ward was steering me away from others. But it was fun, mainly because we were doing it with friends.

Fast forward to many, many years later, and I am trying my hand at dancing again. Or maybe I should say for the first time, really. If I had gained any skills from before, they have atrophied over the years. The reason dancing activities are coming up again is because of Ward. He joined a gym when he retired and enjoyed the group exercise dance classes, including Zumba and line dancing. He encouraged me to join him, and I did occasionally, very occasionally. It wasn't long before Ward had all the moves, and my main goal was not to run into anyone when I sporadically showed up. With a little experience in hand, we went to a line-dancing event and a good time was had by all - including those of us who were a little confused from time to time.

Ward continued to be encouraging and said how much he enjoyed doing these classes with me. Trying not to be a stick in the mud, I signed us up for group lessons through the rec department for Samba and Rumba lessons. These dances were on a whole other level. Because now, not only did I have to not trip over my own feet, Olga, our instructor, was adding all kinds of things like changing how the weight changes on the foot through different steps, moving our hips in more directions than I knew was possible, and contracting different sets of abdominal muscles on different steps. Needless to say, I was often confused. But I didn't run into anyone - mainly because it was a small class in a big room. So, my main goal was achieved. While these were not quite as fun as the line dancing, we have signed up for the next session, which is couples ballroom dancing. We'll see how that goes.

So am I enjoying all of this, or is this what you do when you're married to someone who says how much he wants to dance with you? If truth be told, I would not have done any of this without Ward motivating me. But you know what? I need a nudge every once in a while often to get out of my comfort zone. And I am happy that he nudged me. Because you know what? When I actually get the steps and am time with the music, it's a great feeling. So thank you, Ward.

Do you like to dance? Do you consider yourself a dancer?

Until next time...