This evening, my girlfriend and I picked up a potentially interesting hobby and activity: ballroom dancing. This momentous evening came out of my looking for an interesting birthday present for her. I wanted to find something simple, but fun and hopefully memorable. I chose the gift to be from Fred Astaire dance studio(s) largely on account of there being a Groupon available. What could be better than dragging my uncoordinated buttocks out onto the dance floor? As a couple of my old football teammates can attest, I have a knack for stepping on and probably even mutilating toes. I think I've even inadvertently stepped on my kids' toes a disproportionately high number of times.
Sadly, it's not because I have size 14 feet. I've worn a humble size 11 since high school. I think it could really be a coordination thing. I'll even argue that I possess some amount of rhythm as I do play guitar and know my way around a drum kit. I can just over, under or otherwise misstep while keeping good time.
En route to the lesson I even had memories of Junior High marching band and the girl behind me getting mad at me for losing my step too often. I realize that means absolutely nothing the day aftr the one parade we were in, but I still remember how angry this girl was. It was as though I ran over her dog or cost us some kind of award at a DCI competition. Really we were just a bunch of kids in white jeans and a navy blue hooded sweat shirt playing "Lets go band!" over and over again. I need to drop it.
Regardless, we did have a beer at Bald Man Brewing nearby to help re-calibrate our social inhibitions. The studio was very nice and we were one of two couples having a lesson, each with our own instructor. The nervousness quickly subsided though as everyone was very friendly and within minutes we were Rumbaing, Foxtrotting, waltzing and Tangoing (all just the basic steps of course). The hardest part for me was the repetition in the steps and not accidentally side stepping the wrong way or stepping forward when I was supposed to step back.
Fortunately no toes were severed, or even trampled. I also have to admit it was a lot of fun, particularly when things felt coordinated for a moment here and there. Also, not to be competitive, but we did a lot better than the other couple there. Although that could very well have been a beer biased observation. We even took a little time to practice after class.
The Groupon includes one more lesson where we'll review and add additional steps to the repertoire. I'm it was something we get to partake in and I wouldn't be surprised if we decided to add on a few more lessons and find some opportunities to cut a rug out in public.
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