Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Dance class…


Tyler and I decided to attend a ballroom dancing dance together, since it gave us couple time, and exercise time. I have got to admit after the first few lessons I wasn’t sure if I had the patience or strength in my toes to see this course through. We were showed the first move moves of the foxtrot. Then we were supposed to replicate the work Leo and Dorothy (our instructors) did. They are an elder couple that is always getting at each other, but they are also really cute.

So first off, I would like to say that when I get old I want to be just like Leo... the man can barely walk upright, but when the music starts he looks like he is in his early twenties again. Granted he was a bit forgetful at times, but the man can dance.

We started dancing and I noticed Tyler was doing the steps (well pretty much) but the timing had no variation. Instead of slow, quick, quick, slow we were doing slow, stand on my foot, miss a step, wrong step… I explained to Tyler the counting and tried to count it for him, but that confused his feet. So I tried to tell him right, left, right, left but that confused my feet. We spent about 20 minutes in complete silence not even looking at each other in fear of forgetting our steps.

Then there’s the problem of who gets to lead, traditionally it’s the man…but when the women knows the steps…and has a fear of losing control, it’s gets tricky. So, we had mini arguments about who should be leading (him), and who should know their steps (him again.)

While I can say that my first stab at dancing wasn't pretty, I can say that I don't think it was as bad as the above referenced, however the end product was pretty good, I would say once we got over the initial getting comfortable with the whole thing I did pretty good... certainly better than my other male counterparts. 

Luckily we stuck through it and were even told by our teacher we look like “dancing with the stars.”  I am also glad we never ended up like any of the other couples…
A. A young Asian couple that had a big fight one day…and never came back
B. The old married couple that are repeating the beginners class
C. The awkward couple, I am still trying to work out if he is a giant … or she is a midget. (They were in the class after us, but we got to see them every week.)
D. The couple who after one particular argument, the husbands asked Leo to dance with his wife to find out what was wrong with her…nice!

I think the part I enjoyed most, was that before we would dance together as a couple, Leo would split the room and put the guys on one side, and the women on the other so he could show us our parts, during this part the women would listen intently and you could see they were interested and enjoying themselves... whereas the men would stand around and complain about being there, and talk about all the things they would rather be doing. 

The good news is we are moving onto the next class and we are still a couple!

I survived! I was even told I was good enough to move on to the intermediate course... I wasn't sure how I would like dance classes, but overall I would say it was a positive experience, now we just have to find a time to actually use the moves we learned, there are not too many places where two 25 year olds can go and ballroom dance... although we are talking about doing a salsa dancing class with another couple... should be interesting!