Dancing with........the seniors

My sweet husband decided it was time for a date night. I was thrilled when he said we were to go Dancing!! I LOVE to dance. Love it. I used to tear up the floor at every wedding, school dance, and every Knights of Columbus function there was. My body just moves to the music, and "I got rhythm, I got music...." Tommy told me he had dance lessons when he was about 18, and secretly I was hoping he would sweep me around the room and impress me with all he remembered. We haven't danced much: kids and a big pregnant belly usually interrupt things, so needless to say my hopes were really high.

We went to Old Town at the Center for the Arts and there was a 30 minute Cha-cha lesson before something called "open dance" and there were about 10 couples there, learning the steps. These couples? Well, it should have been our first clue about the rest of the evening. We were the youngest group there. And not by like 10 years. By like 20-25 or MORE. I didn't think much of it, but we kept dancing. As the lesson concluded, I kept seeing these couples come in the doors-same age group, of course. Each would do the same thing: sit down right away and change their shoes. Hmm.

About 30 couples later, the room is full and the music starts. Not a cha-cha, but something else.....and let me tell you that you do NOT want to get in the way of these dancers. They were some serious dancers! Twirling, kicking, shimmying, sliding, scooting...you name it, they were doing it. One couple had their water bottles on the shelf with a towel to mop their brow. Whoa. We are soo out of our league. At least, that is what I am thinking. I kept hoping Tommy would just start dancing, and I would follow his lead. I'm pretty good at that. Each time a new song would come on, the dance instructor would announce some dance (Jefferson Swing!) and the couples would go at it, and I would expectantly look at Tommy. He would lead me gently to the floor and we would stand on the floor, and.....and....nothing. We would attempt something, but inevitably we would need to get out of the way for Fred and Ginger from the senior center. We couldn't even manage the waltz, or if we did, it was just in one spot. At one point, a couple stopped and asked us if they could show us the basic step! I thought we knew how to waltz, so I said no. I was reduced to giggles more than once, because we would move (very quickly) out of the way, and our seat ended up being in the corner which made me feel like a wallflower, which is SOO not me at a dance! Oh, I wished I had my camera to take pictures! I did take some on my new phone, but have not figured out how to download them.

"Open Dance" lasted about 2 hours. We left after about 35 minutes. We did manage to do the Electric Slide. I am good at that one. (Jess, I did a Mrs. F. just for you!) But when it was over, Tommy looked at me and said we should just go do dinner. I wholeheartedly agreed, and we walked to Okra's and enjoyed each other's company. Maybe we will take a broader dance lesson than just the cha-cha, and go back and wow those other couples!