The Safety Dance

I like to dance.

Not ballroom dancing or the cha-cha or anything established...well, maybe the robot just for comedic effect...but I miss dancing. I used to go all the time for a couple of months with someone I no longer connect with and I miss that freedom and energy.

My buddy Heather started up a conversation about dancing today. Apparently she takes group lessons with a tall friend of hers and they are learning multiple styles of dancing. I believe she was to learn the Foxtrot this evening. It sounded like a lot of fun, you know...watching it. Unfortunately the organizers of those group lessons don't generally allow folks to come and loom at folks trying to learn to dance. I think it would be great though; serve some hot-dogs, popcorn, and veggie burgers and some beverages to wash it down, and the audience could generate more revenue for the group than the students.

But anyway, I was talking to Heather about dancing and it was readily apparent how dance is soooo very different and personal to someone. For Heather, she was open and shared with me that she was taking these group lessons and how she was feeling like she had to find someone close to her height and that she might be the one ending up leading the lesson.

I had a completely different conversation. I was literally admitting that I liked to dance. That was HUGE for me a year ago. I used to abhor dancing and anything closely related because I was so scared and unskilled in that activity. Then things changed. Music changed. Dancing changed. I suddenly found myself feeling music to the point where I was involuntarily lifting my legs and moving my head and finding the rhythm...and being overjoyed by the experience.

And that's when I met my dancer friend and we had quite a few adventures. But dancing was more an experience of appreciating a form of music and letting my body express that closeness and not the socio-awkward, chick-picking-up kind of scene that had scared and tainted me in high school.

I felt good to join in Heather's appreciation for dance and to admit to a friend that I liked it too, under certain and narrow circumstances, but it was a relief. I felt we got closer because of our talk.

And it made me want to dance so bad here on this Wednesday night of blah. The lights, the energy, the sweating bodies and swooping hair and captured glances. I miss it.