Earlier this year we took up Lating and Ballroom classes. We’ve just started it again, so I thought I ought to write a bit about it.
Sally told a male colleague of hers at work today that we were going. “He must be very tolerant”, came the response. It’s funny the responses you get about dancing. And I confess, I usually do go reluctantly because it’s something that Sally loves doing. I also, almost always come away from the class feeling great, happy, and like I’ve had some real fun.
The image of latin and ballroom has been greatly helped by the BBC’s brilliant “Strictly Come Dancing”, where celebrities partner up with professional dancers to learn, in a matter of weeks, what most dancers learn in years. It’s great entertainment, and has introduced many people, who would not have otherwise come across dancing as a social activity, to it – myself included.
Our classes are run by a bubbly, excitable, intelligent and patient teacher called Alison in a small village hall near Swindon. When we started up earlier in the year we did a 10-week beginners course, and we learned the basics of the following dances:
- Waltz
- Social Foxtrot
- Cha Cha Cha
- Rhumba
- Rock and Roll
- Quickstep
It’s quite amazing how much we cover in an hours lesson and we often leave with brains full of stuff that we’re determined to remember for next week.
Practice at home is hard, and we rarely actually do any social dancing. But it’s great fun, and when we have been to disco’s or weddings and we’ve had the chance to use our “moves”, it’s been good. Though there is a bit of me that cringes slightly because, we’re not REALLY good, and we probably look like we’re mediocre and trying hard…which we are…but something about that feels more embarassing that not dancing at all. Oh well.
So today we started up the “Improvers” class with mostly a refresher of what we learned earlier in the year.
My legs hurt, my shoulders hurt, and I’ll probably be ridiculed by some (but not all) of my colleagues at work about it. But you know what? It was GREAT fun!