Kick Up Your Heels!

I have two left feet. I don't really have a sense of rhythm.  "Graceful" is not in my vocabulary, but "lanky" and "awkward" are. I generally shy away from the dance floor and have been known to step on toes even when doing the completely generic hug-like slow dance. Let's not even think about dances that involve the minutest levels of choreography and set moves. Forget it!

Despite all that, in April of this year, I finally ventured out to the Creekside with my friend Tabitha for country night. While I had visited the Creekside several times for karaoke, I'd never been there for line dancing before. It sounded fun and interesting. 
We met up at 7:00pm for the lesson, and it happened to be a two-step (i.e. partner) dance. For someone with two left feet and ZERO experience with dance of any kind, let alone country dancing, this was not a very good introduction to the art. It didn't really help that my partner, whom I knew as a karaoke regular, wasn't too familiar with the dance they were teaching us either, but was also too stubborn to pick it up properly. He preferred to sort of do his own thing and wing it, which is fine if you know what you're doing, but was NOT helping me, the novice, learn! Anyway, after the lesson, I spent the remainder of the evening out in the sidelines, watching everyone else dance and have a good time. Not quite how I envisioned the evening!

After that, I vowed not to return to the Creekside until I'd had some formal lessons under my belt. When summer arrived and Todd went off to LA, I signed up for line dance lessons through our local parks and recreation program. The teacher was good, the pace was just right, and those lessons helped a LOT. Most importantly, I picked up a lot of dance basics, which helped enormously when it came to learning new dances. Though the six-week session only taught me about 6-7 dances, I had obtained enough of a basic groundwork to learn new dances on my own (i.e. through YouTube videos and written step sheets) from there.

When I finally returned to the Creekside, I discovered something else: since newer dances/moves were now easier to pick up, the muscle memory was faster in developing. And since my footwork could just go on autopilot, I was free to let my mind relax a bit, not focusing on every last step, and just enjoy the music. Next thing I knew, I started finding a bit of rhythm and actually moving more fluidly with the music. I mean, I'm sure I'm still pretty awkward and there are still numerous times when I just don't KNOW what to do with my arms, but at least the bottom half of me is moving appropriately and in sync. That's half the battle ;-)

Now that I'm a bit more comfortable with line dancing, my next pursuit is the two-step. Last week, the local dance center where I took my line dance lessons had an open house, where all its classes were free to try. I decided to try my hand at the two-step, both the beginner and the intermediate classes. Both really kicked my butt, because it was an entirely different game! With line dancing, the only person I had to worry about was myself: focusing on my own feet and getting the moves and the rhythm right. If I messed up, I only needed a moment to adjust and get back into the groove before continuing. But with a partner, I now had to be mindful of not only doing the moves correctly, but doing them correctly in sync with someone who probably prefers not to have his toes stepped on all the time ;-P It was quite a learning experience, and having a good partner certainly helps, but unfortunately, now that the summer's over, it's really hard to commit to a series of lessons. Someday soon, hopefully!

Oh, and one last added bonus? It's really good exercise! My last couple of trips to the Creekside left me tired and sweaty and achy and catching my breath... but it felt good! Fun AND health all rolled into one... can't beat that! ;-)