Dancing fools

I don't consider myself a dancer. Although if I still tagged posts, I think I would find a number of them are about dancing, so if attending dancing events and learning the moves to Thriller and writing about it is an indication, well then perhaps I am a dancer. Just one that doesn't dance particularly well. I'm also married to a dancer of my caliber (ie one who is not strictly speaking skilled but is still willing to try). Anyone who attended our wedding can pretty much vouch for our not quite being Fred and Ginger, but    then we didn't spring for a videographer, so it's probably for the best.

Lindy hoppers

At any rate, awful or not, I still enjoy dancing, so we signed up for one of Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swings nights. Basically, for part of June and July every year, an open area by the Lincoln Center is turned into a large dance floor and live bands play every night. They begin the night with a dance lesson for a chosen dance in the style of music for that night's band. When we went last night the dance du jour was the Lindy Hop. The lesson was pretty simple and focused on some basic steps and tying them together into a short routine. While the end result we achieved probably couldn't be recognized as the Lindy Hop in a swing dance lineup, we definitely improved. I think the trouble with partnered dancing, or at least what makes it so difficult for me, is that you have to be in constant communication with the other person while making it look like you're just effortlessly on the same page. I tend to learn the steps and then just take off doing them, not realizing that I'm leading when I should be following.

That said, I really enjoy going to these things mostly because it's so fun to watch people who are very good at partnered dancing. It makes me want to aspire to be better. Watching all the older folks Lindy Hoping to live jazz, Sam and I even considered taking lessons. Ballroom dancing could perhaps be "our thing," and we could get really good at it and pull out our skills at summer swing nights, weddings, and jazz age lawn parties. That would require taking a lot of lessons though and likely a lot of time and money. I think in the end we're back-burnering dancing and focusing on things we're actually good at together: making greeting cards, trivia nights, and keeping our cat mostly alive. (Note: I say "mostly" only because it's very hot here, and Dinah has entered her reverse-hibernation suspended animation cat puddle state. She will return to fully-functional
feline around September).

Tonight, we're continuing our art patronage, by going to see the play Choir Boy. Or perhaps it's not true patronage as a friend gave me the tickets, but she got them from her boss, who I believe is an official patron. And so goes my understanding of trickle down theater tickets, but hopefully the show will be fun!