So You Think You Can Dance?

My latest favorite past time entertainment has got to be the show "So you think you can dance." Absolutely amazing. The thing that gets me is that the contestants on the show are ages 18-28; they're young, but they are dang good. Each person has a specialty, but they are randomly partnered with people of different genres. Some have professional training, and some are self taught. Some times they get to perform the style they're comfortable with, and some times they have never even seen the style of dance performed! They draw their dances out of a hat and are expected to learn very difficult choreography in genres ranging from waltz to cha-cha to contemporary to krumping. Imagine a stiff ballroom dancer having to learn how to get jiggy and hip hop or visa versa. And they do it. Amazingly well.

Dance is exhilarating. It is the ultimate expression of life in my mind. Joy, pain, passion, elegance. Just watching these people make me experience the emotion; they capture a snapshot of life in a 2-3 minute whirlwind of movement. They make it look so easy and seamless.

My desire to dance began early. My older sisters had taken dance and it just seemed like so much fun. I begged and begged my mom to let me take dance lessons.

Sept. 20, 1987--age 6
We had my first dance recital. J. and I had matching costumes. They were purple with gloves and purple ribbons in our shoes. I lost one of my front teeth. [I'm pretty positive this had nothing to do with the dance recital.]

Back then I didn't know about Latin or Ballroom Dancing, but I sure did love to shake my hips and let myself go. There wasn't a whole lot in the way of style choices. We had tap, ballet, and later, clogging. Yes, clogging. That was the beginning of the end of my first era of dancing. It was just a little too geeky for even me.

I always looked forward to dances in Jr. High and High School. Not that anyone ever really danced at school dances. Unless, of course, my dad was one of the teacher chaperones. My peers all loved watching my dad let loose and have fun. Luckily I wasn't one of those kids easily embarrassed by their parents! I thought it was quite fun to get down and do "the vulture" or some other cool move my generation hadn't ever seen. Slow dances generally meant standing on one place barely moving your feet just so you could have an excuse to get close to a member of the opposite sex. I started losing interest around my Junior year because of that. Talk about Bo-ring!

College brought dancing to a whole new level for me. I had choices. A lot of them. I unfortunately did not take full advantage of my dancing opportunities. I took only 4 semesters of dance, but what a rush. It gave me a chance to learn and compete dances like cha-cha, west coast swing and samba. (The picture to the left is me before a cha-cha competition. Looking pretty slick in that little black getup.) Yes I did learn things like waltz and foxtrot, but those were too stiff and formal for the likes of me. I liked to move and interact with my partner. I loved Latin dancing. Hip gyration. Passion and fire. The works. You can't get much better than the samba. I can't stop my hips and legs from moving when a samba beat comes on. I even made it to the final round of competition out of 9 heats and hundreds of couples in my division of samba!

I really wish I could have learned contemporary and modern dancing. Those are right up there with Latin dances for watching purposes. Unfortunately I think my dancing days are over. Matt detests dancing and he can't for the life of him understand why I enjoy watching it! Plus we'd make horrible partners, him at 6'2" and me at 5'3". My luck and he'd knee me in the stomach!

So I will live out my dancing dreams through these contestants for now and probably forget about how much I love it when the show ends. Hopefully there'll be a next season!