Ballroom Dancing

In my younger days, I loved dancing. As a child, I took ballet and tap. As a teen, I studied jazz and attended cotillion dance classes. Oh those cotillion dances were fun for the girls but I doubt the guys enjoyed it very much. We learned the "old fashioned" dances like the waltz, fox trot and cha-cha. This was all in preparation for my debut as a debutante. *sigh* All so long ago.

As much as I enjoyed contemporary dances as a teen, like the twist, I really enjoyed partner dancing most. Unfortunately, most men of my generation don't know this kind of dancing. When I moved to New Mexico, I learned country/western swing and two-step. It was fantastic. Sadly, Bill never got the hang of it so we never went dancing together. It just wasn't his "thing".

Now I'm in Florida, living in a retirement community and I'm taking up dancing again. Woo Hoo!  I was chatting with a neighbor a couple of nights ago and he was telling me about all the clubs and activities that are offered here. One was ballroom dancing. Well, as much as I would enjoy it, since I don't have a partner, I figured that was out of the question. He said, no, absolutely not. There are always men available to partner single women. He suggested I go to the class being held the next day, so I agreed. 

Bless his heart, he met me at the Arbor Club and introduced me to the instructor. It could have been so awkward because I'm awfully shy in groups, but he made it very easy. Then he stayed for the lesson. There were actually three men there without a partner and I was the only woman without one. So I got to switch out with them to practice all the new steps. I was tired but oh so happy when the hour was over. It's much more structured than the dancing I've done in the past, but that's okay. I'm dancing again and that's what matters.