Thursday, April 4, 2013

D IS FOR DANCING




If you will recall, the theme for this A to Z challenge is Phases, Passions, and/or Life Lessons.  When I begin a hobby I never really know whether it will be a phase, passion, or turn into a life lesson.  I have always loved to dance.  In fact,  I wrote this post about the love affair I had with dance as a little girl.  It was one of the first blogs I ever posted.  I am not sure I had any followers at that time... hahaha. 

If you read that post, then you know that story ended in heartbreak for that little girl.  However, dancing and I were not finished with one another. 

When I moved down south, I became fascinated with country line dancing.  I didn't participate.  However, I was in thrall whenever my then-boyfriend and I would go to a bar that had line dancers.  That inner voice would pipe up and say, "I really wish I could do that."  My boyfriend had no interest in learning.  Sigh.  I kept my seat and watched. 

After we split, I moved back in with my parents.  That meant moving back to my hometown.  Honestly, that felt like failure on so many levels, and I had NO DESIRE to reconnect with anyone I knew from high school who still lived in town.  I didn't want to explain how my life had taken so many wrong turns.  I had given up my job in New York City (more on that with letter "G") for a guy and then things went wrong with the guy.  And now I was back at home with no idea of what I wanted to do for a career.  My life sucked.  And I was living with my parents.  My career options were terrible, mostly because I didn't know what I wanted.  When you don't know what you want, you can rest assured that you will not find it.  

Sidenote: to anyone in the future who wants to take time off to go "look for yourself," let me save you the trip.  You are right here.  Just get a job.  It will help you to immediately figure out what you want, and don't want, to do for the rest of your life.  I know that it helped me.  I kept changing jobs and hating them.  Nope.  Not the one.  Not that one, either.  In the meantime...

I did the ONE THING I knew I wanted to do.  I started taking country line dance lessons at the local bar.  Turns out that I was really good at it.  Mostly because I have a really good memory.  Or I did.  I could retain the steps to a lot of different dances.  It wasn't long before I was taking lessons almost every weeknight, and then spending every weekend there.  All I ever drank was water, because a good dancer doesn't drink and dance.  I also immediately lost 10 pounds and was down to a healthy 107 pounds.  That is different than the unhealthy 102-105 pounds that I stick consistently with a migraine.

I am posting a photo:


 As you can see, I wasn't a fan of dressing up.  A bright T-shirt, jeans, and my cowboy boots were my usual fare.  And for those of you who have met me, or seen my video, or other pictures... yes, that is me with red hair.  I think I have it french braided in that pictured.  Or it might have been in a ponytail.  You get hot dancing.  In either case, I call that the Red Hair Phase.  My hair has been through all of the phases.  Now, it doesn't go through any.  I am allergic to the hair color, so what you see is what you get!

Eventually I got into partner dancing at the bar and that was also a bunch of fun.  I had a couple of fellows that I danced with regularly.  The dancing crowd pretty well knew everyone else and hung out together.  It was a whole lot of fun.

When mom and I moved to Georgia, I tried to make a go of it at the local bar there, but it was not the same.  The bar was not in a very nice neighborhood.  The people were not as friendly.  I ended up spraining my ankle (which is a whole other blog) and that pretty well ended what was already an unsuccessful transition to a new place for dancing.

Rating on the Dancing: I've Been Through Two Phases.  I'm not saying that there couldn't be a Third in My Future.  You Just Don't Know...

Image found at www.weheartit.com

Have you ever tried Country Line Dancing or Partner Dancing?  Did you dance as a child (ballet, tap, jazz)?  Have you ever tried any other type of dancing like ballroom dancing?  Have you always wanted to dance, but never had the time or courage? Do you let others hold you back from things you wish you could do?

16 comments:

  1. The dancing got you back into the world and into life.
    And your side note was hilarious!

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  2. Country line dancing looks like so much fun! I wish I wasn't so bad at dancing !

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  3. I've never tried line dancing. I took one ballet class in college and that was it. But I think I'd like to learn to tango.

    Jenny at Choice City Native

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  4. In one of Eddie Murphy's stand-up videos from the 80's, he makes fun of whites dancing, saying something like "are you listening to the music or the lyrics."

    I listen to the lyrics.

    That gives one two left feet.

    LC

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  5. I took it all up until I was 17- tap, ballet, jazz. I never learned to line dance though I always wanted to. The husband is not a dancer. At. All. So, no partner dancing either. EXCEPT when the lovelies were big enough- I taught them how to shag (for any British readers, shagging here is a dance). DD2, Deanie, is a marvelous dancer. There's not a single type of dance she can't do. She's trained in classical ballet and danced competitively all through high school.

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  6. LOL! Love the sidenote ;) And I think the only dancing I've done is square dancing in the first grade ;)

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  7. Loved what you said about 'finding yourself' and I agree...you're already there. Awesome advice :)

    Way back when, I used to do country line dancing too. There was this huge bar in Northern Kentucky that had lessons and a friend of mine from work and I would go quite a few nights a week. She stopped, but I still kept going and would always find dance partners. It must have been at an extroverted phase of my life, because I met a ton of people there. It was a lot of fun and, yes, I did wear a hat, boots, and jeans...the whole nine yards.

    Great times :)

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  8. I tried line dancing a few times and it was a lot of fun.
    Love to dance -- used to do it at the gym as a form of exercise, aerobics and such. No ballet, though, never had great balance, but I love to watch ballerinas dance.
    Silvia @ Silvia Writes

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  9. Alex ~ The dancing was something I loved while I was working at stuff I didn't. However, all things have value. In doing what you hate, you figure out zero in on what you can/will love to do.

    Judy ~ It is fun and the people you meet are nice (usually).

    Jenny ~ Take ballroom lessons. You have to get on the horse if you want to tame it!

    LC ~ Strangely, that makes all the sense in the world.

    EmptyNester ~ The great thing about country line dancing is that you can do it SOLO. You might want to think about it...

    Cassie Mae ~ I always try to throw in something "sage" into every piece. This isn't always a comedy act!!!

    Mark ~ I knew that you would like this posting. I remember reading that you used to line dance. I still have my boots... just sayin.'

    Silvia ~ It IS fun. I have done my fair share of aerobics, too. I don't think of that as dancing, though. That feels more like work to me. Ballet is a whole different animal... you are right about that one!!!

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  10. When I started reading and you said you sat at a bar with the bf and he wasn't interesting in line dancing, I said out loud, "dump the bf and dance. You don't need a partner for line dancing." That is the beauty of it. I am glad you finally got to dance.
    You look very trim, fit and pretty.

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  11. Never done country line dancing. My wife and I took some dance classes before our wedding. All the traditional kind of stuff: waltz, fox trot, maybe a tango, I can't even remember. We had fun with the classes, but we certainly didn't wow anyone with our skills at the wedding.

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  12. Yes! I live in what is considered "Nashville West" -- Bakersfield, Calif., home to Buck Owens. So yes... I've line danced and still line dance whenever I go to a bar with the kidlings.

    I really enjoyed this post. You share much of yourself with your trusted blog network, and that is very special.

    See you for "E".... but now I can't wait for "G." hehe

    Dana
    Waiter, drink please!



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  13. Love the post and the boots, but dancing isn't my thing. I was either born with 2 left feet, or 2 right feet whichever I wish I could! Enjoyed reading!

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  14. Hi there, Robin. While I understand many different kinds of music very well (I've got a little studio), I''m afraid dancing is not my strongsuit. I like country music, gospel, disco... Just don't ask the blue man to dance. :)

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  15. Yeah, we had to learn line dancing and square dancing in school as a teen. There were a few days the week of Thanksgiving where they would let of out of classes to go dance. I didn't like it. I've never been much of a dancer, I prefer playing instruments or singing instead. But probably similar in scope.

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  16. Quite the line dancer you were! Yes, indeed we would have so much fun together- guess who else was one heck of a line dancer?! No big surprise. I love it all, any and all dance. I'll say it again- it is the fountain of youth!

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