a swingin experience

i had an interesting experience saturday night.

once upon a time, i learned how to dance, thanks to some very great partners (my debt to brett, anton, and joseph primarily for that!) So after missing those monthly waltzes at st john's, i went in search of swing dance venues in lexington (albeit without any learned partners). i came across a swing group at the university of ky and decided to recruit unassuming and innocent friends to tag along... (what were they thinking!) the venue was supposed to be a combined effort of two college campuses: both uk and transylvania, a college also in downtown lexington. so we showed up.

first bad sign: it was being held in a gymnasium no larger than the one at st. john's.
second bad sign: upon entering about 15 people were spotted, comprised of 2 kids that looked like they were in middle school and everyone else was over the age of 55.
oh my.

we stuck around for lessons from mike and mary (or was it mork and mindy?), and it was amusing (and simple for me) to say the least. Here I was, dancing with old men and high school students. There was this one fella who was quite a good dancer. Upon asking him, "do you go to UK?" his response was "no, I go to lexington christian [high school]" -- ahh, the truth comes out. In fact, the entire night, i failed to find ONE student from EITHER the university of ky or transylvania. i felt a bit deceived, after all, wasn't this sponsored by college campuses?? well, it's not like my friends or I were students either, but... we're not high schoolers and we're not senior citizens.

conversations on the dance floor went like this:
"have you and your wife been dancing long?"
"where do you plan on going to college?"
"do you speak english?"

and their responses or conversation starters were like:
"I was a dancer back in the day, but that was a long time ago."
"There's a nice young fella I'd like to hook you up with"
"I don't know what I'm doing"
"heh heh heh"

yea, it was a riot. I did "dance the night away" - until 10:30pm, bedtime for middle schoolers and elderly alike. My feet were tired, and my one relief was having 2 girls and 1 guy my age, people I recruited to come from my church, to dance with and teach a few moves to. The guy from church learned to dance in Texas, so he had no idea how to do the 6 beat steps, but he knew how to spin. and he was wearing a cowboy hat and boots, and was the heartthrob of a hispanic 6th grader. oh, it was a riot indeed.

so was it worth it? absolutely. it was fun, but even more, it was funny. kudos to my five friends for being such great sports about it, and not minding dancing with 60 year old men and 16 year old boys. and, i must confess, i did learn something new- the foxtrot. yipee!
Plus, who wouldn't pay the $5 just to watch 4-ft tall elderly hispanic couples with no rhythm dancing together?