It had been almost two years since
I last took a dance class.
I missed it, horribly, so decided
to check out the club on campus back in Winter.
We're now in Spring, and it was
the best choice I made that semester.
We went over a Latin ballroom piece today.
Lots of hip and arm movements, though
to be honest, I enjoyed it a lot—
more than I would have guessed.
Our instructor stood in front
demonstrating the steps
with a form made out of soft jelly.
He told us, "Think of it as an ocean wave.
As one side of your body moves up,
the other will move down."
I took that in to be: dance like you mean it.
Okay, so how does that work?
Looking natural is one thing, but performing
it correctly while looking natural is another.
Fine, deep breath.
The music is played one more time,
which is to say, again, and the heavy beat vibrates
everyone in the room.
I don't know what happened
on our second to last attempt, but before
dancing I could
hear my brain telling my body to
focus on feeling the
rhythm and not anything else, not
the other dancers
or my feet or what undulating hand motions
I was trying to do, but the nature of
the song; and as soon as the countdown
was over, I just...
transformed.
