The Dance Primer

Last month, my husband and I participated in our first dance audition as partners. It was an absolute total mess. Somewhere between pushing the play button on the music and going round our first swing out I forgot how to follow. Even in a choreographed swing routine, forgetting to follow is never a good idea. My dear husband was adjusting what we had come up with to ensure we were facing the judge and I was sort of trying to do who knows what. We won’t get the gig we were going for, but that’s ok.

We have both been in performance groups, years ago, but neither of us had done a single aerial together until the afternoon before our audition. (Yup, we were *that* prepared.) We’ve been saying for ages that we should practice, and then do nothing about it. There always seems to be some excuse not to do it. But, having something to practice for is a real motivator.

We decided we need to keep some “flash” in our back pocket. Neither of us are real big fans of being flashy out on the social floor. We’re not the type of dancers who get out there to say “look at me!” It’s not what it’s about for us. However, there are a lot of great opportunities out there to perform, and often people want a flashy performance. For some reason, seeing girls flip around tends to motivate people to want to go dance.

*Photo of the first performance group I was part of, The Swingdevils, along with Frankie Manning and Casey MacGill and the Spirits of Rhythm.