The Dance Primer

Today, we’ll read about how Kevin deals with bad dance experiences. Don’t forget to read Part I of his interview.

Amber: Do you have any embarrassing dance stories? Well, either embarrassing or a really bad dance experience that you came out of?

Kevin: I think I’ve had, not so much embarrassing experiences dancing, but I’ve had bad experiences dancing, really bad experiences dancing.

A: Can you tell me about one?

K: You have your standard bad nights of dancing where you don’t feel like the music is very good. To me, dancing is very much about the music and if I didn’t like the music, I wouldn’t dance at all. I think that’s a separate topic. I remember going to Seattle one time and dancing with someone that I knew from LA when I first started dancing, and we had not really been friends but just kinda been ok with each other, you know acquaintances. During that time period I’d left LA and probably hadn’t seen her for about three or four years and she had become “a rockstar,” and I’m not a rockstar per se, right. So, I’d asked her to dance, and she was always kind of an odd follow. But this particular dance not only was she not following, but she wasn’t even trying to follow. She wasn’t even pretending to have a good time or even paying attention to me at all. So that dance in particular I remember as being particularly awful and it was like 500 times worse than dancing with a beginner. SO much worse than dancing with a beginner, because if felt like work and she wasn’t even enjoying herself at all. Obviously, I wasn’t enjoying myself. And, you know, it hurts the dance ego – which is kind of a fragile thing to begin with.

So, I don’t think I’ve had any particularly embarrassing moments, like “oh I farted during a break” or something, you know, nothing like that. Well, no, I got tripped once, but again nothing embarrassing. I’ve had bad dances, bad nights.

A: So how do you deal with it when you’ve had a bad experience, or even a whole bad night, or the one terrible dance?

K: I found alcohol helps a lot. (Laughing.) Well, I say that facetiously, but I do think that a spot of alcohol never hurts. Um, you know. You’ve just gotta work through it. Find somebody else that you like dancing with, and you try to move on and find people that actually enjoy dancing with you. And you enjoy dancing with them. I mean, it won’t last forever. Actually I’ve had many more good experiences than bad experiences with dancing. Those are actually kind of rare.

I guess learning is also a really hard experience.

A: Learning?

K: Learning to dance. That’s always the most awkward period. You never stop learning, but when you first start dancing it’s really really difficult. I think especially for a lead, to learn to dance.

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Tomorrow, read the final chapter in Kevin’s interview.