The Dance Primer

This week, I’d like you to meet Emily Potter, a wonderful girl who finds magic in dancing, and life. Yes, that’s her on the right, belly dancing. Her passion for life and dance is contagious. She currently dances in the Salt Lake City, Utah area. Recently, she wrote a story about her salsa dancing experience and agreed to let me share it with you:

Last night I put on my shoes.

Gold slippers with heels, actually, with delicate straps across the top that fit my feet perfectly. They were to have their debut on last night’s sizzling, spicy salsa floor. I’ve gone salsa dancing for years now. I mostly go alone, and always with “almost right” shoes. Every time I go out, I say a little prayer before stepping onto the floor. “Help me find someone who will make me fly…” I am rarely disappointed. There was Juan, four years ago. He won first place in a salsa dancing competition in his home town in Mexico. He liked to make our dances into flirtatious stories. We’d start with the mysteriously innocent beginning to the wickedly flashy “Take me!” end. And then there was Travis, my country-boy dancing partner in Missoula, Montana. Yowsers and yeehaw, people…seriously. (Who knew a cowboy could sway like that?) And then there was What’s His Name in Korea. He spoke no English and I spoke no Korean, but he moved me in deep ways that made me fall in love within the breaths of one song.

And all that with “almost right” shoes. But with my new golden slippers last night, this time was to be beyond perfection… Who would it be this time? Dark, handsome Fernando, or a Hill-billy Bob? It didn’t matter. “Help me find someone who will make me fly…”

A new song began. I smiled and sat down. I couldn’t wait.

But I did wait. One hour. Then another. No one asked me to dance.

To be continued…

–

Did you see last week’s three part interview with swing dancer Kevin Wong?