The Dance Location Triangulation

"While I dance, I cannot judge, I cannot hate, I cannot separate myself from life. I can only be joyful and whole. This is why I dance."
~Hans Bos

I read those words a while ago, and they stuck with me. I love to dance. That is the plain and simple truth. And that statement managed to sum up exactly what I feel when I am dancing. There is only one little "problem" - if you will - with feeling so good when I dance: I want to do it all the time!

Most often, I don't mind. If I feel like dancing, I dance. However, this has led to some situations that others might consider embarrassing.

Starting off, a few years back, after I had just discovered ballroom dancing, I one day decided that singing in the shower was no longer enough - I wanted to dance as well. At that time, I was learning the cha cha, and my shower was big enough to do the basic in, so I did. Well, doing the basic was just fine. Trouble came when I got bored of the basic step and decided to throw in some turns. Somewhere around the third time I fell, I finally clued in that maybe the shower isn't the best place to practice the cha cha. (I had tried a few New Yorks in there as well and ended up hitting the wall - not my best idea). Since then I have been much more cautious, only occasionally dancing in the shower, and even then nothing more than the Rumba basic (which fits in there surprisingly well).

After the cha cha/shower incident, I started making a real effort to watch where I was dancing. Unfortunately, it turns out that if I'm listening to music, dancing will happen without me realizing it.

One day, while on the bus, I was listening to a new Tango CD. It was a rather full bus, and I was standing up, holding on to one of the hanging straps. In Argentine Tango class, we had been work on dibujo - a simple embellishment where you trace a small circle on the floor with your foot. Turns out, the bus is a good place to practice these. Your balance gets better, and you learn to adjust the size of the circles you are drawing. What isn't good is when you lose focus and do a voleo at the end of it. Almost took out a backpack with that one. No more tango on the bus after that.

It seems that "unconscious" dancing happens when I am just waiting around, or doing something that doesn't really require focus. Like buying groceries. I can't count how many times I've been in line to pay for my groceries and all of a sudden realize that I've been doing the Bachata, or Merengue, for the past few minutes. Most of the time, a little "line dancing" isn't an issue. Almost taking out an old lady because you saw a free isle and wanted to try a new Paso Doble move, that is. In my defence, even if I had been just walking around the corner, not going into the classic "I'm going to kill the bull" pose, I probably would have come just as close to bumping into her as I did. Probably wouldn't have startled her half as much, but you never know. Thus, "line dancing" is just fine, but dancing down the isles is a no-no.

The only time I have actually felt even close to embarrassed about dancing wherever was when one of my students caught me doing the "rattle snake". Not my fault, mind you, but still. It was early - more than half an hour before students usually showed up at the school, and I was in the kitchen making a cup of tea. The night before I had rediscovered my Ricky Martin CD and was listening to "Shake Your Bonbon", which I decided to do. The "rattle snake" is a fast booty shimmy. What I didn't realize is that one of my male, teenage students had shown up early, and was standing right behind me when I did it. He turned red and ran off. I have not done that move anywhere near the school since, even if I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am alone in the school.

Life Lesson: Do what makes you feel good. Just learn what the limits are, and stay within them.