Monday, March 9, 2020

GET UP AND DANCE by Hannah Rowan #RomanceGems


How many times have we seen our hero and heroine dance, probably with reluctance on at least one of their parts, when he pulls her masterfully into his arms, and one or both feel an electricity unlike anything they’ve experienced before, and the evidence of his enjoyment of her closeness becomes obvious and shocks her, or intrigues her, and the sparks fly, and then…and then…?

In real life I’m sure this happens to people who don’t have a dysfunctional dancing history, as I do.

My first memory of dancing involves doing the Twist in the school cafeteria in fifth grade.  Simple enough, except my Twisting was enhanced by my big sister’s red stiletto heels that I smuggled out of the house and added to my school uniform.  Looking back, I suspect my classmates were laughing at the sight of a scrawny little kid contorting herself to Chubby Checker’s tune while attempting to balance on treacherous four inch heels, rather than a critique of my technique in general.  But their hilarity put a damper on my dancing for quite some time.

Until seventh grade, at least, when the seventh graders traditionally gave the eighth graders a send-off through an end-of-the-year dance.  I had a big crush on an eighth grade boy named Victor, and I fervently hoped he might ask my still-scrawny little self to dance.  My oh-so-helpful big brother offered to teach me some moves, just in case.  “The sign that a girl’s a good dancer,” he told me, “is that you stand on your partner’s feet, and no matter how hard he tries to get his feet out from under yours, you manage to hold on.”  We practiced until I was able to cling to his feet like a barnacle.

When Victor amazingly did ask me to dance, I was ready.  I climbed right on top of his shiny leather shoes and hung on with all my might.  Now, my brother had also informed me that a guy who was a good dancer would do his best to get his feet out from under mine.  Victor was indeed a good dancer.  It was almost like a duel.  Victor trying to escape, me trying to hang on.  Classmates inexplicably pointing and chuckling on the sidelines.  Most likely admiring my technique, I thought, until my brother confessed after the dance.

My disastrous dancing exploits followed me to high school, where a retired Rockette taught us jazz dancing in gym class.  Left, right, left, right…I always seemed to be going in the wrong direction.  I don’t remember the teacher’s name but I vividly recall her suggesting I might do better being in charge of the record player.

And then the square dancing, again with the left, right, left, right.  I had no clue where to go.  Why couldn’t we just have done sit-ups or something?

No more dancing for me, until I married a man who loves to dance.  Oh, boy.  Other women tell me how lucky I am that my spouse wants to take me dancing on Saturday nights when their partners prefer watching sports on TV.

Lucky?

In self-defense, I’ve taken every kind of dance class I can find.

Aerobics, Zumba, burlesque, belly dancing, salsa, and even some ballroom dance lessons we took together. I’ve developed enough decent moves that I can hold my own and even have a good time.

As long as I don’t try to dance in red high heels...
or stand on my husband’s feet...
or get involved in dance steps that require me to know left from right...
I think I can put my traumatic dancing past behind me and just get up and dance.




Until next month ... stay lucky!!! Speaking of luck, don't forget to enter this month's Rafflecopter drawing for two Amazon gift cards. You can find all the details on our Monthly Giveaway page. Or, you can go straight to the Entry Form. Either way, it only takes a minute or two of your time for a chance to win!

Until next month ... stay lucky !!







16 comments:

  1. Hannah thanks for my Monday morning chuckle! We took ballroom dance classes and that’s when I learned that I will always want to lead. And that my DH (who doesn’t care much for dancing) has more rhythm than I do. I lived for years thinking I was a good dancer with natural rhythm. Duh! Wrong!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is hysterical!! I hope you got back at your brother somehow for that little trick!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lol. I love this. I like to dance, but am so bad at it, while the dh gets these "ask me" looks from others. Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a fun story. I've done little dancing and always hoped I didn't step all over someone's feet when the time came to dance at an event.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh goodness. Brothers! I'm glad mine was younger and couldn't get me into any trouble.

    ReplyDelete
  6. thanks for helping me revisit my the high school nightmares, I mean memories.
    I love seeing couples who know how to dance move on the dance floor. Sweetie and I took a few lessons, but I'm pretty hopeless. And not into it enough to practice relentlessly. We have decided we love to dance "freestyle" and not care what we look like.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This cracked me up - an ACTUAL LOL - Great post. I love to dance, but I've always hated being asked to dance. I turn into Elaine from Seinfeld instantly 🤦🏼‍♀️💃🤷🏼‍♀️

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love to dance. My mom made me take ballroom dancing lessons in 7th grade and I took a class in college that I really enjoyed.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love your post! I needed to smile.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I couldn't dance to save my life. Admire those who can.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh my. I love your dancing stories! I met my husband at a countryn nightclub, the kind with a circular track dance floor. Some poor guy had just ended up teaching me how to two-step (and then disappeared) and then my future husband stepped up and asked me to dance. I said "Yes! I just learned how!" LOL

    ReplyDelete
  12. Love hearing everyone's dance stories! I really did come to enjoy it - very late in life! I guess when I stopped caring what people thought.

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a fun post, Hannah! Even though I haven't had any official training, I love to dance! My husband and I met through the Seattle rave scene back when we were young and could dance until the sunrise.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I have to dance from my wheelchair but have fun anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Great post, Hannah, as usual. I chuckled, and maybe I'll dance tonight.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Great, needed this brightness in these tough times.

    ReplyDelete

Due to the high volume of Spam comments, we are forced to install Comment Moderation and Word Verification. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.