Dancing!

I love dancing, it makes me happy. It’s a great way to socialize and catch up with friends and it’s also a good workout! I started dancing four years ago after years of thinking it was something I would not enjoy. I never felt particularly coordinated and at weddings and suchlike I always stumbled around and stepped on my partners feet. 😂

I joined a jazz ballet class when I was in my teens, I think I lasted all of one class! I was too shy, could not follow the moves easily and all the other girls seemed to float like fairies through the various moves. So I quit. Fortunately, over the years I have become less of a quitter when I try something new and different.

When I realized I might actually like to learn dancing, I thought I’d try out rock & roll and jive dancing (although since then I have picked up the walz, evening three-step and some progressive dances to add to my repertoire). The classes go in 6 week rotations, with a beginners class then the improvers/advanced class afterwards. When I started it was beginner’s jive. I’m glad that was the case as rock & roll was a lot harder to learn with all the spinning around. I think it took around 4 months for me to stop losing my balance when spinning and another year or so to feel like I was a competent dancer.

I know a lot of people join dance classes and then leave early on when they struggle to learn the steps or dance in time with the beat. Others are too shy (like I was) to join a dance class or think they have to have a partner to join. You don’t. Most of these classes give you the opportunity to dance with everyone, so you are never left on the outside looking in.

However, I and many others have found a partner at dance class. I met my partner 3 years ago, I’d been going for a year and he joined two years prior. That’s the joy of meeting someone at class – you both have at least one thing in common and as you get older it is more difficult to find common ground/interests with potential partners.

My partner does not want to feature in any of my blog posts and that’s fine, this is my interest. I love writing and sharing thoughts and ideas with people and he’s been learning a musical instrument. It’s lovely to have something in common and also lovely to have something that is uniquely our own pursuit.