SWING me baby!

Swing me, Baby
Wow, that was a blast! I can't believe I actually did that! There is a church downtown that is currently doing a "swing dance outreach" that meets every Tuesday night. My little sis and her friends went last week and had a blast and I really wanted to go and try it out because I love watching dancing, whether it’s on TV or in person. I wasn't sure what expect from the evening as a whole and from the dancing itself. I invited a couple friends to come along with me and my sister and her friends. We get downtown and gather in two big circles, "girls on inside and guys on the outside," the male instructor was yelling. There were two instructors, a guy and a girl. Both were pretty young, not any older than their twenties. We had a group of what had to be about 50 couples which made hearing instructions a bit difficult. Once we were matched up with our partners they just went at it. I suppose I had expected some type of "beginner" lesson where they would teach you the same thing over and over again until you had it down pat. I don't tend to think of myself as "slow," but after tonight I must learn to face up to that very fact. Me and learning don't flow smoothly together, I need to take my time. I am thankful I had a partner who knew a little already and had some patience. "Okay everybody, this step is called the 'pretzel step.' You start out in this position, doing the basic step and quickly lead into swinging your partner like this." As I watched the girl being flung all over the floor I could here my cocky partner behind me saying, "Oh that's so easy, and how about I teach you a harder step." All I'm thinking is, "I have no idea what I am doing here! Let me at least watch what they are doing and see if I can get even the basic steps down." We would be taught a step by observing, then have a chance to practice it ourselves. Before you knew it, they were onto the next step. After a while my partner just walked away, which was okay, I think he was becoming bored with me not knowing what I was doing. I was totally okay with that because it allowed me to dance with a friend I already knew so I felt more comfortable learning. Once there was kind of a lull in the teaching we would just "free dance" trying to remember the steps we were taught. It was nice because it gave my partner and me a chance to perfect at least one main step which we did so many times I hope I will always have that one memorized!