.. Dance away the Blues!!!

“Put on your red shoes and dance the blues”... sang David Bowie. Well I don’t quite have a red shoe, and neither can I dance the blues. But I can sure put on my dancing shoes (which shows no sign of red on it), and dance away my blues.

I don’t quite have two left feet! No sireee I don’t! I am damn sure about it. And I am sure rhythm is always going to get me, and I definitely don’t dance like the drunk uncles at a weddings. I can sure hold a beat, though I am not quite sure I can dance to it!

There’s something liberating about dance. It’s no just rhythms and beats, or steps and choreography. It’s a mean to set your soul free. It’s an expression of self, of your inner feelings, a fluidity of movement, letting you express the words you cannot speak, through movement. 

It has become my happy place, where I can escape to when I feel the world is conspiring against me, when nothing seems to be going my way, when anxiety threatens to consume, when I am struggling to maintain my sanity, hen I feel broken and beaten. Dance has been my go to therapy. Helping me forget my cares, my pain, helping ride out the lows I go through, loose myself in the moment. 

And though I may have struggled to find my feet (even though I still contend that I don’t have two left ones), though I may have been intimidated by partners, struggled to pick up choreography, got in my head, let my nerves get a better of me, I can’t help my dancing feet, cause they can’t just stand still, dancing to the beats of my heart, the rhythm of the blood flowing through my veins.

Then you have friends who bring joy to you, helping you not just to dance but being there for you when you need them. Helping you find your feet when you’re little bit unsteady. Your support system that you didn’t knew you needed. Seeing them brings joy to you like a child meet his friend after a vacation.

And although you my have goofed up your certification, you yet look forward to giving the next level and in even more dance forms. And though you struggled to pick up a dance form you thoroughly enjoyed performing it. You totally immersed yourself in it, and was lucky to dance with your best partner, helping you put your best foot forward, especially in front of people who mean the world to you.

So in the end you can’t wait to see where the road leads me, where these dancing feet take you. Though I technically can’t really say that the journey has only just begun, because it has been a while I have been on this road, and boy am I learning and enjoying it, with friends who have become a dancing family. So here’s to many more memories to make, so many more dance forms to learn, so many friends to make. Here’s to dancing away the blues!

..when your Left can’t get it Right!!!

Dancing can be fun. Learning new dance forms, and brand new sequences can be quite exciting, going a long way to increase your dance vocabulary, your dance repertoire. But too much of dancing can leave you in one mass of sweat, can leave you confused. After all too much of a good thing ain’t always a good thing. And if you are a character who can’t dance for hours at a stretch, not because you don’t have the stamina or stomach for it (if the stomach can be used here), but because you are learning, and all the learning can leave you with a cognitive overload (there I go and use ID jargons).

So as you go from one dance form to the next you struggle to pick steps, things that are not quite rocket science (or maybe it is). As if dancing to the beat/count wasn’t confusing, you end up being perplexed and lost, trying to keep up. So your right is figuring what is right and your left simply can’t get it right. So you struggle to keep up with the class, finding yourself a step behind (like finally managing to figure out last weeks sequence this week) and off beat and time, not to mention you struggle to find a rhythm and rhythm ain’t going to get you.

But you soldier on and try to keep your chin up and not let your shoulder sag. Conversely your confidence continues to take a beating when you struggle to get it right. So you look exasperated at your partner, ending up apologising for your inability to lead her correctly, and muddling up your leads or even stamping her poor foot or banging into the next dancer. She’ll either try to calm you down and help you get it right, or she may just go and lead herself (instead you leading her), thus causing your poor confidence to take a beating.

So you end up looking like a poor lost puppy trying to make sense, like a deer caught in the headlight, who’s brains has turned to mulch, has frozen. Your hands and legs don’t seem to coordinate, move in the way they ought to. So you end being intimidated by every partner, especially if she’s a stunner who has mastered the steps that you’re struggling to figure out (forget learning).

But then you have to take a deep breath, calm yourself down. Remember the very reason you took up the challenge. Relax, you don’t have two left feet, literally and figuratively. You may take time to learn, but learn you will. You have your friends and partners to help you with it, and when in doubt ask for help, cause help will be given to those who need it the most (damn I can use this Harry Potter line in any situation) and of course the instructors are more than happy to help. So fikaar not and remember this is meant to let you unwind and relax and learn something new. It may take you time, you may seem exasperated, flustered, but you will eventually get it. So don’t you worry too much. And should you forget what you have learned before, you will figure it, that’s what revisions are for.

So in end, even if your left can’t get it right, you’ll learn, eventually. So relax and enjoy the process, cause in the end all will be well. And hey dancing is well and truly fun.