This has been the week of dance. I was actually waiting to write this entry, hoping to post pics of Jenn’s daughter dressed up in a Dalmatian tutu for her recital on Saturday, but I forgot my camera. Argh. Suffice it to say, it was overwhelmingly cute. Little girls bashful and bouncing onstage. Still – Dalmatian tutu. Totally kills me. You had to be there. They even had floppy ears! Spots drawn on their faces! Little tails!
Jenn and I went to OUR dance class Tuesday for a marathon session that totally wiped us out. For the last month we’ve been going to Bollywood classes at a temple in Riverside. The music is awesome. The dancing is impressive. It’s a fusion of Bhangra with some hip-hop moves, with music from the soundtracks of various Bollywood films.
It is kicking my ass.
I started taking dance classes (ballet and tap) when I was seven. My first recital was performed to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and I had a rainbow tutu. I was the tallest (the only time in my life I can say that was the case – it was because I was seven and the other beginners were five and six). I got to wear a ton of makeup. It was awesome. I eventually went on in middle school and high school to take some pretty intensive dance courses (and some really easy ones) – but I can’t remember ever learning the choreography to a six minute song in three sessions. It was more like, if we got four counts of eight nailed by the end of the practice, we were doing well.
So after the second session, when we were four minutes into the song and I still didn’t have the steps down for the intro, I decided to give it one more shot before calling it quits, and I’m glad I did, because Jenn and I taped the last two classes and practiced a bit on our own and it feels a lot better. I’m starting to relax into it. I tried to reassure Josh that I wasn’t going all Zelda Fitzgerald on him and trying to recapture my lost youth, but he doesn’t care. Bollywood dance involves a lot of booty shaking – that’s good enough for him.
The more life moves, the more I see these hesitant moments as opportunities for growth. I know. It’s pretty disgusting when I phrase it like that. I think what I mean is, I’ve learned to not take that feeling of being out of my depth at face value – instead, it’s almost a promise that I’ll improve.