Don't Miss Your Dance

This being my first year at ISU, I attended quite a few conferences and events at the beginning of the year. However, I soon realized that I could spend my time on more entertaining things. When asked to write about one of these events, none really thrilled me to the point of writing about it in a blog. On the other hand, I did go to a swing dance club that provided an interesting experience.

I come from a small high school. We don’t have that many extracurricular activities available to us, so when we were offered a swing dancing class, I was among the many who signed up. I had a blast, and the steps were fun and fast. It stands to follow that, when I saw a swing dance club advertised at ISU, I jumped at the opportunity.

It was sort of a BYOP (bring your own partner) kind of thing. I convinced my roommate to go with me, and together we snatched a couple guys to drag along. We had already missed a few weeks of the class, but the advertisement said that each class was essentially the same and that the basic steps would be taught each class. Perfect. We strolled in a couple minutes late, prepared to be swept off our feet by the rhythm. What we found was that the “basics” had already been reviewed, and the dance was in full swing. (Pardon the pun).

There were probably about thirty people there. Unfortunately, the ratio of guys to girls wasn’t exactly perfect. This meant that a few girls had to either sit out or find another female partner. Each time the whistle blew, we had to switch partners. This meant that even though we had brought partners, those same partners were quickly stolen away.

For those of you who have never been to a swing dance, there is essentially a basic step that is repeated throughout any tricks or swings your partner decides to pull. This makes it difficult for girls to dance together because the steps are completely and utterly backwards.

You can imagine the scenario. Not only were we not familiar with these basic steps, but, every once in a while, we would have to do those same steps backwards. Needless to say, we had a ton of fun while making complete fools of ourselves.

However, I did learn some lessons from the whole experience. First, swing dancing is a blast, even when you are not so sure of what you are doing. Second, bring more than one guy to a swing dance with you. And lastly, don’t be afraid to dance outside your comfort zone. You might be pleasantly surprised by what you find.