Week 17: Learn 2 or More Fancy Dances

Here's a neat fact for you numerology junkies.  17 is the only known prime which is equal to the sum of the digits of its cube.  And they say math isn't fun.

Drawing for this week, is ping pong phenom Duc who reluctantly agreed to draw after candy was promised.

It was a lie.

The result:

The "or more" just screams unbridled foolish optimism

So there we are, lots of opportunities to skirt the definitions.  What is a "fancy" dance really?

Perhaps we should put it to a vote?

I'm sure facebook won't let me down this time

Well, in a surprising turn of events, facebook turned out to be very little help, unless you count "Donnie Osmond" as a type of dance.  Nevertheless I persevered, and with some reaching out to people in the know, was able to find a place that offers free dance lessons.

The Where
Deep in the heart of Colfax, next to the, not really historic, Fillmore auditorium lies a surprisingly sizable building apparently devoted to fancy dancing.  The clothed kind even.

The Denver Turnverein (which is German for something I'm sure), is a building/club devoted to dance and cultural events, but mostly dance.

Also, free parking

The good people at the Turnverein, hold free, or extremely cheap mass dance lessons seemingly all week long. 

Also, apparently fans of extraneous quotation marks

Anyway, with luck on my side, I decided on a couple dances to lean.  The Lindy Hop, and the Fox Trot.

The Who
Obviously, finding a place to learn to dance was a critical step, but an easily overlooked component is having someone to dance with.  So I recruited a gorgeous dance partner.

Hint: She's the one under 50

Now, finally, I would have someone to witness and tell the tale for generations to come, of my legendary dance ability.

Legendary doesn't have to mean good

The What - Lindy

With the two key ingredients ready it was time to make a piping hot bowl of Lindy Soup.  Upon arriving we met a wonderful and kind dance instructor who graciously informed me that I would, in fact, be terrible. 

I probably should have been paying attention at this point

After teaching us the initial steps we then lined up in two giant circles and proceeded to switch partners for the better part of an hour.  Because, what is better than stepping on one person's toes?  Stepping on 20 peoples toes of course!

The Verdict
 The Lindy is a swing derivative, following a "Step, Step, Triple Step" rhythm and very hard to do apparently.  Twenty introductions and twenty apologies later I was left with a vague idea of how the dance flowed, and enough shame to fill 2 catholic churches. 

The What - Foxtrot

Now this was more promising, a old timey dance for old timey people.  Surely, this, plus my extra day of dance experience would yield some actual dance skills.   The fox trot had a lovely lady instructor who opted for parallel lines instead of circles for dance lessons:

"Maybe, the foxtrot is a line dance"  Thought nobody

 
We were again taught the steps for a number of forms of the Foxtrot, a much simpler pattern, that I still completely failed to master.  Apparently, counting to four is just not my strong suit.  Regardless it was a wonderful time, and we opted to stick around for an actual dance being held after the lesson.

That's right folks, your humble narrator attended an actual ballroom dance.

And, lo the angel did break the 2nd seal

The Verdict
Life, and dance can be fun, if you stop expecting to be perfect at it.  The dance itself was full of songs for other dances I did not know.  So it was like my old high school dances except I was standing against the wall watching people dance and wishing I knew how.  Actually it was exactly like my high school dances.

Except for maybe a slight age difference.

I guess I could call it ... my Senior Prom

Yeeaaaaaaaahhh