the dance

I like to dance. I love to dance. And I especially love to partner dance. Swing and jitterbug are so much fun and, of course, the waltz is an all time favorite. It was my ill fortune to plight my trough to someone who doesn't, and rightly so, dance. Oh, he'll let me drag him out on the dance floor for what passes for dancing now and then and he even took jitterbug lessons with me/for me, bless his heart, but, alas, it's best left undone.

I feel myself lucky if I can manage a dance with one of the cousins during one of the family get-togethers but one night, I had the waltz of a lifetime.

I was lamenting my fate to a friend of ours and he said he'd take me dancing one night. He liked to dance and he was trying to get better and we could go to this club that had a night where they gave lessons of a sort. So I readily agreed. This particular friend is gay and the club was a gay club, which I knew of course but it made no difference to me.

So, the night arrived and he picked me up and we went to this club. They would run through about 6 pieces in a row of a particular dance so you could practice, change partners or not. My friend and I would take turns leading. Finally they got around to the waltz. We did a turn or two and then paused to rest so we went up to the balcony to watch the dancers below and Oh. My. God. there was a guy down there doing the most exquisite waltz I had ever seen. Movie style waltz. No doubt who was in control.

I had a serious want on for a dance with this guy. I was determined to get his attention so I focused my mind on him until he finally looked up and caught my eye. As soon as he did, I spun my index finger around in the universal gesture of stirring it up, then I pointed to him and then to myself and nodded. I'm sure the guy thought I was some sort of lunatic because I hustled myself down the stairs and as soon as the number was over, I basically elbowed all the other guys aside and said 'dance with me'.

“Um, I don't really dance with women”, he said, or something very nearly.

“Matters not to me”, I said.

The music started, he took my hands and off we went.

This was the most wonderful dance. He took me through some complicated turns and I didn't miss a step. I'm a fairly good dancer, or was, but that night, that dance, I was excellent. He was excellent. When it was over, I thanked him sincerely and went back to my friend.

And the night has passed into legend.