dance dance revolution

so last night was the start of a new era.

strictly ballroom
shall we dance
take the lead
dirty dancing (1&2)
dance with me
footloose

i wouldn't consider them largely influential films of my history... but...



a friend and i heard about a ballroom dancing class in a building by the post office in our neighborhood. so we decided to go. it was dark, so the "purple building before the church" clue wasn't super helpful, but we made it there. the first floor was a men's locker room of some sort - so we went up the stairs. at the top of the stairs was a door. i opened the door but stood out of the way and my friend looked in and said it looks like an apartment. i looked in and there were two people sitting on a couch. there was a tv and a coffee table. so there we were standing on the steps with the door flung open staring back at the people on the couch. hah. aaaawkwwward.
but i asked if they knew anything about a dance class. they said that we were in the right place.
then other people started coming in. they were all changing into dancing shoes in the little living room "lobby" area. and there was a sign that said "please barefoot" (directly translated, but it really meant just without your street shoes) but we didn't know about that and there we were with our muddy kicks from walking in the rain to get there.
so i finally got up the nerve to just ask what we were supposed to do. and they all were really nice about it and treated us like sock feet were a viable option as well.
so then we went ahead and entered. everybody was super friendly and a few even spoke some english.

but i was a little skeptical, i must admit, when they started the warm up with the macarena.

however, as the night wore on we learned to waltz. there was almost even numbers of guys and girls. so we didn't have to do the whole invisible partner thing or dance with each other.
then we learned the rumba.

i left totally jazzed about this.
it may be really dorky, but i am so not caring.
i used to have a favorite pillow case when i was in elementary school (that's a weird statement) and it said, "gotta dance" on it. i think that is my life's adage.

why am i telling you this?