Fellow blogger aFrankAngle allowed me (da-AL) to share his thoughts with you …
It all started on 5th January 2006. I remember hearing about the competition in the previous series, but on this night I wanted to see Kenny Mayne, a studio personality on ESPN. My wife knew even less, but she also watched. Now it was done.
After dinner the next day, we gathered in our family room. My wife asked, “Don’t you want to see how it ends?” I wasn’t interested because I saw what I wanted – but she wanted to watch – so we did. Since then, we can use our fingers to count the number of episodes we’ve missed of Dancing with the Stars (DWTS).
DWTS became a topic within our dinner group as several others watched the show. In 2007 (I think), the hosting couple hired a local dance instructor to give the dinner group couples an introductory lesson. A few months later, I purchased an introductory package of ballroom dance lessons for my wife as a birthday gift.
That initial purchase led to other lessons … and then more lessons. Who knows how much money we’ve spent on dance since then, but we are still dancing and having fun!
No – we don’t have any glamorous outfits – those are very expensive – but outside of lessons, we’ve purchased shoes and attended numerous dance events. We don’t compete or perform – so no need for the glamour and glitz. We dance for fun!
Ballroom dance is a journey and more difficult than one may think. I recall our first lessons were in April, so we were excited to dance at an upcoming wedding 6-8 weeks later. We struggled at the wedding, so the lesson learned was to continue maximizing the Safe House for Dance – the studio where we take lessons.
We continued our weekly pattern of a private lesson, a group lesson, and the Friday night socials. That’s how you learn to dance. That’s how you increase your confidence. By the end of summer, we were ready to again try dancing in public.
That was our breakthrough dance. We felt confident enough not to worry, wise enough to know we still had a lot to learn, and comfortable enough to laugh after mistakes – stop and start again. A month later we were on a cruise ship where we danced every day – and had dance friends on ships. The rest is history.
We still take private lessons – still attend groups – still dance socially most weeks – we still don’t compete or perform – and we still enjoy it. We have a circle of dance friends, and know many other because of ballroom. Life is good.
On his blog, A Frank Angle: Thoughts from the Inner Mind, Frank shares his honest views on a variety of topics. He frequently writes about ballroom dance – in posts such as Benefits of Ballroom Dance, A Dance with Grace and Elegance, My Close Encounter, A dance story: My attempt at fiction, An unexpected place ballroom dance led me, and Tango.
I couldn’t resist commenting. Very well written! http://yahoo.org
LikeLike
Thanks much, Jim 🙂
LikeLike
It sounds like a wonderful hobby to me. It gives you a circle of friends and must be great exercise too. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Indeed it does, Bun. I love it also for fact that it offers a non-verbal way to interact with my beloved husband. Words can be clumsier than dance steps.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a sweet sentiment! I’m afraid in my case, though, my dance steps are almost certainly clumsier.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bun,
The circle of friends has been one of the biggest surprises in our journey. In the last paragraph, there is a link to a post I did featuring benefits of ballroom dance. Thanks for reading.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That’s great. Thanks for the link, by the way.
LikeLiked by 2 people
My pleasure.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, practice makes perfect … or … just lots of FUN !!!
Great story about how one can start out viewing and, then, participating
in the very addictive world of dance. Well done, aFrank.
Isadora 😎
LikeLiked by 2 people
Isadora … Hey hey hey!!!! Many thanks for popping over for this post … and I knew you would enjoy it. Everything has a history, so thought I’d share mine regarding this hobby.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re very welcome, aFrank. 😎
LikeLiked by 1 person
[…] Daal @ Happiness Between Tails invited me to do a guest post about ballroom dancing. I invite readers here to visit the post. Daal, thanks for asking. Here’s the post. […]
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Frank – I hope everyone visits your wonderful blog!
LikeLiked by 1 person
And Craig and I have seen you dance beautifully!
LikeLiked by 2 people
That a way … how long have you been dancing ballroom?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Frank, I’ve never danced ballroom – just flamenco & Argentine tango. My husband & I took flamenco lessons for about 5 yrs. Then moved onto partner dancing of Arg. tango about 6 yrs. ago. Ballroom dancers have to learn so many dances!
LikeLike
Daal,
That’s interesting … this summer we took 4 group classes for beginners of Argentine Tango … interesting … may be learning more this fall. The feel for ballroom was helpful. Still dancing?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hope you enjoy it. Yes – in fact, we spent tonight practicing sevillanas & tango for a dear friend’s upcoming birthday celebration.
LikeLike
Thank you, Chris 🙂
LikeLike