| 
14 April ~2008
Someone told me of a monthly dance, with swing and twostep and a live band, that several hundred people attended. I thought I would check it out, since it was on my side of town. The only thing that made me nervous is that it said 'dress to impress,' and no jeans allowed.I gave it a chance - stayed for three whole songs. There were indeed a lot of people. What turned me off was a man and woman singer were the extent of the band. A cd player was their backup music. All the songs were slow paced, which the people on the dance floor seemed very happy with.
What finally did it was when the vocalist hit the last notes of his song while raising
his left hand above the level of the microphone he held in his right. I then noticed his puffy black hair and I had this terrible feeling that he was a Wayne Newton wannabe.
I had to get out of there now. The lady that checked in my coat and baseball cap couldn't understand why I was leaving so soon. I told I had somewhere to go. She tried to convince me to come back when I was done.
I went home and changed into my Wranglers and got my straw Justin hat and within 20 minutes was on the road to the Grizzly Rose, wondering how something that sounded allright could turn into a very bad dream, only it was real.
I like the western style of the Rose, and the local character - from the neon signs and cowboy hats to the longtime staff of waitresses and bouncers, the small group of bikers who hang around by the bar, and even the Sheriff's deputies who come in to see if anyone is out of control drunk, and stand around and enjoy the music and sights like everyone else.
I have been going there for 18 years - more than half of that time with my wife, until she found something better. What that meant for me is I moved from a table to the back, shoulder against a post or with my elbows on the rail. It also meant I could dance with anyone I wanted, and could go home whenever I pleased. Drinking nonalcoholic beer (Odoul's) makes staying out late and driving home relatively safe.
When I got in I went to my favorite spot on the back East side, leaning on the wooden rail and looking for ladies sitting alone or in groups at tables, which is good. An equal number of men and ladies is not good, but if the women are beautiful you can always ask them to dance when they are away from the table. Sometimes they say yes.
I am picky about the songs I dance to. I like fast two steps, but the lady I ask has to be skilled to do those. A triple step with a good hard rhythm is the best - I can teach ladies to dance in one song if they just relax a little, as long as they can keep the beat.
I take my chances in asking ladies to dance with I have never met before. Usually it works out ok, even if I have to stop and start now and again during the song to get them going on the same beat as mine.
It does get tough on the thankfully rare occasions when my new partner has the beat, but goes very slow. I then have to hold myself back during a fast song that has the potential to get your heart racing like freedom.
Its true that I experience memorable evenings by having the courage to ask women to dance that are new to me. That's what happened around 11 on Saturday, when I asked a young blond and found she was something very special. Her spins and timing rivaled what my exwife and I had together after years of dancing.
All eyes were on her as the band played a fast Stevie Ray Vaughn song, and it all was an incredible thrill. You take the good with the bad - this one dance more than made up for all the dances with strangers that don't go so well.
She asked my name, and said hers was Katy. I asked if she was a gymnast, or athlete, because of her balance and timing. She said no - she just has been dancing all her life.
It showed, that's for darn sure.
I put up with the men because you have to, but I go there for the women and the music and the mystery - the spontaneity of not knowing who you will meet and dance with, or what band will be there and what songs they will play.
Mystery is essential to a rich life. Wealth and comfort and predictability can be its enemies. Simplicity and attentive eyes and an open and passionate heart and are its allies.
The greatest beauty is effused with mystery.
It just wasnt there for me with the Wayne Newton crowd.
Uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don't let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity.”
- R. I. Fitzhenry
Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the ploughshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring...”
- Henri Frederic Amiel
seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer.
- Ken Kesey
The touch of an infinite mystery passes over the trivial and the familiar, making it break out into ineffable music... The trees, the stars, and the blue hills ache with a meaning which can never be uttered in words.”
- Rabindranath Tagore
“Wisdom and deep intelligence require an honest appreciation of mystery.”
Thomas Moore
There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good. ~Edwin Denby
I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance. ~Friedrich Nietzsche
Never trust spiritual leader who cannot dance. ~Mr. Miyagi, The Next Karate Kid, 1994
We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance. ~Japanese Proverb
Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. ~Dave Barry
Dancing is like dreaming with your feet! ~Constanze
The truest expression of a people is in its dance and in its music. Bodies never lie. ~Agnes de Mille
There are short-cuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them. ~Vicki Baum
To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. ~Agnes De Mille
Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another. ~Author Unknown
Dance till the stars come down from the rafters
Dance, Dance, Dance till you drop.
~W.H. Auden
It takes an athlete to dance, but an artist to be a dancer. ~Shanna LaFleur
Stifling an urge to dance is bad for your health - it rusts your spirit and your hips. ~Adabella Radici
Dance first. Think later. It's the natural order. ~Samuel Beckett
Dance is the hidden language of the soul. ~Martha Graham
Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery. ~Martha Graham
I do not know what the spirit of a philosopher could more wish to be than a good dancer. For the dance is his ideal. ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance. ~Ezra Pound
Talk about dance? Dance is not something to talk about. Dance is to dance. ~Peter Saint James
To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak. ~Hopi Indian Saying
Socrates learned to dance when he was seventy because he felt that an essential part of himself had been neglected. ~Source Unknown
.