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1 November ~2009
The unusually heavy snow last week for this early in the season melted off the roads by Friday night, which allowed me to take the dogs out a couple of times, and attend Halloween dances Friday and Saturday nights.
I was numb this morning from dancing at the Rose from 8pm to 2am. I took a very slow walk down to the Greenbelt with the dogs in the clear, sunshine morning, which revived me a little. At least I was hung over from the physical and emotional effort from dancing so much, and not from alcohol. I am three months from not having a drink in 10 years.
Last night was the big Halloween party at the Rose, on October 31st and a full moon. I had a great time dancing with all the ladies in their costumes. One woman, dressed with what I think might have been a fairy or a ballerina costume(puffed out short white dress and white nylons that didn't quite reach her dress) said she was from Manhattan, and that I would have to teach her the triple step. She kept the beat perfectly, and I could tell she had danced before. Eventually I discovered she could lindy swing, and when the band played a song too fast for the triple step, but just right for the lindy, I searched her out to dance with again. She was awesome, and one of the peak moments in a long fun evening.
Dancing is all about connecting with your partner and the music. When my partners are new at it, all I can do is teach them a little in three or four minutes. When they are natural athletes or skilled at dancing, the experience can be magical.
I love the spontaneity of not knowing who I will get to dance with on any given night, and what their skill level may be. When it comes together just right there is nothing like it. It is not the same dancing with the same partner all the time.
Tiffany, the Lindy instructor at the Mercury once said a psychologist's study on life satisfaction found that dancers are among the happiest people. I know it sure beats sitting home on a Saturday Night and watching TV. I did that for a couple of weeks while recovering from surgery.
To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. ~Agnes De Mille
There are short-cuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them. ~Vicki Baum
Dance till the stars come down from the rafters
Dance, Dance, Dance till you drop.
~W.H. Auden
Dancing can reveal all the mystery that music conceals. ~Charles Baudelaire
Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather. ~Martha Graham
Socrates learned to dance when he was seventy because he felt that an essential part of himself had been neglected. ~Source Unknown
I put a camera in my pocket and snapped a few photos of the Halloween costumes at the Rose last night:
October 31, 2009, Grizzly Rose Halloween