So you think you can dance, part 3

West coast swing. That was to be tonight's one hour lesson at the community center. They have a calender online that tells us what styles of dance will be taught each night of the week. They typically mark them with (B) and (I) so we know which style will be taught at the beginner level and which at the intermediate level. Tonight's had no such marking--just the mention of some special guest instructor and lots of exclamation marks.

I didn't know what west coast swing was. I was pretty sure it would be nothing like the beginner's level east coast swing I had learned. A quick poke on youtube and I saw some beginner steps that looked vaguely like what I had learned for east coast swing. What the heck, I'll go.

I sat like most folks on the perimeter of the gym-now-dance-floor. Catchy music was blaring. Folks continued to slowly stream in from the ticket line. Twenty feet out from me was a couple who were clearly experienced at whatever dance they were practicing while we all sat or milled about waiting for the event to start. I felt a thump in the wood floor. I watched the feet of the couple. Was it her big heels? Was that part of the dance move? No, it was the wirey-haired gal to my left who thudded the toe of her bulky shoe roughly in time with the music.

A guy walked; I recognized him from my distant past.

I stared for a long time at the foot work and spins of the dancing couple. Was this west coast swing? I had trouble picking out a pattern. Eventually I wandered by them and asked what style they were doing. "West coast swing," she replied. Wow. Was I up for that? I was thinking No. I continued my wandering, heading in the direction of the exit. I crossed paths with the guy and said he looked familiar; had he worked at IBM? He remembered my name and told me his. Yep! Fun to chat with him and get caught up. I told him I was having second thoughts about this dance, that it looked more complicated than I was up for. But after talking with him, I thought I'd stick it out.

Shortly after, the announcements started and we were split into beginner and intermediate groups. The gal leading the beginner grouped asked for a raise of hands of those of us who had never learned west coast swing. I was one of the 15 out of about 40 of us there who raised my hand. Another of her beginner questions got my hand up, too. Then she said, "This is one of the two most difficult dances for newcomers to learn." She went on about how it took her three times (lessons, I assume) till she was able to remember the moves herself.

She grabbed her male partner, called out, "Here's what we'll be starting with," and did a highspeed set of dance steps. From her mannerisms and style of speech that she'd used minutes earlier to have playful interaction with the gal leading the intermediate team, I first thought she was just doing that to freak us out and make us laugh with tension--that's something I would have done as an instructor, then reassure students that, no, we weren't really going to do that.

But then she repeated some steps in slower motion and asked us to follow. I followed once. Simulteneously, I thought it through. The full thought was "I really don't want to expend the energy to learn this thing which looks confusing to me already." The short version was "I'm not up for this." And so, as she repeated the instructions and asked us to repeat the steps, I stepped out of the ring and headed back to the ticket table. "After seeing what what they're doing tonight, I realize I'm just not up for it!" We had a pleasant exchange with my assuring them I'd be back another time. Got my money back and headed on home. I was already sleepy enough to pull over somewhere and take a nap. Yep, not the right evening for west coast swing.