Dance, dance, dance.......

I love to dance
I've always loved to dance
Ever since I begged my Mother to let me go to ballet classes when I was a little girl
I remember when I got my first pair of ballet shoes
I was in awe
They were the most beautiful things that I had ever seen
It didn't matter that they were second hand
It didn't matter that they were worn and a bit tattered
What matter was that now I was a real dancer
Complete with pale pink ballet slippers

I started ballet in grade 2
And continued up to grade 7
Achieving distinction in all my exams bar one
Dancing was my whole life
In a world that was full of chaos and uncertainty
It kept me sane
And grounded
It took me to another place
Away from sadness, pain and hurt

When I hit puberty and became a teenager
Dancing began to lose it's luster
Now all I was interested in was my friends, boys and my new past time of smoking
I was turning in too a bit of a rebel
And ballet just didn't fit in to that image
I remember my last ballet class
I was there under protest
The only reason I agreed to be there
Was that I was getting the results of my grade 6 exam
I had been out the night before
Drinking and smoking with friends
And hadn't had a wink of sleep
I was in a zombie like state
Not asleep
But not quite awake either
I got through the class
Feeling like I might pass out at any minute
There were 3 of us in the class
At the end of the hour our teacher gathered us to give us our results
'Two of you passed with a merit and one of you passed with distinction' she announced
I wasn't bothered one way or the other
So when she broke the news that I had got the distinction
I barely cracked a smile
I walked out of the ballet studio
With my certificate in my hands
I've never returned since

Even though I stopped studying dance
That doesn't mean that I have stopped dancing
I spent my late teens and early twenties throwing shapes in night clubs and at raves
And I've always had a sneaky dance in my bedroom with the radio up full blast
Then about 6 years ago
I set up a dance class for kids in my local area
Mainly hip-hop and street dance
I had no experience in that area
So I bought some DVDs and basically taught myself
I ran three classes a week
And thoroughly enjoyed it
The money was great too as I was working for myself
We put on shows
At Halloween and Christmas
I loved it
And I think the kids did too

I taught for a couple of years
Until things started to go pear shaped
I began to lose weight again
And over night
I lost my confidence
I just couldn't do it any more
The thought of standing up in front of a class of kids terrified me
So I stopped
And I haven't been back to teaching since

Since then I have done little bits of dancing
2 years ago I participated in a 1920's themed competition for charity
I've done Dance for Life
And Zumba
But mostly I dance on my own
Where I can really let go and just be my crazy self
I dance in various places
My kitchen
My bedroom
The shower
And my car
I love to dance in my car

You are probably wondering where this is heading
It is heading somewhere
I just thought that I would give you some back ground information first

It was yesterday
My sister and I had gone to yoga in the morning
Had lunch
And then gone for a walk with the dogs in the afternoon
Afterwards we stopped off at the supermarket
And I ran in to pick up something for dinner
When I got back in to the car
One of my favourite songs of the moment was playing
'Shake it off' by Taylor Swift
This is the part when I admit to really liking her
She is my guilty pleasure
Her songs are catchy
Her lyrics are clever
I love that she is a bit country
And I just generally think that she is super cute

So when I heard this song
I immediately started to dance in my sear
And singing along to the words at the top of my lungs
My sister passed no remarks
As she is used to my antics by this stage
I was really getting in to it
My arms were up over my head
My head was thrown back
My eyes were closed
Oh yes
I thought that I was shit hot
I was having a great ol' time for myself
When I opened my eyes at one point
I saw a guy walking by my car laughing his head off
'Nice moves' he said
As he walked to his car
Which was parked bumper to bumper with mine
I immediately stopped dancing
Mortified is an understatement
And I'm pretty sure that I turned puce red too
My sister was in knots laughing at this point
And it really was funny

They guy was getting in to his car
And put his cup of coffee on the roof as he opened the car door
I was trying not to meet his eye
But I could see that he was still laughing
He started his car
And was just about to pull off
When he remembered  his coffee on the roof
I started to laugh and pointed at his coffee
'Karma's a bitch' I said
He grabbed his coffee
Now it was his turn to be mortified
He jumped back in his van and drove off

I really enjoyed that little exchange
And the guy was not half bad looking either
We were going to follow his van
But being a stalker is not a good look
So we decided against it

So what is the moral of this story?
Well, the moral is to dance
No matter where you are
No matter what you are doing
Or who is watching
Dance, dance, dance!
You never know what it might lead to..........