Dance experiences even before becoming interested

Spitfire

Spitfire

Well-Known Member
So what if any, was your experience with dancing even before you became interested in dancing?

When I was in the 5th grade our teacher did a brief hourly exchange of pupils with a 6th grade teacher one afternoon. Now, this 6th grade teacher was quite fond of music from what I recall and I guess dancing; she had us do some kind of group dance the name of which I can't remember or what it was we did. I just recall that I messed things up and I believe some of the other kids particularly some of the girls were not happy with me for this and it didn't help that as a kid I did not care at all for dancing. The only other thing I remember is that the song was You Butterfly by Andy Williams and one of the kids thought the singer was Elvis Presley. One of the girls quickly corrected him on the singer, though it is the type of song Elvis could have done.
 
Experiences before I got into modern dance in college?

I love this one, as a teenager I use to go to summer retreats where they would do a night of - of all things - square dancing! Complete with band and square dance caller. :shock: :D

It was an absolute hoot! Everybody had a great time....even the cool kids. :cool:
 
I remember dancing Swing in front of an audience as a kid... I think maybe sixth grade. Our teacher made us girls dance during half time of a basketball game. It was so much fun! I can remember the outfit that I wore, because my dad got the 50's costume from an employee of his. I was the only one with that type of costume on too lol! Everyone else had on plaid skirts or jeans. It was so much fun. I also did some Ballet and Jazz when I was a kid. I took a few Tap lessons, but grew to hate Tap lol.

I also took a dance class when I was trying to get a music performance degree eleven years ago. I must say it was the only class that I bothered to get up early for. It started at 7:30 a.m. Oh the good old days lol! But dance has always been part of my life though. My family was big into theater, so I was acting in plays etc. long before that.

It's funny when I tell people that I have known for years that I'm a dancer now, because they always ask me if I'm going to be on Dancing With The Stars lol. I'm like why do you say that? And their response is always... because you love entertaining.
 
Well, before actually focusing on dancing, my ex and I used to make the rounds at the state fair beertents doing foxtrot, waltz, and salsa basic stuff, the only things we knew, and of course stuff we made up (and I won't admit to knowing the twostep, I won't, I won't). Nobody was the wiser- they thought we were hot poo. Only when I actually SAW "real dancing" live, feet away from me, with my own eyes did I truly realize the folly and error of my wicked past. Ah, to have those braincells back... :D
 
In fifth grade they had this disco dance competition at school. My sister was very much into dancing and entertaining and she teamed up wth a friend and needed a third person. In the day of the competition I messed up and didn't remember some of the moves and we came in third place. My sister being a drama queen was crying in tears cause we came in third place.

I think that was my last encounter with dance and then I put my efforts in other sports.
 
Forget high school, where I was a complete and total outcast and never participated in any school function.

In college, the atmosphere was entirely different and I tried to turn things around. In junior college I attended a few of the dances and faked it as well as I could, but I had absolutely no idea what to do (just mimicked what I saw the other guys doing) and absolutely no idea what in the music to try to follow. As a result, I always had the horrible feeling of hanging out there completely lost and, despite my repeated attempts to find someone to teach me what to look for and follow and do, I ended up being certified as for 25 years as completely devoid of rhythm and incapable of ever learning.

During my early college years, after I had taken all the skin diving and SCUBA classes offered, I continued to avoid sports in PE by doing two semesters of ballroom dancing (at that time of ROTC and Viet Nam, PE was a strict college requirement for all males under the age of 21). In all those two semesters, I had no problem following the steps, but the only dance music I could follow was Tango.

I started learning to dance about six years ago. About ten years before that we took a couple classes in Scottish Country Dancing offered through the city. It's been a long, long time since I've done a set [spelling?], but at a family camp right after that, I survived a Virginia Reel OK.

Then ten years later I started learning to dance for real. Though it still took me a couple years to realize that I could.
 
had a few years of ballet as a little girl...then put aside all notions of being a dancer as the negative body image and self- consciousness about coordination settled in...spent most of my life thinking it was beyond me
 
I first got into swing dancing the summer before I went into college because my girlfriend at the time needed a partner for this choreographed routine that her friend's local dance company was putting on. Her regular partner was out of town for the summer doing summer gigs in Hollywood; so, I got stuck doing it. It involved something like six days a week for two or three weeks then there was a performance at the end of that. Lets just say that instead of listening to the music or really feeling anything, I just followed the steps that I was told and faked most of it every day of practice...and every day the dance director would change the choreography all the way up to a few hours before the performance. When showtime came the dance went reasonably well from what I heard, and we got good comments on the routine; although, I thought we did horribly and can remember being completely be out of sync with the other couples in the routine and even missing some of the patterns.

This somehow inspired me to pursue swing with the intention of being able to dance with my girlfriend at the time (who only knew how to do swing choreography). In college I started learning ECS and lindyhop in a social dance setting where you actually had to lead and the woman followed. This lasted for about a year. The only problem was that said girlfriend never wanted to practice and eventually broke up with me which lead to a 2 year hiatus of not doing any dance even with my second girlfriend. When that relationship dissolved, I finally decided to dance out of my own personal enjoyment instead of trying to impress lovers or other people. Now, I have been doing WCS for a little over a year, and it has been pretty fun.
 
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