Swing Dancing last month

yes I'm long overdue with the promised stories. So here we go, as much as I can remember anyhow.

For me it was something of an extra birthday celebration since my birthday had been just a couple days before we all went out. I had had a very busy day that day, running around all morning, DFW tea in the afternoon and swing dancing that night. I also ate SO much food between everything. I was rushed getting to swing dancing because I got home all of 10 minutes before I had to turn around a leave again. Long enough to comb my hair, touch up the makeup, give the "kids" a few minutes each of undivided attention, then off and running again.

We all met up at IBC in the Commons area to carpool downtown. Before dancing we went to dinner at Pei Wei, a good oriental food restaurant. I didn't order too much food since I had eaten so much at tea and was not going to be able to take left overs home because I was on my way to Denver the next day. So I ordered some edamame that I shared with folks and some fried rice. Finished the edamame but barely touched the rice.

After dinner we headed off to the swing dance event. We got there a little bit before 8 and waited for them to open the ball room doors. There was a lesson from 8 to 9 and I took the class since it's been three years since I last went dancing. Turns out I remembered quite a bit more than I would have expected after no practice for so long. So I took the class, helped some of my fellow Thrivers get the basics down and all that.

The actual dance started around 9 and we were there the whole time. I guess about 20 or so people went all together so it was a good turn out. I had a blast dancing the night away. Danced with many of the guys form our group and some of the other folks who were there. No flips and not many dips, but lots of spins and turns and some of the more complicated moves. About halfway through the night they did the birthday ring (Swing City always used to do this too.) Rod, one of the guys form our group dragged me out to the center of the ring even though I wasn't going to participate in that part of the evening. but once I was in the center of the ring, there was no getting out of it. The whole dance worked just like it always did at Swing city did. they played a good long song and it was rotating partners. Someone would come out dance with the birthday folks (there were a few of us) for a short while then another person came in to the center from the ring and stole the birthday guy or girl. I was worn out after that dance! I think I danced with more people in those few minutes than I did all evening long!

We had some very good dancers in our group, who knew all kinds of fancy stuff that had learned from two stepping. Two step and basic swing steps are very similar so the different moves are very interchangeable between the two styles of dance.

all in all it was a great night of dancing and after it was over we headed to Denny's for a late night snack. Some of us got desserts, some got breakfasts, and I ordered an appetizer platter since by now I was very hungry again. While at the restaurant, we came up with the idea to do a demo in Thrive Sunday morning to show people who didn't come what they missed and to try to drum up interest for the next dance night. So Sunday morning in class we had two pairs, of which I was a part of one of them to demonstrate Swing dancing. Then we jumped into a spur of the moment salsa demo (which I really just did the cha cha since I don't know salsa) since our next dance outing is going to be salsa dancing.

And that was my dance night. I realized how much I miss my dancing and I'm all the more determined now to find a group here I can join. Lucky for me, one of the Thrivers is a member of the Dallas swing Dance Society and told me how I can go about joining if I want to. I haven't yet just because I'm so darn busy lately but I am certainly going to look in to it!

Kelley