Dance Lesson #1

So Eric and I had our first dance lesson today. We left the boys with my mom and dad a half hour before the class was to start and drove the seven miles to where the class took place. Yes, Eric was a little antsy to get going. There was one car in the parking lot, so I made him drive around a little bit before going in. There were a few more cars when we got back. There were a total of seven other couples there. The first dance we worked on was the foxtrot. We did the basic (slow, slow, quick, quick), the quarter right turn (which was harder than it sounds) and the swing step (which is just a step back and forth). We already knew how to do the basic, so that was easy. The swing step was easy, but the quarter right turn gave us a little trouble. We smiled and were patient with each other during class, and I was quite proud of us. Then we moved onto the swing dance. Not to be confused with the swing step of the foxtrot. The first step we learned was the rock step. For some reason, Eric had much difficulty with this. It requires you to stay on the balls of your feet, and Eric kept wanting to step out with his heel. On the way home, we both had ideas about what the other was doing wrong. That was fun. When we got back to my mom and dad's house, we tried to show them what we learned, but it was harder to do than we remembered. So we were frustrated and gave up. (read: I wanted to strangle him) We went home, and after supper, we decided to practice. We have videos of the teachers demonstrating the moves. We practiced for an hour and a half, and it was so! fun! Really. We watched the video several times, and then we got up and imitated it. The boys thought this was great fun, as we have never really danced in our kitchen before. Blake was so excited that he threw his dominoes all over the dance floor. We had to stop to do Ring Around the Rosy a couple times, and to remove Blake and his wooden train from the dance floor, but after awhile, he lost interest. We were able to put the moves we learned together and to music! We practiced over and over. We laughed and lot, and stepped on each other's toes a little. I think we both realized that neither of us is perfect and we can have fun with it while we are learning. I think this is going to work out to be my favorite Christmas present ever.