"Do one thing every day that scares you"
In his song ‘Sunscreen’ Baz Luhrmann advised, amongst other things, to “Do one thing every day that scares you”. This weekend I think I banked a years worth!! Supporting my ‘dancing-mad’ girlfriend Sarah, and armed with only 30 minutes living room practice at the ‘Mayfair Quickstep’ (!), I agreed to attend and DANCE at the Holidays4Dancers Durrant Hotel dance weekend with Flavia & Vincent. Yes – “Flavia & Vincent” – from Strictly Come Dancing!
What had I done!?...My comfort zone had well and truly “left the building”!
After two nervous hours in the ballroom it was VERY clear that the 120 dancers who had paid up to £400 per head for the weekend were – “DANCERS”……. REAL dancers with a full arsenal of finely tuned routines, skill, poise, and ability. I was in trouble – big trouble! Beads of sweat started to form as I nervously went through the “1-2-3, point, chasse, chasse – round, round, round, stamp, chasse, chasse…..” Mayfair Quickstep in my head. I had just 30 minutes of going through this in the living room on my own (with one eye on the TV) under my belt. Everyone else in the room danced 3-4 times a week and were throwing all sorts of advanced moves out there ------ hey, what could possibly go wrong!?!
10:45pm Friday 1 May 2009 – “the time had come”: The announcement that the next dance would be the Mayfair Quickstep resonated out over the PA and with a deep intake of breath I was out of my chair, on my feet and walking on to the shiny wooden ballroom dance floor with Sarah. Holy sh*t – this was it ….now or never – surely Baz Luhrmann couldn’t be wrong – could he??
The next 4 minutes are something of a blur. I was running on adrenaline and fear and think I performed what can only be described as the dancing equivalent of a 'car crash'. Nobody had told me that the whole idea of this dance was that it gradually got faster and faster and faster. I had just about mastered doing this thing at a snails pace at home and at the 3 minute mark I thought I heard Flavia Cacace say blimey that “Quick Stepper is so fit!” …… apparently it was more along the lines of “Quick! – I think he’s having a fit” :-)
The truth is that it wasn’t a complete and utter disaster – yes, I had lost my dignity and approximately 3 pints of sweat but I had kept moving in roughly the right direction, sometimes at the right time, and I hadn’t fallen over or passed out. In my book that was I “result” and I did get good points for effort.
As for the debate over Flavia comments ……. here’s the photo – I’ll leave you to decide: (‘Quick, put him in the recovery position before he swallows his tongue” I hear you say!!)
What had I done!?...My comfort zone had well and truly “left the building”!
After two nervous hours in the ballroom it was VERY clear that the 120 dancers who had paid up to £400 per head for the weekend were – “DANCERS”……. REAL dancers with a full arsenal of finely tuned routines, skill, poise, and ability. I was in trouble – big trouble! Beads of sweat started to form as I nervously went through the “1-2-3, point, chasse, chasse – round, round, round, stamp, chasse, chasse…..” Mayfair Quickstep in my head. I had just 30 minutes of going through this in the living room on my own (with one eye on the TV) under my belt. Everyone else in the room danced 3-4 times a week and were throwing all sorts of advanced moves out there ------ hey, what could possibly go wrong!?!
10:45pm Friday 1 May 2009 – “the time had come”: The announcement that the next dance would be the Mayfair Quickstep resonated out over the PA and with a deep intake of breath I was out of my chair, on my feet and walking on to the shiny wooden ballroom dance floor with Sarah. Holy sh*t – this was it ….now or never – surely Baz Luhrmann couldn’t be wrong – could he??
The next 4 minutes are something of a blur. I was running on adrenaline and fear and think I performed what can only be described as the dancing equivalent of a 'car crash'. Nobody had told me that the whole idea of this dance was that it gradually got faster and faster and faster. I had just about mastered doing this thing at a snails pace at home and at the 3 minute mark I thought I heard Flavia Cacace say blimey that “Quick Stepper is so fit!” …… apparently it was more along the lines of “Quick! – I think he’s having a fit” :-)
The truth is that it wasn’t a complete and utter disaster – yes, I had lost my dignity and approximately 3 pints of sweat but I had kept moving in roughly the right direction, sometimes at the right time, and I hadn’t fallen over or passed out. In my book that was I “result” and I did get good points for effort.
As for the debate over Flavia comments ……. here’s the photo – I’ll leave you to decide: (‘Quick, put him in the recovery position before he swallows his tongue” I hear you say!!)
posted by Hellman at 4:14 PM
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