Dancing

I love dancing!  I have always loved dancing.  You should know that it started with my friend, Adria.  Her mother would send her to this little dancing school on the corner of 231st Street and White Plains Road.  I wasn't normally allowed to go but since I was being watched by her mom, I got to watch.  I loved everything about it.  I loved the shows and the moves.  I would watch thinking, "I could do that."  It started there.

I was alive before MTV.  I would watch U68 on the channels that weren't channels yet.  I sometimes question my rhythmic nature.  If you ever question a latent quality, wait for it.  It comes with your children.  You see yourself in them.  The way my children love music and dancing.  Me?  I loved to practice dancing.  My church didn't allow dancing.  My life was a Footloose movie.  For my graduation from eighth grade, I convinced my father to go to the dance.  He went with me.  I secretly danced in the lobby.  I got caught and felt so guilty.  I wanted to dance so badly.

All throughout high school, I only went to the day time mixers.  I didn't even go to prom.  I wasn't allowed.  Friends would ask me why I wouldn't be at the dances.  How hard is it to explain in a city like New York that dancing was verboten in my world?  The reasoning behind the forbidden dancing is that it is too provocative.  Modern dancing was too enticing.  My logical brain agreed.  My selfish young teenage self just wanted to dance. 

In college, I went to every dance.  I was in Eta Omega Tau Sorority Incorporated.  I loved every single pink and black minute!!!  There were dances!  So many dances to support the other organizations. I was living in New York City, the place where some of the greatest dance clubs exist!  I danced!

I like to go to weddings.  My children understand that when music comes on that I can dance to, I can't promise not to dance.  Janet and I are known to have impromptu dance parties in our living room.  I can probably dance a whole entire night.  Working as a high school teacher, I have had the honor to "work" at 9 high school dances.  God is good to me.  I am hoping to dance again and to keep on dancing until I no longer have the ability to dance anymore.  My soul dances.  All of this to say: Always keep on dancing.