This Might be your Last Dance...

The whole idea of this blog was to keep things kinda' light. Dancing is fun and we're not professionals so we don't even have income hanging in the balance when we get out on the floor. Of course, the stated purpose of Blue Suede Souls is to talk about our experiences with dancing and dance is a lot like life - there are good times and not-so-good times. June has brought a few of those not-so-good times and I thought that I should write a little bit about them.

I've never been much for musicals. Maybe the cynic inside me has a problem letting go of what he considers reality. To be a true fan of musicals you've got to be willing to totally suspend disbelief not because stunning special effects demand it but because some part of you believes a bad love affair, a rotten job, or even a pact with the devil can be resolved with the right libretto. Growing up the accepted response to hearing anything about a musical was an eye-roll and a derisive snort and I have to admit that even now I wouldn't call myself a fan of the genre. What I would say is that dancing taught me respect for the men and women who can perform a hot dance number under the hot lights with whatever props and cues Rogers and Hammerstein concocted to forward their plot. As I started to dance I started to rent a few musical classics and among those one of the best was Singing in the Rain.

On June 17th, Cyd Charisse passed away at the age of 86. She famously danced opposite Gene Kelly in the Broadway Melody number in Singing in the Rain and later co-starred with Kelly in Brigadoon. It is women like Charisse who gave me a real respect for the 'follower' role in any dance partnership. Ginger Rogers is famous for saying 'a woman has to do everything a man does, only backwards and in high heels' and for Charisse (at least in Singing in the Rain) you can add without being given star billing to that too!

Somehow Cyd Charisse reminds of Betty Hutton. I don't know that they were similar in any way but a Charisse quote makes me think they just might be. When asked to compare dancing with Astaire and Kelly, Cyd responded "…it's a lot like comparing apples and oranges. They're both delicious." It's good to be that naughty while seeming so nice.

Another loss that struck me in June was the death of Bo Diddley who succumbed to heart failure on the second. Recently we've been delving into West Coast Swing and rockabilly which meant reacquainting ourselves with some classics. Diddley's signature rhythm and musically encoded sense of humor are so integral to the kind of dancing we're focused on that I couldn't help but feel saddened when I heard about the great man's passing. I also couldn't help but notice the irony of the fact that he was stricken with a stroke while touring Iowa and recently Iowa has been bedeviled by flooding, an affliction of its own arteries.

A final wrap-up of this depressing little entry is the fact I mentioned above. Back in April we visited Iowa State University to attend Hawkeye Swing Fest 2008. The majority of that event was held at the Iowa State Student Union (ISU) second floor ballroom. Well, in June the campus of Iowa State was flooded - including (I assume) the ISU. Since the ballroom was located on the second floor it's hard to know how badly it was impacted but it's hard to imagine that a dance floor would whether the sort of humidity it'd be exposed to when the building that houses it is flooded. I guess nothing is permanent - even the floor beneath our feet - so every time the band strikes up a tune, maybe we all ought to get out there and dance once more…you never know when it might be your last dance.