Roll Out the Barrel

Dancing is a unique activity for so many reasons; it’s a sport, but a glamorous one. There are dance forms, but improvisation makes each dance truly your own. It is a representation of one’s own expertise and taste, but individual skills and musical preferences are most definitely combined with your partner’s. That last one can be the hardest to maneuver around; partnered dancing is well, partnered.

A good lead and follow are obvious signs of accomplished partnered dancing, but there are so many other things to consider: does my bling get in his way and vice versa? Do our individual expressions match? Should they? What’s our style anyway? If one person wants a formal ballroom style and the other wants funky, that isn’t going to jive. Or rumba or cha cha, hahaha.

Luckily Gary and I see eye to eye on style, and we are very considerate of each other when it comes to personal additions. Where our differences lie is in our musical tastes, and for us, music dictates what dances we love.

We do have similar musical dislikes; for example, neither cares for slow ballads. One of our clubs plays Lady in Red just about every time we go…Gary and I simply sit it out, and all others of that ilk. We most likely will never learn Night Club Two Step because we just don’t like what you dance it to.

If I had to sum up our “like” differences, I would say I learn toward the minor key and Gary toward the major. I love what minor chords represent to me…mysterious, languid, sexy. I also love polyphonic layering. For musical styles, that translates into Latin and middle eastern music, for dance that would be cha cha, salsa, rumba and WCS, at least, the way we dance WCS.

Gary loves what he calls happy music; rockabilly comes to mind, that big, bouncy, happy beat that sets your toes tapping and says get out there dude, and DANCE. He loves all varieties of swing for that reason, and the foxtrot too. I think for him these dances are American nostalgia at its best, whether that is the Lindy hop or a vintage foxtrot.

If I had learned to dance as a single woman, I’d have probably gone straight to Latin and spent my dance years at salsa clubs, Gary, most likely, would have happily swung the night away. But something wonderful happened when we flexed to our partner’s preferences. I can’t say that I love the foxtrot…I’m working on it. But I do love rockabilly swing! You can’t be sad dancing it. And going to see and dance to Terry Lee and the Rockaboogie band is one of my favorite things to do. It’s because of Gary I appreciate all things lindy hop and vintage dancing too.

As for Gary, if he doesn’t love the cha cha and salsa, he appreciates them. I think he’s proud he’s learned them. Gary didn’t grow up with music like I did, and learning to hear the dance beat when bathed in polyphonic rhythms is hard. I think it’s also difficult for Western men to let go of “hip swishing” as bad…and let me tell you, Gary now does a mean Latin sway. He also has very much enjoyed adding tango moves to our WCS…the Madden WCS is very different from how most people do it, and I know he loves our unique interpretation.

So that brings me to our latest dance addition. We’d agreed on not adding any more new dances at present because learning jumps and dips is rather a form unto itself. But then I noticed Gary talking about Oktoberfest, and how cool that would be to go. After that came hey Kel, take a look at this Weird Al vid…all polkas. I may be a bit thickheaded, but I think I get it. :-)

If I was resistant to rockabilly music, I was more resistant to polka. I don’t hate it, but, um, polka? Really? Traditional polka looked rather like horses galumphing across the plain. But I tried it. And guess what…I loved it! Like rockabilly swing, it’s exuberant and joyful. And I realized it’s not so much galloping as prancing. Gary and I laughed and laughed during our first lesson and our teacher Melissa did too…you can’t NOT laugh while doing it She said all cultures have some kind of polka-like dance…even my beloved Latin. We’re both looking forward to going to an Oktoberfest this year and doing some polkas…that will be fun.

The best thing, though, will be seeing Gary’s ear to ear grin.