Kneecapped

If you've read our blog for long, you're aware that Tuesday is lesson night and from Kelly's entries you might even be aware that we're hard at work learning a few Rockabilly aerials. Progress has been – a little slow. Aerials are, at their heart acrobatic – ever notice that you don't see many middle-aged acrobats? There's a reason for that: old knees and elbows. As a result of practicing one of our maneuvers I'm suffering with a bit of a knee injury – an indiscriminant pain associated with deep knee bends or putting pressure on my kneecap. It's a hassle and a painful reminder that the old man ain't what he used to be.


Via circular route I'm back at an observation that I've made from time to time. When you're out dancing as often as we are you get to see the characters that populate the floor and you find they fall into a few categories. There's the youth who are filled with the vim, vigor, and not to mention a bit of vitamin A. Usually their youthful exuberance vastly outweighs their manners and I still maintain that they ought to be equipped with those beepers that tell you a truck's about to back over your foot unless you get out of the way. There are the pros, they're on display and can't be bothered to have the floor manners you know they were taught before their 'career' became dance and dancing became secondary. There's the great, soft middle, out to have a good time like dancing always should be and not too worried if they know this step or that. And then there are the silver bullets, seventy-something but pretending to be seventeen they're gifted with the knowledge of all the moves the kids are doing and all the reflexes of an octogenarian. To paraphrase the Ghost of Christmas Present, of all these I urge you to beware the later the most for ignorance is written on his brow.

Problem is, I'm left wondering about myself and that ladder case now. I mean should I be worrying about learning jumps, tricks, and aerials? Am I beyond the age where having less than two feet on the floor at any time is a risky proposal? Will the foundation give if I tax it too much? To be honest, I hope not. I'd hate to have me sitting on the sidelines whispering to my partner, "…get a load of that joker…"

For the question of whether I should do an aerial, the answer is clear enough. There's an old, standby rule that always gives the answers to any dance question regardless of if it pertains to doing aerials or the foxtrot. This golden rule is stated as follows:

If you're in somebody's way, you shouldn't be doing it.

So, if I'm so bad at the foxtrot that people are having to go around me all the time and there's nowhere on the floor I can avoid creating a traffic jam – I shouldn't be dancing the foxtrot that night. If I'm trying to do my prize winning double hepplewhite headstand that the cool high school kids dig, but I'm at risk of kicking somebody in the ear – I shouldn't be doing aerials. And if I might face-plant my partner 'cause my knee won't hold – well, you get the picture.

I know I can obey the golden rule. I do it every night I'm out dancing, regardless of how many people don't. Whether or not my knee will hold up is a matter of conjecture and exercise. Hopefully, once I've conditioned myself and let the damage I've already done heal a bit I'll be able to figure the move out and add it to our repertoire but that's a question that time will have to answer. Until then it's practicing timing and pretending to do the big lift.