Shall We Dance?

I have always loved to watch dancing. Ever since I can remember I've wallowed in musicals, marveling at the dancing. I never took dancing lessons of any style as a young girl, but I did take a ballroom dance class at BYU one semester - however I tore the cartilage in my knee while skiing a few weeks into the class and had to drop it. I've always harbored a secret desire to be out there on the dance floor, gliding gracefully along.

About 12 years ago I went on a field trip with some sixth graders to the Pacific Northwest Ballet. It was the best field trip I've ever been on. We saw the dancers practice and perform. Then they had all the kids try doing different things. It was a very interactive field trip. I came home exhilarated and told Audrey that after the field trip I wanted to take ballet. She said she'd always wanted to take ballet also. Suddenly the words popped out of my mouth: "If you find us a class, I'll go with you." She hopped right on it, and the next week or so we appeared in an adult beginning ballet class. Audrey was a junior in high school, and the youngest in the class. There were about 6 or 7 in the class. The teacher was Julie and she was wonderful, and marvelously patient with the likes of me and my inflexible, out-of-shape body. Audrey and I had a great time taking that class together.

Sometime after Christmas Julie asked us if we wanted to perform in the end of the year recital for the dance studio. Yikes! I wasn't really excited about the idea, but decided to go along with the majority vote. Unfortunately the majority voted for the idea. Luckily Julie wanted us all to look good at the recital - after all, her reputation was on the line also. She choreographed a dance to the music Largo from Xerxes by Handel. It was designed so that there were very few times we were all doing the same thing together. She was so wise. We practiced and practiced. One of the moves we did was a split-fall, which is a way of landing looking like you did the splits. She found very pretty outfits for us - a black and white long sleeved leotard with a long skirt attached. They were about as flattering as you could get for a bunch of adult beginning ballerinas.

The day of the recital came. Ray came to watch - I'm not sure who else did. The dance came and went, and we did fine. The biggest reward for me was when Ray said, "I watched everyone dancing. Then all of a sudden one of the women did the splits. Then another did the splits. Then another. I thought to myself: what in the world is Diane going to do when it's her turn!!!" Lo and behold I did my split fall, which looked like the real thing. He said he just about fell off his chair. That was all the accolade I needed.

The next year we had to quit the class. These days Audrey and I get our dancing kicks by watching Dancing with the Stars together every week. Deep in the recesses of my mind lurks the secret desire: I wonder if they'll ever have the show Dancing with the Housewives?