buzzkill

A fine lesson in humility was learned today. I had my first Tango class. Now, mind you, I'm a pretty good dancer. I can dance to house, hiphop, electronica, salsa, samba whatever. But those are very free form and don't always require the geatest amount of discipline. With those forms of music I can always find the beat or what James Brown would say, "The One". Tango, that a whole other can a worms. Tango is so subtle in its gestures yet has this refined intensity, if there is such a thing and I have found to be quite difficult to learn. I know it was only one class so far but damn, I felt like I looked like Jerry Lewis on acid. I could not find "The One", because tango has a tempo I'm not used to dancing to. I did enjoy myself. The class was fun and will continue for another 8 weeks. You know how when kids are dancing together, they do that stiff frankenstein-arms out to keep a safe edistance thing? That was our classwe were back in grade school. It was pretty comical. Afterwards they have a tango party where all the good dancers come out. Talk about intimidating, especially since my friend and I were the only beginners who stuck around. Some would say what's the big deal. You had a room full of men and women, who you know under any normal situation would probably never associate with each other. But on the dance floor they were these incredibly sensual bodies slowly deliberately, gliding across the floor. It was so fuckin' hot and I had no skills...yet. Fat, skinny, old, young, gay, straight, hairy, bald, they all they exuded sensuality.

One of the hottest dancers out there was this Kenny Rogers lookin' cat (yea they country chicken guy who sang "Lady"). He was confident. Me. Dare I even say, I was shy and anxiety ridden. NOw granted I do have my shy moments, just neveron the dance floor. But you can't fake the funk with tango and I felt like an imposter out there. The men are supposed to lead or set the tempo for the women. Like I said before I could not the tempo to follow, sooooo there was lot of stumbling and excuse me's with my partners. They were nice about it as well as encouraging. It was just a bit overwhelming on the first try. I'm in it for the long haul though. If I can get through my kicking boxing routines at the gym I can get though this. Besides we all need good dose of humility once in a while.

So gimme some feedback. What were those dreadfully awkard or humiliating moments that you thought you'd never get through but managed to get through much to your own surprise.