The Dance of Life ©

Many years ago I began dating a man that I'd met through friends at a nightclub. We'd been going out for a while, but had never actually danced together. When we finally got up on the dance floor one night, I wanted to laugh out loud at his antics. 

"What a clown!" I thought, "He's certainly got the wackiest sense of humour."

But after two minutes, it became obvious that he was in fact being quite serious...and I was stunned by the shear uncontrolled mayhem of his movements. My boyfriend's dancing was so atrocious that he was in danger of maiming people within 3 metres of himself.

I blushed with shame and humiliation...How could I be dating someone who danced like a spastic chicken? (One gets upset over such important issues when one is young.)

I never did go dancing with him again, but despite his lack of dancing ability, we dated for almost two years.

Dancing is a funny thing isn't it? We have our own mindsets about what is acceptable dancing and what isn't. We know when people are older simply by their dancing styles.

Have you ever found yourself in one of those situations where you walk towards someone in a public place, and end up doing a strange, awkward little dance as you try to step past each other? Backwards and forwards you go, mirroring each others steps and mumbling apologetically when you finally get by? It almost seems like some kind of terrible walz don't you think?

It kind of got me thinking then about what other parts of life are like a dance.

Could walking barefoot on the bitumen on a hot summer's day be likened to a "Polka"?

Could you seem to be doing the "Cha Cha" when a bee gets down your pants?

"Tap" might appear the moment a cockreach enters your line of vision.

When you slip-over in the bathroom, or tumble down the steps and try desperately to regain your balance, would you appear to be doing the "Jive"?

I personally think the "Bump" from the 70s was invented by someone who had spent way too much time standing up on public transport!

And then I've seen girlfriends of mine doing the "Twist" in those dreadful dressing room mirrors as they try to see if their bottom is too big in those new jeans.

This whole thinking process commenced when we were getting renovations done at work and there were two men putting cables up in the ceiling cavity near my desk. I said to one fellow, "It sounds like you're giving dance instructions," when he called out to his workmate, "Just twist again, like you did last time!" ©