Strictly Ballroom

From all I've been told, I'm doing quite well for someone who has never remotely tried formal dancing in the past four decades of life.

However, the past six weeks has revealed a few things that I didn't really think about when I decided to take dance lessons on a whim starting this year.

There's a scene in Rocky III where Rocky Balboa's former bitter rival turned good friend Apollo Creed has Rocky swimming in the pool. His friend Paulie asks Creed why he's got him swimming, and Creed responds something to the effect of, "He's using muscles he never knew he had."

These dances, especially the Latin ones, really utilize those glutes and hip flexors. Dancing never crossed my mind as cross-training, but I'm figuring this will come in handy in my future running, swimming and biking.

Another is the whole notion of leading. I'm happy to be a follower; in fact, that is the role I feel most comfortable in - ready to pitch in wherever while flying under the radar.

Here, you as the man have to be the guide, the lead. Keep your frame solid, and lead your partner where you want to go. And it's not particularly easy mindset-wise.

At least I've gotten over the stepping on the toes thing; that was foremost on my brain the first couple of weeks out. Now it's a matter of being something of a middle-of-the-packer amongst back-of-the-packers dance-wise. There are some in the class who are having a dickens of a time getting the steps down, and I try to guide them best I can with my limited knowledge.

Then there are those who have been at it longer than I, or who have been dancing with a partner (a significant other of some sort) and have a great level of comfort with them. I feel funny leading these people around, being so relatively inexperienced.

Finally, there's a mantra that's not the general mindset of most of my other athletic pursuits, but that mindset is well expressed in the words of Simon and Garfunkel:

Slow down...you move too fast

Gotta' stick to that beat, whether it's a lazy waltz or an energetic rumba or cha-cha. One of my kindly partners has been pointing this fact out, and last week I tried to take my time, against my prior instincts. I think I did a fairly decent job.

With that said, these routines can be pretty exhausting. Makes you wonder if someone could combine the idea of Latin dance and fitness...oh, dang, it's already being done.

Ahh, well, happy stepping to you all...