The Cult of Ballroom

I should explain the title as it is an inside joke among a few of us at the studio. There’s a lady who got talked into taking lessons a few years ago. Some time last year, at the end of one of the studio festivals, when they were handing out prizes, she made a comment to us about her experience. Said something about it being either this or Scientology. We, of course, told her she had just entered a different type of cult.

Now, she’s signing up for coaching lessons, medal balls and even did another routine after claiming the first would be her last. She also joined the super secret club within the studio where you get special prizes for agreeing to sign up for lots of lessons. I kid a little about that last part. As students, we all know that this isn’t a particularly cheap hobby so the cost of lessons tends to be an easy subject to joke about. And yet we all keep signing up for more. Told you its a cult. But a mostly harmless one. We did make some additional jokes about it last night (when she had a double lesson) so it was fresh in my mind.

I was chatting with one of the other instructors before my lesson last night. She said something about pointing me out to her new students. Guess it is some kind of incentive when someone thinks they can’t dance. And there is truth to that – I had done nothing like this until the first time I walked through the door of the Famous Franchise all those years ago.

It does concern me just a bit though given all the years I’ve invested. Yes, it is likely true that someone can become quite an accomplished dancer but I don’t know about setting unrealistic expectations for the newbies. I mean it isn’t going to happen with just a few lessons. Its doable but it ain’t an easy road, let me tell you. And, even after all these years, I still find it weird that people would point to me. I know that probably sounds a little strange and I can’t explain why but it is what it is.

As to the lesson itself, it went well. I should have taken some notes but I’ve found dancing and wearing a mask isn’t the most comfortable situation so I usually just want to rip the stupid thing off and get out of there. I suppose if I just took a minute or so to write, it wouldn’t be that much of a problem. Not that I want to gross you out completely, but it is almost worse to take it off for a minute during a lesson because putting it back on just reveals how gross it actually is.

But OwnerGuy went through some refinements. I remember most of them and I’ll sit down later and transcribe the last part of it and add in notes where appropriate. This is his style. He goes through the choreography at light speed and then, as we work through it, he points out all the little things that either got skipped or overlooked during the first explanation.

Showcase is only three weeks away. Will it be ready? To be honest, I’ve decided to view this more like a Showstoppers when you get a limited time to learn a completely new routine. Normally, we’d have more than a month to get something ready for Showcase but that didn’t happen this year. But I’m not going to miss an opportunity to put something on the floor.

This is one of those times when I’m going to give myself credit and try to relax my unrealistic expectations of perfection. We did run through the whole thing a few times at the end of the lesson. It was sloppy and choppy and off time in parts. But for something we’ve only been working on for a few weeks, it isn’t in a bad place. Especially when OwnerGuy has tossed in some Silver VI and even a Gold Tango step. Things we’ve never seen or done before. I think it will come together and be reasonable looking by the time we get to Showcase.

And that’s where I’ll call it a post. At this time of year, the sun is lower in the sky and it starts to come through my office windows right at this time. Love the sun but it makes it hard to see the screen and it really heats up my back. Time to move to another room.