One of my roommates is in a dance class for her gym credit here at school. With this dance class she had to go to the local dance club The Tapestry Folkdance Center to learn an "ethnic dance". Well the Tapestry does all sorts of interesting dances and since I opted to go with her so she didn't have to go along, we chose the English Contra-Dance, thinking that it would not be that far out of our comfort zone. I think the real reason we chose it was because there were pictures of that dance class on the website and there weren't that many people involved and most of them there were girls so we thought we would be safe. Oh, were we wrong!
(Photograph courtesy of the Tapestry Website)
We expected to see about twenty to thirty people there maximum. There were about sixty to seventy people there. We thought girls would be in the majority - they were but only by two extra girls. My roommate and I went with another friend we coursed into going, and since our friend Roz didn't want to dance with a guy and I didn't want to dance with a guy - we decided to be partners for the first part and I would dance the guy part. That was all fine and dandy, and actually for the best since all I had to do was dance with old ladies and most of them were very funny. Roz on the other hand had to dance with creepy old men. Yep, I said it - they were a little creepy.
There was one man there who was about forty and he had the complete "fu manchu" mustache.
(Photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated CNN.com)
Now, Michael Phelps can wear a fu manchu anytime - this guy, could not. The man's was also fuller, and he didn't wear shoes. That's what really got us, he just didn't wear them - no shoes or socks. Can we say athlete's foot?
There were many other character's at the dance, like a cowboy in wranglers. Now, all for the boots and wranglers, but this is Minneapolis, Minnesota not Houston, Texas. I got the John Travolta "Urban Cowboy" feel, just a little too much.
(Photo Courtesy of Hot Movie Sale. com)
Once we all warmed up to our creepy men, we decided to have some fun with it for our last dance. Now, I was asked by a gentleman older than myself - I'd say he was late fifty's early sixty's. He did not give off the fun grandfatherly vibe, it was pure I'm dancing with a nineteen-year-old creeper vibe. He kept complementing me the entire time.
"You're pirouette half turns in a four beat are wonderful. If you can do those, you are good." It was beginning to be obnoxious, but he was my creeper and - I liked him. He was an extremely good dancer and had been going to the Tapestry for many years, so I finally got to dance the girl part - he could twirl me around and we danced the night away.
Thankfully, I will never see him again in my lifetime, or at least I hope not.
