Thursday, November 8, 2007

Something I Never Thought I Would Do as a PhD Student:

Take a tango lesson. Yes! Tonight in class we discussed this book this book. It's a really interesting book, actually, and not at all academic or jargon-y so it was a very easy, quick read. It's even a flip book! There's a little picture on the bottom right corner of every page, so when you flip through the book you can see tango steps in action. Which, needless to say, was pretty distracting as I was reading, because approximately every ten pages or so I would decide to look at the flip pictures again. I couldn't resist.
Anyway, it was a book I was looking forward to discussing in the first place, but then class ended up being extra awesome because my professor for that course happens to be a competitive ballroom dancer, so she invited another ballroom dancer to visit class today. The two of them coupled to demonstrate some steps, and then he actually instructed all of us in some of the basic Argentine tango steps for the last half hour of class. It really was a useful way to gain a better understanding of the book, and I had so much fun with it. I am absolutely terrible at any sort of partner dancing, though, because I have a really hard time following instead of leading (yes, I realize that with all of my controlling tendencies, this probably should not come as a surprise). Tango was especially hard for me, because the entire point of the tango is that the male is supposed to be in complete control. The whole time I was like, "Damn it, I'm trying to lead again, aren't I?!" But it was fun. Especially because we also had wine to go along with the dancing. Every week should be like this! [P.S.-The instructor had us switch partners every few minutes, but coincidentally, guess who my first dance partner was tonight? Yup, the guy who I dreamt about last week. When I realized that we were going to end up as partners, I couldn't help thinking, "You have to be kidding me! This is getting really ridiculous!" First I have a really inappropriate sex dream about him, and then we end up having to do this sexual, dominant/submissive dance together?! What are the odds?]
I realized tonight that I really miss dance classes. I grew up going to dance classes two or three times a week (and pretty much daily in high school), but the last time I took a formal dance class was my first semester of college. I'd love to get back to going to some sort of class regularly. I just think dance class is so much fun, and a challenging but also sort of effortless way to stay in good shape. And after tonight, I'm thinking that some sort of ballroom dancing class would actually be really fun, and I don't think you need a partner to do it, I think people go solo. The problem is that I have no idea where I would go up here, and I always find it kind of hard to find a class that is geared towards adults and actually teaches adults (as opposed to the 15-18 year olds that seemed to frequent all the "adult" dance classes I've seen in suburbia). Plus I'm sure it would be really expensive. Still, something ignited in me tonight and I felt a feeling I haven't had in ages and thought, "Wow, I really miss this." Maybe someday, that mythical "someday" where I actually have free time and money, I'll be able to get back into it again.

Anyway, I'm feeling quite content right now. Happy with the dancing...feeling a tiny little buzz from the wine in class compounded by the fact that Rae came down for a couple of hours tonight and took me out for a belated birthday dinner and margaritas at a (fake) Mexican food near my apartment...excited that I can actually sleep for a full 8 hours tonight instead of having to wake up early or stay up late to scramble to finish some project...and the weather guy on NPR even mentioned that there is a chance of snow flurries tomorrow evening! I'm pretty sure it won't actually happen. Still, it's blowing my mind that it's the second week of November and there is already a chance of snow.

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