Nil Significat Nisi Oscillat

I'd forgotten how hot it gets inside these social dancing places.

I'd just come back from being a pallbearer at my great-uncle's funeral. This doesn't seem like the appropriate place to pay him tribute, but I will say briefly that he was a WWII fighter pilot and a great, adventurous man. Henry A. Lee will be missed. I think the best way to pay tribute to man with a full life is to keep living to the fullest after he's gone.

So, to that end, I bit the bullet and headed out to a dance studio near Penn Station. I've got a wedding to go to in a month, and the reception is going to be entirely swing dancing. I had a half hour lesson in the Charleston once, years ago, and various female friends over the years have tried showing me the basic step at parties. But I'd never taken a real lesson before.

Enter Yehoodi's "Frim Fram Jam." $8 entry, $4 extra if you want in on a group lesson beforehand. And it was a good group. We learned the basic triple-step/triple-step/rock-step, a 6 count circle, a tuck turn, two reverse turns (I think) and one random butt shaker after a backwards stop. Like most white guys, I'm not so good or enthusiastic when it comes to that last one, but the others I think I got.

And then the lesson ended and the dancers who didn't need it hit the floor. Before, I'd had this image of myself at the wedding sweeping unsuspecting partners off their feet. Then I saw real men (and a woman lead or two) actually doing just that, and I realized I'm probably not going to pull that off in a month. But I can least learn enough to hold my own.

Next time, I'm at the very least bringing my own water bottle, and possibly a towel. With the crowd like the one you see above, in a room with little to no ventilation, dancing like crazy people, it gets very, very warm. After just two hours, I was so drenched in sweat that I had to leave-- I was too embarrassed to ask anyone to dance with me until I'd taken a shower. I wanted to get to a couchsurfing meetup anyway.

At that meetup, by the way, I learned about an improv event unlike any other I've heard of. I'll be checking it out next Monday, after the table read for my next short film. Details about both of those things coming up soon!