Was dancing a part of your growing up years? What did you like about dancing? What were some of your favorite songs of styles of music to dance to? Where did you dance? Did you dance at house parties, sock hops, teenage centers? How good of a dancer were you? Where did you learn to dance? Who taught you your best moves? Who was your favorite dance partner? What made him/her so fun to dance with?
Maybe you hated dancing and dreaded going to parties where people expected you to dance. If so, tell us about that. What about dancing did you dislike? Did you enjoy watching people dance? Maybe your beliefs prohibited you from dancing? How did you feel about that? Did you secretly want to dance?
As you can see, this topic is wide open, so pick a thread and allow the prompt to take you to familiar or, maybe, even unexpected places as you write about the topic of dance in your life. Tell us about your experience with dance in the comments section below. I can’t wait to read about your best moves.
photo credit: Invitation To Dance via photopin (license)
2 Comments
Fredricka
All I ever went to is dances when different people had them. Did all kinds of dances. Even the monkee & the swim. Nice slow dancing is what I like. Sometimes they had square dancing. Know there were all kinds of dances out there & always will be.
Brenda O'Connor
Dancing
So many visions compete in my mind when thinking of dancing: my mother doing the Irish set dances with her cousins, The Tres Bien Ball, square dancing my way through a day of make-up gym classes, Ed dancing with Kathleen at her wedding, my dancing with Ted at his wedding, Ed and I dancing so many times in so many venues, but, most of all, my mind wanders back over 60 years ago to the “Wednesday Night Dances”.
Mid century modern doesn’t quite descibe the hour of lessons before the dance. Hazel Danehy, locally famous for her brother leading Jackie Gleason’s orchestra, taught 12 to 15 year olds to dance from 7:00 until 8:00 each Wednesday night at the red clubhouse. The “Mexican Hat Dance, Hokie Pokie, and Bunny Hop were her favorites though we also learned a non descript “slow dance”.
Few actually ever learned to dance well, but the Sullivans: “Big” Peggy, “Little” Peggy and Joanne were quite good. Paul Kilgarrif could dance; Ricky Doran, Jack Kenny and Red Sexton, too, but Charlie, Bob and Denis were another story. We danced together later on at the Friday Night Dance for 16 and above, and then again on Saturday nights as “grown-ups”.
We laugh even now at Hazel’s students moving around the floor, missing beats, or slightly out of step. We are hardly an advertisement for her teaching skills, but always we enjoy ourselves and each other as we make memories or relive those in our hearts.