New Endeavor

I went to my first ballroom dance class tonight. It was a bit of a surreal experience. I arrived a few minutes early in the ballroom at Findlay Student Center. The lights were down low and three or four people were clustered by the door. The instructor, Marie, said she had trouble finding the lights. That actually gave the room a bit of atmosphere though. I'd been nervous about going to the class and that only increased when I saw how few people were there. I thought there were two couples and myself but turned out it was a married couple, one of the faculty, and one of Marie's regular students. Everybody seemed to know more than I did. Surprisingly that didn't make me feel more than just a bit uncomfortable. We started off in a line going through the motions of the first dance with Marie in front leading us. She went through the male part first (it was hard not to follow that piece but I really would be confused attempting both parts). I was able to do a bit of that step which was fairly basic but we went through two dances and the second dance seems to have erased any memory I have of the first. I alternated between dancing with Brian, Marie's student, and Marie. I did better with the steps than I thought I would but have found out that I have a lot of difficulty relaxing and letting someone lead me. The second dance we learned involved a right step, left step, one two three, pattern which I quite liked. Difficult to keep track of what you're supposed to do with your hands while watching your feet and trying to pay attention to the music. Tricky business. One of the faculty who I believe had done this before was fun to watch. She had a lot of flair in her dancing. Someday I may have flair. Right now I just have willingness to learn and a decent attitude. I believe I'm not going to let it bother me that I don't have a partner or that I'm not as graceful as the others. I actually rather enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to trying it again.