Shall We Dance

Shall We Dance Slow, Quick, Quick, Slow, Quick, Quick, Slow That count resounded in my head all Monday night. As part of my summer of fun, a few friends of mine and I decided to take advantage of free dance lessons offered at MIT. Initially, I was actually a little confused when I looked online for information. One ballroom dance website had the lessons listed on Mondays and the other site had the lessons listed as occurring on Tuesdays and Thursdays. EUREKA! Surprisingly, Id made a discovery. MIT actually has both a ballroom dance club and team, ergo the two websites. Monday night, the Ballroom Dance Club offered lessons in Mambo. My friend Jackie and I checked them out in the Student Center, and we had a great time. Jackies a great dancer, so she made me look better than I actually am. She was also Dance Troupe president last year. Surprisingly, once you get an idea of the count, its not that hard to follow. By the end of the 1 hour lesson, we had a routine together (It also doubled as a pretty good workout as well) Aspiring ballroom dancers learn to dance the Foxtrot. Thats my friend, Spencer 07, on the right showing off his Dance 360-worthy dancing skills. Tuesday and Thursday nights, the ballroom dance team will be offering their lessons. I actually became intrigued in ballroom dance last semester when the team hosted a competition at MIT. Teams from all over the country were at MIT dressed in tuxedos and colorful dresses ready to vie for the number one spot. Next Tuesdays lessons will be about 2.5 hours long, but well be learning two dances. The American Waltz and the Bolero. Exciting! This summer, the teams will also be hosting parties where we can show off our new moves. Hopefully, I can make it to one of those. Speaking of dance lessons, summer bhangra lessons have also started. They will be every Wednesday night in Burton Conner. I might check those out as well. I also recently discovered the number of dance-reality tv shows on TV. Theres one on ABC, Dancing with the Stars, a new American Idol spinoff coming sometime this summer, and then my favorite, Dance 360 (Tag your man, Tag your man yes, ladies and gentlemen they do say that on national television). Any dancers out there want to share some advice to an amateur dancer ie me or any MIT folks want to talk about their dance experiences? How do they expect us to memorize and keep all these dances fresh in our minds without them all running together?