dance like no one is watching

I enjoy "Dancing with the Stars". I love ballroom dancing and wish it was something everyone learned. I tried my best not to laugh while watching the line dancing while we were in Nashville. That just means that I was poking fun at something because I cannot do it. If it involves more than four things I'm out. Four is my limit. Remember my post from the other day? I mean it, four is it.

Last night I did the most Irish thing I have ever done on St. Patrick's Day and learned Irish dance steps. It was at our Quota meeting and one of our members is friends with a member of an Irish dance group here in Grand Rapids. Eight of them came to our meeting last night. First, they taught us the dance steps, then they shared some of the history and then they performed for us.

It was not like Riverdance at all!

It was a lot of fun, and the first step they taught us was a three-count. Yay! I can remember three! Then the instructor told us, even if you don't remember, no one will know. No one is paying attention if you're doing it right or wrong. That's even better!

The basic idea (and I mean basic) is similar to square-dancing. The foot movement is different, but the partners and complete dance is close (of course this is based on my fourth grade memory of when we learned square-dancing, but someone else said it too, so I must not be too far off). The foot movement is then related to clogging/tap. When you think about it, it all started somewhere and then cultures took it and molded it to fit their own style. That's what we learned last night about the history. These were waltzes that the French were doing, so the Irish sped them up and added their own music and viola! Irish jigs and fast feet.

We also learned that St. Patrick treated women with respect and taught that as well (here's the link to Wikipedia if you want to learn even more), so when learning the dancing we were told the woman is always right, as in to the right. Of course being a room full of women, we loved it!

One last thing; my favorite part of the movie, "Titanic" is when they are in the lower class deck dancing. I love the music and liveliness of that scene. Therefore I was amused when I came home to find Bill watching a documentary on the Titanic. And to top it off we are going to see a family of Celtic singers tomorrow night. Apparently Bill is the only one who doesn't want to go. Three of us are really looking forward to it, and I will probably be tapping my toes to the music.