Ah, don’t think I’ve got around to mentioning this yet, but last Thursday after yet another successful marriage preparation session, Chantelle and I headed off to Dance Domain down the main road of Somerset West, in order to partake in our first ever dancing lesson, something Chantelle has been looking forward to for absolutely ages now! :)
Considering the seriously negligible amount that we are paying for these first three one hour long introductory sessions (and this was after Chantelle once again did such an awesome job around the negotiation table), it wasn’t really much of a surprise to find that the Dance Domain dance ‘studio’ is based in a rather run-down, grimy basement of a rather tatty-looking building, and on entry one can’t help but feel a little nervous at the type of tuition you would get from such an obviously low-cost operation.
Thankfully though I’m rather glad to report that once again, you really can’t judge a book by its cover, because quite frankly, despite the rather unglamorous surroundings they find themselves in, the dance instructors themselves seem to be absolute gems!
Our tutor for the night was the lovely Tanya (or Tracy perhaps? Goodness I’m bad at remembering names), a regte Afrikaanse meisie that has been blessed with tons of patience (well with me around I guess you need it!) and some really quick feet, who set about quickly making us feel at home and finding out just what it is that we wish to learn or rather get out of the training experience as a whole.
Of course, I really haven’t given the whole dancing for the wedding thing much thought at all, but evidently Chantelle already has quite a bit, and so after divulging all our information to Tanya, we embarked upon our quest to better our basic dancing level, in other words formalise our currently rather unimpressive and unstructured two-step attempt (and maybe, just maybe, throw in a new turn and twist here and there while we’re at it!).
One doesn’t realise just how hard it is to do things right when it comes to dancing properly, from holding the correct frame to body orientation to correctly and quickly moving one’s feet, it really is quite a difficult skill to master. Thankfully though Chantelle seems to be finding her feet in this new world a lot faster that what I am, so at least I’ve now got two people smacking me behind the back of the head in order to remind me to do things the correct manner first time around, and slowly but surely I am in the process of getting it right I’m pleased to announce! :)
Sure we’re still moving around the dance floor at a fairly optimistic snail’s pace, but we’re getting there, so much so that our instructor was actually quite amazed with our progress after just one hour’s tuition. But such hard work I tell you! Muscles that aren’t used to moving like that, feet that aren’t used to quick-stepping like that, man, what a work-out! (And it’s not just me – even C complained about ending up a lot more sweaty than what she thought she would.)
The end result of the night’s endless repetition of “slow, slow, quick quick” was however the fact that we both thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed the experience, enjoyed working with Tanya and will definitely be back this Thursday, aching feet at the ready! :)