Same Moves

Last night, I was supposed to meet my partner from my Showcase dance class for a rehearsal before my S&T class. I was hanging around waiting for this guy to show up in our usual studio. Which also happens to be Mr. David's usual studio. And lucky me, there he was, twirling around by himself as per usual.

He walked over to me, pulling the earbuds out as he got closer. He asked me how my day was. I told him it was bonkers considering my students almost burned down the school with a bag of microwave popcorn.

"How long have you been teaching?"

"Oh, I'm not a teacher. I'm the head of student services at a private film college."

"Film? Wow. So how long have you been there?"

"Almost a year."

"Never a dull moment?"

"Nope."

I gave him my best smile. He put the ear buds back in and floated back to where he had been twirling.

I ran downstairs to see if my Showcase partner was in another studio. I poked around and saw that he was in an Argentine Tango class. Why he would tell me he's available when clearly he was not is beyond me.

So I moped back upstairs and sat for a while. I was trying to screw up the courage to go into another corner of the studio and practice my Cha-Cha by myself. I was even considering pulling out my iPod and putting in the earbuds but not actually have anything playing just so it would at least appear like I've got my shit together.

But before I could do anything, Mr. David came over again.

"Do you Rumba?"

I think my heart stopped for a few beats.

"Um, I don't know. Sure?"

He took my hand and we walked to the far side of the studio. He started to explain the rhythm of the dance, which is a 3/4 timing just like the Waltz.

We began a basic step. My feet cooperated with my brain (hurray!) and we maintained a nice rhythm. He lead me into a few turns and crossovers (I'm actually retaining proper dance terminology!) and at one point he asked me if I was sure I hadn't done this dance before. Yup, I was pretty sure.

We did some more moves when all of a sudden, the lights in the studio flickered off and on.

"Did you see that? I think we just had a brown out."

"No David. I think you're having a stroke."

He stopped and looked at me and I managed to keep a straight face for about 2 seconds before I burst out laughing. He started laughing too.

"And it runs in my family too."

Then I was the one who stopped to look at him, and he almost managed to keep a straight face. We stood there in dance hold laughing for a good minute before we regained our composure and continued on with our Rumba.

We started doing some fancier stuff. There was a lot of spinning and arm intertwining and miraculously, my brain continued to maintain complete control of my feet.

At one point, I just looked into his eyes as he was explaining something. If you asked me to tell you what he was saying, I honestly can't remember. I do remember wondering what it would be like to kiss him. Which resulted in a large grin on my face.

I noticed he suddenly started to lose his train of thought. He stopped talking all together and just looked at me and smiled.

And then, it was all over. I thanked him and mentioned I was going to try to find my partner again and he said he was going to get back to his routine.

I went back downstairs to see if my jerk store of a partner was available and nope, he was still fully participating in the Argentine Tango class. Geez!

At that point, there was only about 15 minutes before my S&T class started so I just sat down and watched Mr. David twirl around some more.

A few minutes later, this nice old lady came into the studio. She had her hair piled-up-to-there, full make-up, and was wearing a shiny brown polyester shirt with the collar popped up and green dress pants. She was a pretty rad looking lady. I took a guess she was there for S&T. She must have joined the class I had missed last week because I saw her doing the same choreography from the week before.

Mr. David saw her too and went right over to her to say hello. And then I saw him ask her a question, take her by the hand and start into a basic Rumba step.

GAH!

That quickly burst my bubble. So much for feeling special and thinking he asked me to dance because he noticed my raw talent (when I'm not busy crashing into him).

I guess he busts out the same moves with all the ladies. Even if they are 108 years old.