Let’s Dance

Daily Prompt: Let’s Dance

What are your earliest and fondest memories of dance?

I love the sound of a record. MP3’s, CD’s, and tapes do not have the same qualities as a record. Growing up we always had a record player.

My parents would dance to their records often. Which inspired me and my siblings to dance to these records. I remember being taught to dance by my dad, brother, sister, and even babysitters. Music was a very big part of our lives.

We danced less as we moved to tapes and CD’s. Was it because of the medium? Probably not. We got older, our schedules got busier.

But my dancing did not stop.

When middle school came around, I got to go to my first dance. It was held in the school cafeteria one evening. One student was the DJ, spinning 45’s all night. We mainly danced in big circles, with more adventurous students moving to the center to showcase their dancing. I think I went into the middle once. Then there were slow dances. Most slow songs I had a dance partner for. Our class was close-knit, so even though I didn’t have a romantic attachment to anyone, I still got asked to dance many times.

Then there were high school dances. My first high school had actual sock hops, since the dances were held in the main gym and no one wanted the floor marked up. So at the entrance of the gym there sat hundreds of shoes. I find this funny because we all spent lots of time deciding what shoes to wear to the dance. We were only allowed to wear shoes at the Winter Formal, since it was in the girls gym.

Half way through my freshman year, we moved. At my new high school we were back in the cafeteria for dances and there were more cliques at the dances and it was harder to get a slow dance partner, but we did get to wear shoes.

In college, in New Orleans, I got to dance at bars with liquid courage. I really didn’t need to alcohol to dance. Nothing like dancing in a club on Bourbon Street regularly.

This all eventually lead to meeting Mercy. After a rough breakup, I started clubbing with friends. At least 5 days a week I would go out drinking and dancing. Even if my friends weren’t dancing, I was. One night a friend introduced me to his roommate, Mercy. We hit it off and talked the entire night. She was in a relationship, but I wasn’t really looking at the time anyway. The next few nights we danced a lot. She got scared away because she thought that I wanted it to go somewhere. Even though I was attracted to her and really enjoyed her company, I really just wanted more friends and dance partners. We didn’t hang out anymore, but we still would see each other periodically due to mutual friends.

Almost a year later, Mercy called me at work. It was common knowledge that I worked at a popular local store. We went out that next Sat, saw a favorite local band’s final performance and we danced.

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6 responses to “Let’s Dance”

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Sammy D.

February 28, 2014 at 6:22 am

Hi – Alexia – I enjoyed your post, and had the same experience with sock hops in the gym then “shoes ok” in the cafeteria. High school was rough – only the handful of really good dancers took to the dance floor, and I wished I was one of them. But later in life, I found my dancing courage; took many classes and enjoyed them all. New Orleans seems to dance day & night!

- Alexia Jones 13th Matron
  
  February 28, 2014 at 5:59 pm
  
  Thank you. Luckily I rarely felt self-conscious when dancing, even though I wasn’t one of the cool kids or outstanding dancers. I loved dsancing the night away in New Orleans. My last three months that I lived in New Orleans, I spent 6 nights a week on Bourbon St. Good times!
  
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