The Etiquette of Dance

After our American River adventure, we came home, ate a quick supper and then headed downtown to go to a contradance I found out about online. When we lived in Virginia I had gone contradancing with friends several times and loved it. As we drove downtown, Kevin reminded me what a favor he was doing in agreeing to go with me and that I should never doubt his love.

We were the only people under the age of fifty at this dance. Most of them were much older than that. Kevin said he really enjoyed the dancing itself, learning all the different formations. He loved the live band, etc. But he hated the “dance etiquette” that dictates that you have to change partners whenever asked. Basically, Kevin hated the fact that all these old men were constantly asking me to dance with them and it would have been “rude” for me to say no. (What could I do? The first guy who asked me was bald except for a long scraggily gray ponytail. He also had big purple beads around his neck and really bad breath. It was very gross, trust me. I kept telling Kevin, “Do you think I wanted to dance with him?”)

Another thing about contradance is that you have to make eye contact with your partner or else you’ll get dizzy. Kevin said it was very weird to have all these strange ladies making eye contact with him while twirling. “Especially when this one elderly Asian lady said ‘Oh, you’re a tall one,’ and started gazing deeply and rolling her eyebrows.”

Back to this whole “dance etiquette” thing . . . Although contradancing is a fun activity in and of itself, one of the primary reasons we went is because we enjoy being together. Our goal of being together was defeated because we were hardly together at all. I guess that was the main frustration. Especially for poor Kev.

If it’s up to me, and I happen upon Kevin in a weak moment, we’ll probably go again – because I had a great time in spite of it all. If it’s up to Kevin, we probably won’t go back. This morning Kevin told his friend (and co-worker) Matt what we did on Saturday night and that I “unfortunately” will probably want to go back sometime. Matt is also married to a strong and energetic woman. I think he and Kevin understand each other and often commiserate at the office. Matt said, “Kevin, my man, it's time to put your foot down.”