How many of us are self-conscious when dancing? It’s one thing to get out on the dance floor and shuffle our feet, move our hips a little, sway to the beat, and twist and turn in place. But it’s quite another to get out there, pull out all the stops, get out of your own head (quit thinking and just feel!), and move with so much exuberance that people wonder if you are fueled by alcohol.
At The Villages last weekend, I will never forget 3 dancers I observed. The first one, the woman in the photo, was with a man, but got up to dance all by herself. She was an itty bitty thing, obviously extremely fit, but seemed to spread out 8 feet when she fully extended and twirled around. She danced so exuberantly that I wanted to find out her story. She sat in front of us and didn’t seem inebriated, but I never did have the guts to approach her.
Another man, older, clothes too large for his gaunt frame and thin stringy white hair down to his shoulders topped off with a jaunty ivy cap, danced alone, in front of the stage with his back to the crowd, for the band’s entire first set. He never moved his feet outside of an area about 2 feet square, but he had an incredible sense of rhythm. He moved his body, limbs, and head in a strangely fluid and appealing way that reminded me of Gumby. I wanted to know his story too.
And finally an older couple, both small but athletic looking, dressed in matching white shorts and wearing shirts that coordinated colors and looked expensive, with nice casual shoes that were not sneakers, also coordinated to their shirt colors. They danced the blackpool stroll together in a circle round and round and round the bandstand for the entire set we watched. Their story seemed obvious to me.
I wanna be those dancers when I grow up.
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