Two to Tango..

So I've been home now for 3 days and my mom treated me to an evening of ballroom dancing. A month ago my mom proposed that when I came home we go take this ballroom class. It would be the Latin dances in the fall. I said "why not?" It'd be fun. I never learned any ballroom Latin dances so I figured since we were both dancers (my mom was a ballerina a long time ago) it'd be fun and easy. So the day comes, yesterday, and we're almost ready to go. I spent the whole day organizing and she took the day off work to do the same. I was in my jeans and T-shirt ready to go. I figured it was just a ballroom class so I didn't need to bring out the sweats and dance gear I wear when I go to classes in NYC. She said "No!" I guess that's not what you wear to class there. She said people get into full gear for these events and even don tuxes. Well, I just dressed as I would for any Lido meal on the ships. Khakis, a nice shirt, and nice shoes. We were off. She pulled into the parking lot of a country club out here. She was worried we'd be late, but she had her clock set 10 minutes fast, so we were fine. Ever since being home, I've been a little lax about time especially since my long flight from Venice. Anyway, I start to seethe clientele I expected, and it was definitely people who would sail with Holland America; our older generation. That's okay. We get in and sure enough some folks were decked out although there weren't any tuxes that night. It was a lot of her skating pals since roller dancing has its roots in ballroom. The class began and the makings of a mocumentary (a la Mighty Wind, Pet Show, or Guffman) started streaming through my brain. The instructors weren't very enthusiastic and the lady instructor was chewing gum and had a condescending air about her. One lady asked a question and she was completely ignored. Also after learning a bit of the evening's dance, the tango, she flat out told people they might not be ready for the "advanced" step and she seemed a little agitated by it. Anyway, could be my nature of over reading someone. So the class began and it was tango. What a dance to do with your mom. The CLOSE dance of love. I had a blast though. I'd never done tango before and we were both worried about getting all the steps in on the right beats. We tackled the "advanced" step even though the lady said that if we didn't have any tango experience we shouldn't try it. Pshaw on her! We did it anyway. I think we looked rather good out there. Sure we weren't doing fancy turns or anything. It was challenging enough with the weird rhythm of the tango and dodging the couples out there that weren't watching their traffic patterns to attempt some things. It was a crowded evening for sure. In ballroom dancing there are some large sweeping movements and the key is to lead and follow. I tried my best to keep us from running into others. It was like the dodgems at an amusement park. I took the advice from my Aussie ballroom friends to not watch my feet during the dance. I spent a lot of it watching where I was going. After class they had an open dance. We sat for most of it since there were a lot of dances we didn't know. We did do the tango at least 3 times and we partook in the waltz, Viennese waltz, cha-cha (attempted), and also the line dance "Electric Slide." My mom's a great partner to have. She did really well and I'm glad I went. I'm looking forward to next week. It's a tango review.